Le Paon Restaurant — Restaurant in Palm Desert

Le Paon means the peacock in French, & there are quite a few peacocks, stuffed, in twinkly lights, as objets d'art here & there.

The 2nd story entrance is well hidden away in the back away from El Paseo, but there is an elevator to make a regal entrance.

It has a retro mid twentieth century feel where there are floor to ceiling glass to take advantage of the view of the far away mountains and the floor of the vast western extension of the Sonoran desert.

Now in the first half of the 21st century, the guest can come "as you are" as stated on the phone by the receptionist who by his casual appearance in pony tail & a guayabera style shirt must be one of the owners.

Another nice mid 20th century touch was having a grey haired gentleman playing behind a sparkling black lacquered piano playing from the American songbook & a touch of Debussy.

Started off with a crémant/sparkling wine by Mumm Napa which looked like a Blanc de Blancs made from Chardonnay grapes. This brut had enough residual sugar, slightly creamy w/ a bit of acidity which was ideal since the day was humid from the summer monsoon.

Standard baguette & a pat of butter was served on top of crushed ice in a silver bowl to prevent it from melting, but conversely the ice made the butter too hard to spread over the bread until it softened. Still it was a nice touch.

Soupe a l'Oignon veered a bit by having the soup be a dark color as though red wine had been added as well as the gruyère style cheese be caramelized to a darker brown than usual.

However, the beefy flavor of the caramelized onion soup was perfectly fine. I used some of the gooey melted gruyere to put on top of the baguette for a nice contrast of the soft cheese & the rough textured bread.

Canard a l'Orange was garnished w/ Haricots Verts/green beans, Carottes/baby carrots, wild rice mixture. This was not a demi Caneton/half a duckling but looked like two pieces of deboned thigh which seemed basted in an orange & Cointreau mixture to give the meat a bit of a caramelized citrus flavor.

The meat may have been a bit too over roasted giving the meat a dry chewiness in places along with more succulent meat. A light orange flavoured sauce flooded the entire plate.

Leval Pinot Noir 2012, not from the typical region of Bourgogne/Burgundy in the north, but from Langue d'Oc way in the south next to the Mediterranean Sea which gave this pinot noir way more heat as it was growing.

This added heat gave this pinot noir an almost port-like Maderisée which gave it a slight caramelized, oxidative bitter/sourness which was not a bad thing in that it was a good contrast from the sweet orange flavours.

Dessert was a Soufflé called Harlequin in which there were soufflés of two different colors: Chocolate & Grand Marnier/cognac infused w/ bitter oranges.

There was a small bowl that contained what seemed to be a mixture of caramel & chocolate sauce which had a strange gummy texture & off flavor that did not enhance the soufflé.

The texture of the soufflé was also a bit gummy & heavy that did not sit well on the tongue. A more exemplary soufflé would have been airy, light, yet moist & fluffy. There would be a slight "egginess" & the chocolate & orange flavours would be more pronounced. This Harlequin Souffle unfortunately did not have those attributes.

However, the ambiance of Le Paon is wonderful with black tuxedoed waiters/waitress floating around the room w/ the officious looking maître de restaurant looking commanding & in charge.

The crowd here generally attracts a more mature clientele usually over 40 and maybe even 50. It's also a civilized restaurant where you don't need to shout at the waiters or other guests just to be heard which is, unfortunately, happening more & more in L.A. restaurants that think they are "hip".

My only wish is that the cuisine be as good as the service & the chic mid 20th century ambiance. 3 stars for the food, but the service & setting is...

The restaurant seemed to be severely understaffed. We never want to be rushed when dining out but in this case we had trouble finding anyone for almost anything. The host with the mustache was amazing. Once seated by him, we waited about 15 minutes for a wine list and any cocktails that might be special to the restaurant. We were told there were no cocktails. A few tables away they were holding a cocktail list and we we inquired, the server said she’d check. Another server finally brought the list. The bottle of French wine showed up as a completely different vintage with an explanation that they were out of what was listed. The server said she’d work something out on the price and then started to open a younger bottle. She slipped the cork in her pocket and when asked if we could check the cork, she rummaged through a pocket full of corks until she found ours (we think). She then preceded to pull the cork through the foil instead of removing the foil. When this left jagged edges she kept picking at the top of the bottle pulling little pieces off until she could pour. Not a pretty sight. No one ever returned to offer to refill a glass.

Hoping dinner would be better we had a ceasar salad mixed table side using vinegar and oil dressing that was so heavy on the vinegar we had trouble eating it. Absolutely no anchovy flavor at all. My wife’s entree’ had scorched potatoes to the point you could see the black and a steak that was dry as a bone. My duck La’ orange was very tasty but the sides were undercooked and mushy. Desert was actually delicious, then it came time to find someone for a bill. The table to our left and the table to our right were also trying to find a person for a bill. 30 minutes later, on the verge of walking up to the host asking for a bill, it arrived. I was fully prepared to spend the $508 on dinner for two but was unprepared for the lack of service and mediocre food. It will be a long time before we return. There are too many better choices...

The food and ambiance are great however when we got the bill we were shocked at the numbers because we knew it was expensive but we did not mind since it is a pretty restaurant. We were curious to check our bill for accuracy since the check was written and added by hand and realized they have charged us about $60 more than what it was suppose to be. We told the server and he apologized and change it to the correct amount. We are not used to reviewing the check, but we did it this time because the additions seems clearly wrong. I felt cheated and it really ruin my dinner. I had to expense my dinner and charge it to my corporation, however the owner refused to give me a copy of my check claiming his accountant needed it, to which I responded my accounting department will need it too. He seemed adamant to no give me an itemized copy and got very upset when I said that this is respectable restaurant and that he should be able to provide it upon request. He said he could not give it to anybody. I honestly think this restaurant is robbing people systematically and doing something funny with their taxes. I reported the business to the IRS and urge everyone that goes there to check their bills before paying...