La Merise French Bistro — Restaurant in Denver

Updated after another visit and the place has just given up. I do not recommend you dine here. I ordered the steak w/pepper sauce. And it was so bad. It’s just bad all around. There were 4 of us and it’s sad because it was a beloved neighborhood restaurant. The buildings been sold and they are just rising it out and totally given up.

My husband and I ate here this week and what could have been an amazing 4 -5 star dinner hit bottom due to a horrible filet au poivre sauce and a dry dauphinoise gratin. The filet itself was superb and it's a shame the cook on staff that night isn't tasting his/her sauces- it is a crime to push food out and not taste the sauce prior to serving:. Gordon Ramsey will tell you that is a quick way to fail. Especially in a French restaurant. The sauce was not edible, it tasted of nothing but flour, and peppercorns. No cognac/brandy/thyme/garlic salt or anything but flour and pepper that even overpowered any flavor of cream that was most likely used as it was white/ivory in color. That in itself was strange because it should have absorbed the pan drippings from searing the filet and scorching the cognac in the pan to deglaze it. The gratin was mushy and zero moisture or flavor except for it seemed like boiled potatoes that were stacked then possibly seared under the broiler with something on top that had no flavor whatsoever, not milk, cream, cheese, salt or pepper. I am not sure how to coach them on that except to maybe start over and utilize actual dairy products when constructing the dish and slow roast as required... On a high note the house salad with the Dijon vinaigrette might quite possibly be the freshest most divine salad in the country and it seemed like it was grown and prepared in that instant for my order. Simply heavenly. My husband's dinner was solid, lamb and he had the butternut squash soup and loved all of it. But what was so truly upsetting is we live in the neighborhood and love this restaurant and need it to be it's best and meet its potential. And when servers/staff see that a meal is not being eaten, shouldn't they inquire if everything is okay? Or when a customer is scarping the sauce off- which is the dish, wouldn't a concerned professional inquire? We want nothing free or comped- what we would like is for the kitchen/staff to care so that we have confidence that on a return trip it is likely to have been addressed. And on this occasion, I would have said, what i had to say about the sauce and gratin and asked the server to ask the check/cook to taste it themselves... and then possibly they may have offered to make something else, i would have declined and said no thank you. Maybe then then they might have said at the end of dinner, we would like to offer you desert on us... However, none of this occurred, they did see the uneaten meal and chose to say nothing.- which makes the customer feel unappreciated and like they do not care. it did not affect our tip- we want the neighborhood restaurants to succeed- we need them. But courtesy goes both ways- and, please, the kitchen has to taste the food going out of it- especially anything with a sauce. This meal as visually appealing as it was, was wholly tasteless and inedible. If you want to survive as a restaurant you need people eating out every night of the week, not simply the weekend diners. Please don't send the B or C team in on the weekdays to disappoint the clientele who keep the...

My husband took me on a lunch date here this past week while the kids were at school because I told him I wanted to go to a place "with good French sauces" and he found this. Overall we were very pleased! We had a reservation and were seated right away. The patio is charming and it has a very European bistro vibe. We started with a couple cocktails which were very good, I want to say one was called French Connection and the other Le Rêve, I preferred the latter. We ordered the cheese plate appetizer which also had thin apple slices with toasted sugar on top, so good! The bread and butter they started with was also so delicious. I had the French onion soup and it was amazing. My husband had a cauliflower soup, it needed salt. Our entrees were very good as well, my husband had the Trout Grenobloise and I had the Chicken Croquettes. Very tasty! The sauces really captured the French feeling for us. So why just 4 stars? Because you'd think for a restaurant like this, crème brûlée would be easy peasy to pull off. It was actually the worst crème brûlée I've ever had. More like crime brûlée. (Ba-DUM!) We actually make this dessert often at home with great success (we have chickens and thus an abundance of eggs and this is one way to use them), and it is always my favorite dessert to order when eating out. I've never had one I'd consider "bad" until this one. The texture was mealy, not creamy and custardy smooth. My husband thought the eggs curdled but who knows? It was not a pleasant texture, but also the taste...it tasted like it'd been hanging out in the fridge for a while soaking up fridge flavors. The sugar on top wasn't torched quite long enough (I know, because while my husband makes the crème, I always torch it and it's tricky, you almost get close to burning it, and this one was a ways off from being done) so there was still a lot of sugar granules and that just doesn't make for a good crème brûlée. So while this restaurant was sweet and had some VERY yummy food, I was surprised a little French style place could butcher crème brûlée so badly. I'd definitely recommend this restaurant to a friend, still, I'd just tell them to order a...

So My beautiful sister chose this place for Sunday Birthday Brunch. I admittedly was sceptical because I never heard of it and looked it up to get a preview of what was enstore for us. After reading a few other reviews they talked about the omelet being a nice light, fluffy, beautiful omelet I'm like, "bet" because that's how I love'em and I got the lox because I also love cold smoked Salmon. Then it came out and it was not anything like what was described. Infact it was the polar opposite. Tiny, flat & heavy and the hash browns were reminiscent of what you get out of the deep fryer at Mickey D's, for real. So I was like oh well let's just eat it and because, ya know, salmon. Boy what a mistake. The old fishy salmon smell hit me hard as soon as it went into my mouth as if it had been cold smoked last year a weak after it was caught. Yuk and yuk! I sent it back immediately and asked for the menu. So I know what you're thinking, "how does this justify 4 stars?" So anyway, I ended up replacing my disappointment with one of the most amazing Eggs Benedict I've ever had. And I'm a huge fan of bennie's. So this one had the perfectly cooked eggs a-top a cheese filled crepe and smothered with the most delicate and savory holindaze I've ever had the pleasure of tasting. I mean total redemption and when coupled with the creamy gooey goodness of the cheese. I was in heaven. The eggs were prepared perfectly the lite crispiness of the crepe and the saltiness of the the ham which I believe was kind of like a Prosciutto or Iberian ham of sorts because it was just hitting my pallet from all angles. The lite yet tangy citrus with a soft crispiness of the crepe I just cant say enough. Yum. So 5 stars on this the mamosa, the coffee, the service. 1 star on the rest. This place is a crepe place 1st and formost. When think french food I'm thinking fresh baked pastries and amazing creams and butters. And the free bread they give is frozen out of the box par baked. The bitter was flavorless and the menu had...