La Cigale: "The flavors of the animal are in the fat"

After my first experience here, I'm back with Adorables and a Groupon to try more! (killing the wallet less, but still a big blow) We were also a bit late, but the server was super friendly and led us promptly to our table.

Restaurant: La Cigale French Bistro (visit their website here)

Location: 1961 W. 4th Avenue, Vancouver
Cuisine: French
Price range: $40+ per person




Date of visit: March 26, 2015
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 5/5
Food variety: 2/5
Food quality: 4.5/5
Buck worthy? 4/5

I stared at the menu for a good few minutes before deciding on their Millefeuille Betterave ($11.50), an item a friend tried last time. It looked so beautiful! Plating was nicely done, I was very impressed. 

Cutting into the beet, I could feel it was perfectly cooked and assembled well. I could easily cut it and it stayed together.

The flavor of the goat cheese was scrumptious, as it went well with the mild sweetness of the beet and was enhanced by the balsamic glaze.

Next, we ordered a French Onion Soup ($8.75) on top of our Groupon. It was the same delicious mess I had last time, but there was more cheese on top than the side. I enjoyed the crispy cheese on the side, and it was so full of soup that it overflowed when we poked it! Hot and fresh, quite the traditional french onion soup here =)

Then came our mains. Adorables got the 2 Legs Duck Confit ($32.00), where we had to pay a $5.00 difference for. It was well worth it. The duck was so tender and moist, but still retained some chewiness to its texture. There was a sweet glaze on the skin that mixed with the meat wonderfully. The potatoes were also to die for. They were, well, chewy as well. I love chewy potatoes, seriously =D This is where my comment of "the flavors of the animal are in the fat" because Adorables fed me a piece of duck fat, and I could definitely taste the duck flavors without the influence of seasoning. Yummy!

I ordered their Rabbit with Polenta ($27.00)-- I actually don't remember the actual name, but I'm pretty sure it's not their previous rabbit dish of lapin moutarde. The polenta had olives in it, the dish had olives in it, very olive-themed. It went well with the sauce which was a carrot-filled concoction. I found the sauce overwhelmingly salty, and the olive flavor was soaked into the rabbit meat. I couldn't really taste the rabbit, nor could I finish the dish because it was far too salty =( I let Adorables taste the rabbit fat, and on such lean meat, it was rare but not impossible-- he could taste the rabbit in the fat! =D

Finally, onto dessert! So many delicious-sounding desserts, but following our waiter's recommendation, we got their Citron Tart ($8.00). It was a layer of lemon, then lime, topped with orange on a shortbread crust. Strawberry puree was used to decorate the dish. I was impressed with the plating, elegant but so pleasing to the eye. I dug in and was amazed. This was so deliciously creamy, smooth, light, and tarty. I loved it!!

After the initial foodgasm, we picked apart the layers to taste everything. Lemon was the most tart with orange being sweet and lime somewhere in between, but flavors were distinct. The shortbread crust was also flakey and melted in my mouth. Really helped that it was tart and light, since both of us were pretty stuffed already!

Greatly enjoyed our dining experience, lovely service-- the waiters and their French accents are so adorable. Aside from the little blooper that was my main, I would say this was an excellent dinner. I ended up topping the Groupon with $25, which wasn't bad at all. Bon appétit!