Judging Restaurants – Le Chat Noir

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by Prince Of Petworth February 24, 2010 at 12:00 pm 16 Comments

Le Chat Noir is located at 4907 Wisconsin Ave, NW. This one is for the French food lovers. You can see their menus here. What’s the atmosphere like? Any must order dishes?

ah

I enjoyed a lunch there a couple of months ago. Fairly french fare, and pretty good. Very nice onion soup on a cold day.

Mid-week lunch was crowded, and a lot of ladies who lunch plus some families (including 3 generations), as one might expect during lunch at a restaurant not too near any large business centers.
Sully

Went there a couple years ago to dodge the rain, ordered a bottle of wine and they brought us wonderful bread and butter and kept it coming. A nice rainy day experience.
Justbreath226

I love this place!! It can get a bit pricey but totally worth it. I have eaten in Paris and this place was better.
- Anonymous
  
  I love comments like this. You ate a restaurant or two (or even ten) in Paris, and based on that this place is “better” than restaurants in Paris? That makes no sense.
  - Justbreath226
    
    I apologize for sounding moronic then, I meant my comment to be the ultimate complement. I believe their food is authentic and tasty.
òste e còc

As a lover of French food I can attest to the numerous diacritic spelling errors in the menu.

(JB226: there are roughly 40,000 restaurants in Paris)
WDC

It’s completely authentic, food-wise. As I recall (and it’s been a couple years) the wine list is a little spendy.
Anonymous

They are also horrible to their employees, rude owners and force waitstaff to pay busboys out of tips entirely because they are too cheap.
- Anonymous
  
  BLAH BLAH BLAH.
- ah
  
  Rude french owners? Imagine that.
  
  Isn’t it fairly common practice for waitstaff to pool tips and share with busboys and kitchen? Or at least common enough where it’s not “horrible”?
  - Yeah
    
    Yeah most owners are cranky and if you don’t tip out your busboys, they aren’t too inclined to bus your tables quickly so that the hostess can seat new customers in your area.
joe

no, busboys receive an hourly rate usually and the waitstaff pools tips for them on top of that. some restaurants make the waitstaff pay the support staff entirely through tips, thus keeping payroll down. not cool.
Anonymous

the neighborhood is a bit sketchy though.
- Chien
  
  Huh? Since when is anything on Wisconsin “sketchy”?
Sleepy

Great steak. One of the best I’ve had in DC.
angrychicken

Went their for Valentine’s Day and ordered off the regular menu – Loved it, can’t wait to go back.

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