The French Pantry - St. Augustine — Restaurant in Saint Augustine

Uninspiring menu for a restaurant with a lot of hype. We like French food, but this new option in St. Augustine is another place designed for churning tables of tourists with a little bit of French window dressing. Hopefully they will get their act together, and maybe an actual French chef. Name three food items someone who knows nothing about French cooking would expect to be on a French menu… yep, they are there. If you said ‘crepes’ you guessed wrong, but a creative crepe menu would be awesome to see in St. Augustine. We started with the highly recommended (by our server) Cajun Bruschetta… which is not French, and note was it overly Cajun. Some melted cheese on French bread with a slice of andouille sausage, a slice of jalepeno pepper, and cooked shrimp set on top all in a row, attractively set around a large portion of diced under-ripe tomato. Not noticeable seasoning. Bland bland bland. The entree menu is overpriced, a la carte, and uninteresting, especially if you do not want to eat heavy meat. The sandwich menu is small but has some better options. The turkey and goat cheese sandwich was served on excellent bread, but otherwise just bland and boring. The Lyonnaise salad was the best thing ordered. It was a good dinner portion salad with fresh greens and the dressing was best seasoned part of the meal. We did not try the desserts, but they looked very good. The wine list is not bad. The cocktail I tried… the Toki Express, was also bland. Bland seems to be the trend here.

The front of the house has some bugs to work out. The seating area is massive (all the better to burn and churn), so they could lose the first three tables inside the door and greatly improve the dining experience for the people who are sat in that high traffic and noisy area. French dining should be leisurely, so please slow down the pace of service. But the whole restaurant is very noisy, so maybe the idea is not to linger, enjoy a meal, and spend time in conversation. Not a date-night destination.

If The French Pantry wants to up their game, and I really hope they do, consider a rework of the menu… lose the touristy items like crab cake, Bang Bang Shrimp, and shrimp cocktail. Get more creative than French onion soup, steak tartar, and French Dip. Drop all the Italian dishes… there may be more Italian items than French on the menu. We already have three better Italian restaurants in town, (and a much better French restaurant too.)

And… PLEASE… embrace a farm to table strategy that is very French. What you are doing now is not going to work… unless all you want to be is ANOTHER business as usual tourist trap eatery in downtown St. Augustine. We locals WANT a reason to come into the city to eat… but The French Pantry is not a good draw… yet....

Have dined twice for lunch since they opened at this location. Nice shared space with Little Miss Ha (a Vietnamese restaurant from Charleston).

At the bar you can order food from either restaurant if you are in the mood for some fusion. In addition there is a speakeasy type space open on Friday evenings and also a private chef's kitchen for groups up to 16 (arranged ahead of time) and soon cooking classes.

Menu contains a few appetizers including escargots if you are inclined, many sandwiches which only include the sandwich (for many that may be enough food), salads, and then bruschetta options. I recommend a side of fries (you don't have to get the truffle oil ones which are twice the price). Fries are shoestring style, salted well, crispy outside and tender inside (served so you can share a few and they are not oily either). In addition, a decent wine list, beers, cocktails etc. Then there is the bakery area where you can get various sweet treats. Recommend the brownie (for chocoholics but they have chocolate cakes too) if they have it, other recommend is the farmers custard which had blueberries on the bottom. Several other options as well.

Service has been pretty attentive and servers do try to go beyond your average service experience.

The space is pretty modern, marble table tops with black pillared legs that are very wide and make it fun to sit properly at the table without resting your foot on the pillar's foot, wood interior, blue decor on the French Pantry side with requisite French themes ads/art. Little Miss Ha side is wood tables with green theme and am Asian motif on a couple of the walls.

The family has tried from all three categories for lunch. The sandwiches with the exception of the muffaletta (served warm and on some French sweet roll which is a different take on a muffaletta - I make a New Orleans version from Central Grocery) are good sized. A party member also tried the Rueben and the only ask was a little more flavorful sauerkraut be used. The stars seem to be the salads and bruschetta based on presentation and quantity of food. We saw many sandwich orders with side items being ordered.

I recommend the Lyonnaise salad with some added protein (my favorite is the blackened chicken option). A very good portion of chicken added to that salad makes it a filling meal you can feel good about eating. Bang bang shrimp salad was also impressive, large shrimp in a tempura like batter and a nice array of salad ingredients.

Give it a try, we will be trying it for dinner at some point too. Highly recommend...

I just moved to the area and we came in as a party of six—admittedly, not the easiest group with our food allergies and specific preferences. But the entire experience was exceptional from start to finish.

We arrived a bit early and enjoyed a few drinks at the bar while waiting for the rest of our party. I had the Nirvana—it was absolutely delicious!

Once seated, our server Colin took great care of us, quickly getting us settled with drinks and appetizers. We shared the Granada Salad, French Onion Soup, and a half-dozen PEI oysters—so fresh and bright! May I add, the Chef actually assisted with bringing our apps to the table!

One standout moment was how seriously they took my sister’s sundried tomato allergy. She originally ordered the pesto shrimp bucatini, but Colin returned promptly after checking with the chef to let us know it wouldn’t be safe. She was grateful and switched to the carbonara, which she really enjoyed. The manager stopped by to check on us ensuring we were all happy and we enjoyed a nice conversation.

For entrees, two in our group did get the pesto shrimp bucatini (no leftovers there!), and the rest of us had the duck, the bavette, and the market fish—all beautifully presented and delicious. We wrapped up the meal by sharing an affogato.

A sweet surprise came from the table next to us, who were celebrating a birthday with a custom Amazon box cake—they even shared a slice with us, adding to the great vibes of the evening.

All in all, it was a welcoming and delicious introduction to our new neighborhood. We’re already looking forward to our next visit!

No food pics this time - too busy enjoying the meal and...