Slate Bleu — Restaurant in Doylestown

The chef here clearly cares quite deeply for traditional french cooking. My neighborhood in Brooklyn is full of french staple brunch spots with the usual tasty but repetitive french dishes.

Slate Bleu is not afraid to take their French dining experience to the next level, with deeply authentic dishes such as housemade Rabbit Paté, and Sautéed chicken liver.

For the adventurous gourmand, their offerings are well worth the call ahead reservation.

I have been here twice now. A few years back I was fortunate to try the calf liver, but this year I was (initially) disappointed to see chicken liver in its place. I should not have been concerned.

I decided to be a little brave and order the Sautéed chicken liver. My initial trepidation instantly evaporated when the meal arrived.

Up to this point, I had only ever found chicken liver palatable in a well-spiced paté. Slate Bleu’s chef serves it on a delicate corn crepe, generously topped in a sherry shallot sauce. The chicken liver is sliced thinly, and perfectly cooked, with none of the grainy minerality I would usually associate with an inexpensive meat.

The liver was transformed into something else entirely; each morsel, buttery rich, creamy and utterly decadent. It completely blew away my expectations for what was possible for chicken liver, and it is a meal I will be thinking about for a long time. The chef and the owner should be very proud of that dish in particular.

I came away from that dish tempted to try it out again at home but I strongly suspect I will not be able to...

Perhaps one star is a bit harsh, but I was so irritated when I left State Bleu that I could not offer any better rating despite generally good food and very attentive service. I have a sulfite allergy (one of the "big 7") and we always include this information in the reservation. The woman who interfaced with the kitchen (wife of the chef) was rude and as unaccomodating as I have ever seen in any restaurant, regardless of price. She said 7 or 8 times that she was not responsible if there was a problem, reported that the chef absolutely would not alter any dish to accommodate the allergy, and at one point just pointed to 2 items on the menu and said "you are going to have to have this or this". She said that if I ordered a salad they would not prepare a dressing I could have, even after I told her that most good restaurants are more than willing to do this. She would not show me the container that one ingredient was in so that I could ascertain for myself if it was safe. She was loud, rude and made me feel as though it was a terrible inconvenience that we had come in at all. When we are spending $100 for dinner for 2 with no dessert and only one drink each, this is unacceptable. Had it not been late at night or had there been other options nearby, I...

We were so disappointed because we really wanted to like this place and there were parts of our meal that were good. But the bad outweighed the good by such a large scale that it ruined most of our experience. The worst part of our experience was our server. While he tried to be somewhat pleasant, he missed the mark on everything we look for in a dining experience. It started with being able to understand him when he spoke. We all asked him several times to speak up, articulate when describing the menu and specials. The restaurant was not very loud so that was not the issue. He just mumbled so we missed most of what he was saying. He was not attentive. Did not fill water glasses, did not offer additional cocktails and our meal took 3 hours!!! And this was not a complicated multi-course experience. At the end of 3 hours our friends were visibly upset because we had an hour drive home and I had to go search for him and ask him to prepare our check. Ridiculous. So that was the service.

Everyone agreed that the food was average to below average. The highlights that were worth 4 stars were the raw PEI oysters, the special crab salad appetizer and the strawberry rhubarb panna cotta dessert. My watermelon daiquiri was excellent. So unfortunately we will not be...