Philippe French Bistro — Restaurant in Fort Collins

They went above and beyond my admittedly high expectations. The French fare here in Fort Collins has always been pretty slim, but Phillippe has truly blown the others out of the water. I've been waiting for them to open since first hearing about the plans for the restaurant back in July. The wait was worth it. I spent the first years of my life in Paris, and the culture was forever ingrained into my family. My girlfriend and I went tonight and had a glass of wine, the duck appetizer, boeuf bourguignon, steak-frites, and finished with the vanilla bean creme brulee. The wines were good, with a selection of most (if not all?) French bottles, but nothing stupid-expensive. I heartily enjoyed my grenache, and my girlfriend's bordeaux was also quite good. The confit palmentier was a pleasant surprise, I'd never had nor heard of anything like it before, with good flavor in the potatoes, just the right amount of seared gruyere on top (others might want more?), plenty of nice, mellow whole garlic cloves. I would have liked a bit more duck in it, but it's possible that my girlfriend got the lion's share. For the mains, my boeuf bourguignon was excellent. Top notch. Tender, well flavored, with a good amount of bacon lardons. The carrots were quite crisp and tasty. I've never liked mushrooms but they still imparted a great earthy flavor to the dish (I did eat a few). I would have personally liked to see some caramelized onion as a garnish, but there are many different styles of bourg. The potatoes were well balanced, similar if not identical to the potatoes in our appetizer, and I can't complain about that. My girlfriend's steak-frites was ordered rare and came out just right, almost bleu, and she loved it. The fries were hand made and had great flavor with just the right amount of salt. I would have liked them a little bit more crispy on the whole, some of the smaller pieces were perfect for me though. The creme brulee came out with hot crispy madeleines which were instantly eaten. Good strong lemon-poppy seed flavor. I had made a small mistake in ordering it which was instantly rectified by the wait-staff (wanted blueberries instead of raspberries) and was once again pleasantly surprised. Every blueberry was ripe, sweet, and juicy. The custard of the creme brulee was superb, chock-full of vanilla bean, and quite silky. By far the tastiest creme brulee I've ever had. The top layer was thin, glassy, and crisp, and took two smacks with a spoon to break. My girlfriend and I were scraping our spoons on the ramekin to get every last bit we could. Bravo. I couldn't help myself on the way out and picked up the last baguette, chocolatine (aka pain au chocolat), and pain au raisin. The pastries were spectacular. Most of the pain au chocolat (and other croissant-style pastries) I've had in my life have had way too much butter. Not so here. The flakey layers were crispy and well separated, even at 10:00 pm. The pain au raisin was just as good, if not better. Just the right amount of custard for me (not much at all), plenty of juicy raisins, and the same excellent, crispy layers. As a frequent flier at La Creperie, I can firmly say that they put more custard than pastry in their pain au raisin. I prefer Phillippe's pastries (at least the ones I had tonight) by a long shot. The baguette was pretty good, but not as stellar as everything else. Still crunchy (probably baked this morning so that's a big plus), but a bit blonder than I like. A few more minutes in the oven would make the baguette more appealing for a return purchase from me. The flavor and crumb were pretty good though. I'd give the baguette an 8/10 with every other bit of food a solid 10. The service was on point, not too invasive. Kept our table well watered, which is always a plus for me. I felt like I got great value out of the experience, especially with rising prices at neighboring restaurants. The only seemingly less experienced waiter hovered over me while I was selecting the tip to give on the clover device, which was a little weird. Love the place. Will...

We had a reservation and were given a table literally 1 inch away from another couple, so it was a dinner with random strangers. Someone stopped at the table close to 5 minutes after we sat down and provided waters. The waitress showed up probably another 2 minutes after that. The restaurant was not busy at this time. We placed our wine, soup and entree orders. Then the restaurant began to fill up. Over an hour after we ordered the food still was not delivered. Every table around us that came 20-30 minutes after we ordered were served and most had already eaten by the time that our food arrived. We had basically finished the entire bottle of wine by the time that the food arrived. I ordered the Boeuf Bourgignon Et Frites. She had the Coq Au Vin and we both had French Onion Soup to start. First, the good. The French Onion Soup was really good. Both of us liked it. The Coq Au Vin was much better than the Boeuf Bourgignon Et Frites. The "Boeuf" was basically a soup with a total of 4 chunks of beef (3-4 oz total of meat at most) and two carrot slices. The flavor was okay. Fortunately, there were a ton of French fries, so I didn't leave hungry, but for $28 for this entree I would have preferred more actual dinner and less fries. The room was very loud, the food (except the French Onion Soup) was just okay and the service wasn't great. In the close to two hours that we were in the restaurant no one ever refilled our water glasses. The waitress was personable, but it was unfortunate that we had to ask about why our dinner was taking so long and also never received a refill of water. The waitress offered a dessert for free due to the delay on dinner, which was appreciated but no manager or owner or anyone else stopped by. The dessert, "Le Lucy" was fairly good, so that was nice. I have been advised that they make really good pastries here and their brunch is good, but as my first time in, based upon the atmosphere (loud), service (lackluster) and food (just okay), I probably would not come back here for dinner. For two people with the above issues our check (pre-tip) was over $140 and when spending that kind of money, I would like for the food, service, etc. to be better.

Maybe it was just an off...

Family friendly but also quaint and romantic bistro with great atmosphere and soft French music playing in the background. We shared various appetizers, main dishes and desserts and all dishes were spectacular. The escargot, Flatbread with lamb & goat cheese, and the homemade paté & pear marmalade were unique and delicious. The steak frites was spectacularly flavorful and savory..Best I've ever had! The mussels in Vin blanc were also cooked to perfection and had the perfect amount of garlic...needed to dip frites in the enjoy the sauce. The filet de pork with sauerkraut and mustard was extremely flavorful and such a great combination of spices. The beef bourgignon was delectable and all food was so fresh and abundant. The desserts were amazing but his special creation called le Lucy which was a special version of a bread pudding with sweet chocolate was the best French dessert I have tasted...a perfect balance for the tastebuds. The staff was so warm and friendly and Phillippe joined us to share more about the dishes we chose. They make everything fresh and the few things that they order are imported directly from France. Everything here was top quality, well prepared and delicious. Even the wine selection is well thought out. Only negative is..I live far away and wish I could be a regular! Thank you for a great experience and I wish your restaurant much success as it...