Belle Vie Bistro — Restaurant in Rockwall

Loved the atmosphere. They have a painted mural of the eiffel tower on their wall, as well as booths and tables. There is a glass case full of pastries and desserts, also, of course, tall baguettes 🥖 !

6/10/25 - Tried their lamb chops, escargot and duck confit for dinner. Everyone enjoyed their meals, my favorite of the new entrees was the escargot which came with a delightful puff pastry to dip in the garlic butter. Yum! Other than that two of us loved the potatoes that came with the duck and lamb.

3/16/2025- tried their almond chocolate croissant today, and it was delightfully sweet, flaky and soft. Hurray!

Nov 22nd- this was the 2nd time I tried their croissant with the belle vie breakfast. The eggs and potatoes were tasty, the hazelnut praline latte was the best. The croissant has a nice sweetness to it, unfortunately it was dry again. The first time it was their 1st day, so I was kind and patient, but today it had the same issue as the last. For those interested at home for a moist croissant choose high fat butter, prepare the dough keeping it as cold as possible, even proofing at a lower temp. Then cook at a lower temp for longer, so the butter doesn't leak out and the inside of the croissant is soft and pillowy.

On Nov 12th I ordered the basic breakfast, with eggs cooked to order, bacon, homestyle potatoes and a croissant. I asked for my eggs scrambled hard, which usually for a French restaurant wouldn't be easy if they added extra cream to the eggs, but they did it just right. I enjoyed the potatoes and bacon as well. I also had 2 hazelnut praline lattes, mmm! They were nums and craveworthy, so much so that when I came back that was the only thing I repeated again. I ended the breakfast with a apple band, which had thinly sliced apples on a yellow custard and layered flakey crust. Ask them to warm it up if possible. Very good. I left happy.

Nov 16th- I tried lunch this time and took pictures. I had the beef tenderloin sandwich with fries and a fruit tart. Of course I had the praline hazelnut latte too, which was just as good the 2nd time as the first. The beef tenderloin had soft bread and plenty of good meat, the BEST part of it was the fresh herbs. It has gruyere with is a rich, creamy white cheese without the sharpness of a Swiss. The fruit tart had plenty of fruit which made a pretty picture. The custard acts as a nice base to the fruit to tie it all together. They look large but I was able to totally finish it all no problem even after lunch. Plenty to try on their menus, they thankfully have plenty of waitresses to serve even the busier Saturday crowd which was good.

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First dine in experience.

Variety in appetizers seemed lacking. All the usual suspects were there (Fried Calamari, crab cakes, artichoke dip…) with eye brow raising offerings of escargot and truffle fries - which end up train wrecking the selection of a main course.

Garlic being a highlight of the escargot dish (something I usually avoid for dinner), I felt compelled to order the truffle fries / but didn’t because my main course was hovering around two dishes that came with fries, and I didn’t want a French fry overdose.

My wife also felt compelled to have truffle fries- and she was in the same boat (no fries overdose thank you).

So we asked if the meal could be augmented with truffle fries, which the waiter said it would be a three dollar upgrade per plate. No problem (really love truffle fries - worth it!)

The waiter came back a short time later- and said we could not substitute the side of fries for truffle fries, and would have to order the truffle fries if we wanted them.

We relented and skipped out of the truffle fries craving.

Our food arrived with proportions that seemed a bit lean (tenderloin sandwich was on par with about the same proportions you might find on a six inch subway “sub”. At $19.00 - my dining experience could still be won over…

But it wasn’t. The crafty sandwich was not a revelation, and lacking additional substance- I remained hungry - even after eating the French fries… at least they were plenty of soggy french fries.

Which brings me back full circle to the fries dilemma… not a single French fry was crispy… All were soggy and lacked that edgy crisp you typically covet when shuffling through fries (and thankful I didn’t order the truffle fries… that sogginess would have really been disappointing).

Hardly impressed, we decided to order the red velvet cake - to try to make something memorable of this dining experience…

Icing was quite waxy and barely sweet at all. It might have been fondant, but even fondant seemed a bit sweeter (from the time I have eaten it) - the cake was also a bit too moist for my liking. We didn’t even finish it (a first for us sharing a dessert)

Not sure if this experience could be improved upon with a second visit. Maybe the scones we took home will work out in the morning as a winning choice for what’s good at...

I giving my review strictly based on the service received today when I went to eat with my daughter and mother in law for lunch. 1st question: Can I just get a grill cheese without soup? Answer- no because we can’t make money just selling you a sandwich. 2nd question: Okay, can I swap the tomato basil soup for french onion? Answer: yes but it will be $1 more. Question- Why is that if the soups are the same price on the menu? Answer: Because the cheese is more expensive. Made no sense!?? 3rd Question: Can we just get fresh basil added on a meal vs pesto due to an allergy? Answer: no, we can’t do that. We asked for the manager because our waitress literally had to go and ask for the answers to these basic questions. The manager/owner comes over and says she can’t do any of our requests because if she does it for us she would have to do it for other people. It was honestly like we were in the twilight zone. Since when can you not just order a sandwich by itself or swap a soup that literally costs the same amount on the menu?! We expressed our concerns on the lack of flexibility and that the result could result in us not coming back in the future (after expressing my mother in law had been coming weekly to this restaurant). The owner’s response: yea, I just can’t do it. We got up, left and went 3 doors down to Fire and Fable where they were more than happy to meet our needs and collect our $60 for lunch. We will not be coming back.

UPDATE 6/10 The owner responded stating: ..."we can’t make substitutions for a lower price is because the combos are already discounted".

** We never asked for a lower price but to simply sub a soup that was the EXACT SAME PRICE.

The owner responded stating: ...."You did not made me aware you had an allergy I wish I could’ve have know about this to assist you with that matter."

** This is ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE. We made the waitress aware and she is the one that initially went to the manager regarding adding fresh basil vs having pesto.

SUMMARY: Again-- The owner does not listen to or care what the customer needs or wants and we will...