L'Adour - Authentic French food in Syracuse

So, my fiance and I were going to head down to Syracuse to do some wedding errands at the mall yesterday.  As we had just survived a very overwhelming and busy week, I was hoping to make it a special day.  I'm not too familiar with the Syracuse area, so I used my handy-dandy google search for some ideas.  The one restaurant that kept popping up was L'Adour with excellent reviews....  AND they even searve brunch, our favorite meal!


L'Adour

We cut it pretty close by walking in the door at 1:57pm, 3 minutes before they close.  They graciously sat us and kept the kitchen open to serve us the brunch we were so looking forward to eating.  Everything on the menu looked interesting, I don't think we could have made a wrong choice.  The atmosphere was very authentic of a Parisian Bistro - the warm wood work of the wall paneling, the checkered napkins, all the way down to the hexagon floor tiles.  I do think the music was a bit stereotypical, and a bit over the top.  I couldn't put my finger on it, but it reminded me of the background music that would be part of a romantic comedy with a scene at a french restaurant/bistro along the Champs Elysees, sitting at one of the outdoor tables, kissing.  But the feel of the setting was warm and inviting with not attempts at pretension or stuffiness.  The fact that all the staff seem to be imported directly from Paris also works wonders at setting the scene, and in a few minutes, you could actually believe that you're in France.

As I was saying, I don't think we could have gone wrong with our choices for brunch.  You can find the menu itself on their website if you want to scope it out first.  We started with coffee and I splurged and got a cappuchino which came with an aromatic sprinkle of cinnamon on top. I couldn't make up my mind and went with the House-Smoked salmon and greens (I am always a sucker for good lox) and Quiche au Crabe.  My fiance went with an almond croissant and Gallettes Forestiere (a savory crepe with onions, mushrooms and bacon).  

  Above is the crab quiche.  My fiance was astounded that quiche could taste like this.  The eggs were so light and fluffy, that the HUGE chunks of crab actually all settled at the bottom of the quiche.  The softness of the eggs compliments the flakiness of the crab chunks.  The meal also came with a side of home fries which I loved.  They were small enough chunks that they were cooked well, but not crumbling and falling apart.  The parsley gave them a nice freshness.  We also have to be honest, that to our American palates, these potatoes were screaming for ketchup, and we were so embarrassed to even ask, thinking that they would think we were trying to drown out the flavor of the potatoes with the terrible condiment that is ketchup.  We did find a fantastic solution - the provencale tomato on the side.  This was basically a fresh tomato with seasoned bread crumbs that was gently baked.  Eating this tomato in conjunction with the tomatoes added the acidity and texture from the bread crumbs that really complimented the tomatoes.

 This is the savory crepe!  I was surprised to see that it was a whole wheat crepe - I was really expecting to see that basic white flour based crepe that we see with a traditional dessert crepe.  Not too many places offer a whole wheat option, but it was very appreciated by this foodie.  I have a feeling it is a slightly harder batter to perfect, but that might be my imagination.  The filling was sweet sauteed onions, crispy smoked bacon and earthy mushrooms.  It was all combined with a cheese sauce, which I could not place with the one bit I was able to steal away from the hungry man across from me. 

I was super excited to try their homemade/home smoked salmon off the menu.  I also felt like it was a healthy addition as salmon is always a great protein source and who can argue with a salad.  I have to admit that the salad wasn't my favorite.  I did think it was too heavily dressed, although the basic vinaigrette was tasty, I just don't like it when greens feel wet with dressing.  I do personally try to keep salad dressing to a minimum since it is packed full of hidden calories, but I felt that with the moistness of the salmon, that so much dressing just made the greens feel like they were drowning in dressing when paired with the salmon.  Now, the salmon was amazing!  You might not be able to really see it on the plate, but the salmon was the bed to the lettuce, so if you can notice some texture on the palate - that is the pink of the salmon against the pink of the plate.  The salmon was slightly smokey, not over salty and tender.  I personally don't like smoked salmon that's a drier, flakier consistency so this really hit the spot for me since it was exactly the opposite and exactly what I love.  Almost as if the salmon was still raw, but with a slightly smokey flavor.  (sorry that the picture is out of focus, I was avoiding using the flash since I didn't want to disturb the other patrons).  As an additional note, the meal came with a french baguette, fresh!  And a side of what felt like very fresh butter - yum yum!

Last but not least, the amazing almond croissant!  It was a good thing we left this for last, as there would have been a risk that we would have foregone the other components of the meal and just ordered more of these until we burst.  Now, no one is going to argue that croissants are amazing in and of themselves.  I thought this was excellent for 2 reasons.  The first of which is that it was flaky and tender as any good croissant should be, but not dry, so it didn't crumble and flake all over when you bit into it.  The inside was still slightly doughy and warm, making it feel fresh out of the oven.  I didn't think that the almond aspect would have such a large impact, but boy was it wrong.  The croissant was covered with an almond sugar drizzle that almost reminded me of the praline swirl in ice cream.  It added sweetness with a toasted almond flavor.  We ordered 2 more to go to bring home to share, but once we left and started to digest the food in our bellies, we knew we should have gotten more so that we could share another one ourselves.  We know now that we will need to stock up every time we are down there.

The other area of praise that I have for this meal is it can certainly be budget friendly.  Many of the options are only around $10 and are complete breakfasts themselves.  It is certainly not necessary to order 2 meals as I did :)

Next Syracuse dining priority looks like it's going to be L'Adour's dinner menu (check out the seasonal specials that they have examples of!).  It looks like another amazing meal, and they have a extensive french wine list with options that look to cover a range of budgets.  I didn't see any by the glass options, but I can imagine that with such an extensive list that they don't want to keep a lot of bottles open only to pour one glass from each in a week.  I do think that there are some options that are economical enough that if you can share a bottle, you definitely get more bang for your buck with a bottle!

Bon Appetit!