Manon, Lambertville

[PaulaJ]

In the midst of yesterday's dark, swirling thunderstorm

we entered Manon, a small storefront restaurant awash

in Provencal's bright colors and prints. The tables are

on the small size and soon we were playing the shell

game to pass around the tasty black olives, oil

cruet, etc. BYO, my friend's request that her white

wine be chilled was gladly met but the only place for

the bucket w. ice was on the floor! I would have

preferred that the colorful provencal print cloths not

have bistro-ish white paper atop and didn't "get' the

basket of crayons "to draw while waiting".

  The menu was small but interesting and there were

several daily specials [recited, without prices] which

enticed. Some items include salad w. goat cheese or

with strawberry-prosciutto-fennel-fava beans, pistou

or curried mussel soups, steak w. rocquefort sauce,

a pasta w. goat cheese & asparagus, stuffed chicken

breast. App were in the 8-10$ range and entrees

hovered at $25.

  My friend chose the watercress,walnut,pear, blue

cheese salad which she declared very tasty but hampered

by clumped cheese and long watercress stems. I chose

the country pate...2 generous slices w. garnishes, but

very livery. The house rolls are yeasty golf ball size, so

there really wasn't the correct bread to enjoy the pate.

 Our entrees were the duck w. orange demi glace and

a succulent all-crab cake---both were excellent. The

accompanying ea pod-carrots had wilted on the hot

plates and looked insipid.

 Desserts are very few but good.......flourless chocolate

cake & pear tart tatin [pears undercooked and not very

carmelized] were are choices.

 This is a very good restaurant, which could easily reach

for excellent.

[Rosie]

Manon is very popular. Make reservations for a Sat. night a few weeks in advance.

[TCD]

We dine here often.  It offers very solid to outstanding basic french country fare plus, from time to time, a smattering of sophisticated and creative specials.  The service can range from adequate to especially warm and homey.  The head server, Kathleen, is a treat all in herself.  Manon can be "rough around the edges" in service (can be a little harried on Saturdays) and food presentation (big clumps of cheese and longish green stalks are easily remedied by using the knive that is provided) from time to time, but these are slight annoyances and easily overlooked particularly given the very reasonable prices.  Table spacing on the banquettes (sp?) could be better too.  Overall it is my feeling that you will find few better places (if any) in NJ for relaxed french country dining with this level of food quality.  Great place to open those bordeaux, rhones and burgundies that have been sleeping in your cellar.

Finally, I implore you all to avoid dining here because it's difficult enough for us to get a table.  Many thanks.

[Rosie]

TCD--Try Epernay in Montclair. BYO

[PaulaJ]

TCD,

 Try Jocelyne's in Maplewood.

  I agree that it was very enjoyable and I would cop your spot any Saturnday eveing! However, the kitchen could scissor some of those long watercress stems. Personally, don't so much care re; agglutinated clumps of cheese.......P

[TCD]

TCD,

 Try Jocelyne's in Maplewood.

  I agree that it was very enjoyable and I would cop your spot any Saturnday eveing! However, the kitchen could scissor some of those long watercress stems. Personally, don't so much care re; agglutinated clumps of cheese.......P

Rosie & Paula,

Thanks for the suggestion re Epernay & Jocelyne's.  Haven't been to the former but have dined at the latter.  The Jocelyne's menu seems to offer a "higher" level of french fare and the dining experience is a bit more formal (not a bad thing certainly, just my observation) as compared to Manon.  The food is well executed at both establishments.  I would rank them as equals generally as to overall dining pleasure while recognizing they offer different types of experiences.

I've yet to receive at Jocelyne's the especially warm and friendly reception and service that I keep reading about.  I hope to get there other than on a Saturday when things might be a little more low key.

[David McDuff]

Following up on a promise made in another post, this seems like a good time to revive this long-slumbering thread.

My wife and I paid our first visit to Manon on a recent Saturday based on recommendations from several fellow eGullet members. From our parking spot down the street, we immediately spotted the restaurant's facade of unmistakable Provencal yellow and blue. The bright, sunny color scheme continues inside, along with a heavy dose of French bistroish signs and decor topped off by a ceiling painted in a replica of Van Gogh's Starry Night. Our reservations were intentionally early, made to follow an early afternoon event at Lahaska, PA and a mid-afternoon of killing time in New Hope; we were the first table seated. Greetings from the hostess and various service staff were warm and casual, matching the air of the restaurant.

Our appetites were whetted with a small dish of olives, pickled peppers and onions along with a basket of warm, fresh bread baked in the size and shape of a ping-pong ball. Indeed, the bread would prove not to be an ideal shape for later use with pates or rillettes (as pointed out by an earlier poster) but was just fine for sopping up a bit of good olive oil and smartly designed to avoid wastage.

For appetizers, we selected two items from the regular menu: PEI mussels in a cream, Dijon and thyme broth, and wild mushroom rillettes. The mussels were fresh, perfectly cooked, tender and just the right size. The broth was creamy yet light, simple yet wonderfully aromatic of fresh thyme. The mushroom rillettes was also satisfying. Pure flavors and a nice rustic texture made the dish, the only downside being that the toasted slices of accompanying bread (recycled from the aforementioned “bread balls”) were too small to allow for easy passing across the table.

As for our entrees, we opted for one menu standard and one daily special. Always a sucker for lamb, I went for the rack prepared with a mustard and thyme crust. The lamb was cooked just a little past the requested temperature (medium rare) but was still nice and juicy. The mustard was laid on a bit thick for my tastes but it didn't stop me from cleaning my plate. Sides were sautéed string beans and potatoes au gratin. My wife selected scallops with a Provencal sauce from the daily specials. Essentially, they were pan sautéed scallops in a sauce of white wine, capers, herbs and, yes, mustard. The scallops were fresh and tender but could have been more flavorful if pan-seared and then dressed with the sauce rather than being sautéed in the sauce. Sides were the same as with the lamb dish.

Desserts proved to be the only real low-point of the meal. The flourless chocolate cake was dense, as expected, but really was more a triangular slice of fudge than a cake, more sugary than chocolaty. The peach “tarte tatin” was more satisfying, again very down-home in style. The peaches were cooked to a deep golden brown and were not over sweetened. The homemade basil ice cream, which we requested as a substitute for the original vanilla, provided a refreshing herbal balance. The tart would have been better, though, presented as a simple crumble as its pastry shell was dark gray and both mushy and mealy in texture.

Overall, we both enjoyed our meals with only some moderate reservations. The cooking was fresh and honest: a combination I always respect. The prices on both the regular and special menus were a bit high for the basic homey, bistro style of the cuisine. Appetizers average in the low- to mid-teens and entrees, with very few exceptions, in the high twenties. The quality of food and service were both high enough that I would gladly return in the future but not without first trying some of the other places that have been recommended in the Lambertville area.