The buzz: Tucked away on the second floor of K.Village, far from the bustle and youthful trendiness of the ground floor shops and eateries, Le Francais is the anti-Wine Connec- tion: a serious brasserie (despite a playful décor) serving old-school classics. One of the co-owners, Baptiste Werck, comes from a family of brasserie owners in Clermont Fer- rand, and aims to run the kitchen according to his mother’s cooking secrets.
The décor: When they say Le Francais, they mean it. The vibe here is a combination of your high school French textbook, a small- town brasserie and a Bastille Day pride explosion. The exterior features outdoor café- style, white-on-glass listings of the menu and drawings of the Eiffel Tower; the inside has a bleu, blanc, rouge, French flag theme and the wait staff are clad in aprons and berets.
The food: Forget that you’re in a mall and the prices seem appropriate. Among appetiz- ers, expect classics like foie gras terrine (with apple salad and red onion chutney) and some twists like tartar of tuna which comes with pink ginger and yuzu lemon. For mains, Le Francais does dishes like bouillabaisse, rack of Tasmanian lamb (with garlic confit and ratatouille) and French cod (with shallot-tomato salsa).
The drinks: Werck declares with conviction that French reds are the best in the world, though he further concedes that he’s a fan of affordable, New World whites. There’s a long, varied list of bottles, including cham- pagnes, but alas, only two South Africans by the glass. Jose Michel champagne is B450 a glass.
The crowd: The prices seem to keep the col- lege students and twenty-somethings away, but late dinnertime sees older, moneyed Thais and expats lingering over classic food and a bottle or two.
