Le coin Francais Restaurant — Restaurant in Stellenbosch Local Municipality

After missing the opportunity to dine here last year, we made a reservation well before our return trip. The reviews, as you can see, are glowing. Our experience felt like a different restaurant run by another chef, but sadly, it wasn’t.

First, the positives:

Ephraim, the Maître d’, is a warm and welcoming host, and the staff was friendly Chef Miguel’s amuse-bouche was delicious and indeed suggested great things were to come The wine list is well-priced and offers some excellent choices

Now for the negatives:

The front of the house is understaffed and not able to be as attentive as you would expect Food is paced by the kitchen, not by your readiness The kitchen either heats the plates to a very high temperature before plating (requiring a towel for handling), or the food is plated and sits under a heat source until served. Either way, the result is overcooked food and congealed or dried-up sauce. To compound the problem of the searingly hot plates, dishes were under-seasoned. We can only assume the Sous chefs taste their own work, as the Chef never left his position at the pass and never tasted anything that came through.

Dishes:

The 2-hour rum and beetroot cured local trout was delicious but instantly spoiled when eaten with the split buttermilk emulsion, as it was overly acidic.

The Wagyu tartare was enjoyable but could have been more memorable.

The signature poached langoustine was the first casualty of the searingly hot plates. By the time we got the dish, it had turned to rubber, and the garden pea and pancetta risotto that it sat upon had congealed into an unappetizing, overly cheesy paste that had dried at the edges because it continued cooking on the plate.

I’m confident the French would have taken offense at the thick, uneven dough that surrounded the meat of the French-style venison dumpling. I hope the chef watches the food return; it should have caught his attention.

The Quail slow-cooked two ways with a confit pork belly was the second victim of the secondary cooking being applied to the dishes thanks to the temperature of the plates. It was overcooked and tough to cut. We observed several guests struggling to cut through the pork belly.

And the last of the main dishes, the sous vide sea bass, again fell foul to the hot plate and had a complete lack of seasoning. Plus, the green herb topping did nothing for the presentation.

Summary: There are so many fantastic restaurants in Franschhoek, but on this night, Le Coin Français was not one of them. The Western Cape has access to some of the best produce in the world, so there is no excuse not to make the most and do it justice. Chef Miguel, we would implore you to plate dishes that can be touched and cook in the kitchen, not at the table. It is either an oversight or a lack of understanding.

Hopefully, this review is considered as intended, adjustments are made, more care is taken, and frequent tasting of the dishes occurs throughout...

A very pleasant experience.

This restaurant popped up and seemed very intriguing while doing a Restauran week search. With so many options available in a very small radius, Le Coin Francais appeared to promise the most, while expecting the least. Let’s begin.

The restaurant, itself, has the makings of a charming, “fall in love” little place; French inspired, classic and modern in the same breath. The dining area is cosy, nostalgic and romantic all at the same time. It was, unfortunately, extremely empty (very strange for a Saturday evening at the beginning of the month, at the end the much anticipated Restaurant Week); we don’t like overcrowded places but this was disturbingly quiet! Only 2 couples seated in the main dining area, and perhaps one couple seated outside. With a 9,2 rating on DinePlan, this was perculiar.

The wait staff were lovely and very attentive! We really felt at home; comfort and pristine attention to detail. My napkin was magically folded into a neat little croissant whenever I returned from the bathroom.They even replaced my glass of wine (which was commandeered by an annoying miggie) and hubby’s glass without any prompting or complaint!

The food was also nice; courses came out fairly quickly and well paced, although we had underestimated how filling the courses would be! Some courses and accompaniments ( like the cheese course and goats cheese dumpling) were extremely overpowering and didn’t add anything to the overall experience. Also, the online seasonal menu and actual menu on the day, differed quite a bit! I understand that the menu is a reflection of the chef’s imagination and is his/her prerogative to change as they see fit, so I won’t hold that again them too much. We were probably a bit underwhelmed by the food and the expectation we had set for the menu, comparing it to the likes of La Colombe.

Allover, it was a lovely experience. Restaurant Week definitely makes the experience more Bang for your Buck; I probably would have reviewed this more harshly if we had paid full price for what we got.

If you’re new to the foodie game, this will definitely tick most of the boxes. Expect good food and dining; not mind-blowing, bucket-list item.

Keep up the good work and aim slightly higher; there are many other worthy competitors on the same street!

Thanks for a...

We were looking forward to dining here because we had an amazing experience at Dusk in Stellenbosch but was really disappointed.

We had the Chef’s Journey which had an extra 2 dishes, and those extra dishes were lovely (not amazing but at least something interesting to the palette). The sauces and creams of dishes overpowered the main ingredient in my opinion, I got sick of the flavors after two bites out of almost every dish. The dessert was way too sweet for my taste and too much cream (had the miso apple but no taste of miso…)

The langoustine dish, which apparently hasn’t changed since six years ago and thank god it hasn’t, is the only dish I feel worth having out of the menu. If they could change the menu into a la cartes, we would come back for this dish.

Staff were lovely though, we felt taken care of all night, though I would recommend filling up our water glasses more often.

All in all, not amazing. We recommend Epice across the street if you would like some fine dining in Franschhoek.

*I’m only posting food...