Le Bouchon — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

Do not come here if you don't want to spin the chamber on a chance for an abysmal dining experience. It was such a shame, especially at a restaurant as well established and well regarded as Le Bouchon.

My partner and I ate lunch here on December 21. To quote another review, "We felt like our presence was a burden from the moment we sat down".

We were sat in a tiny cramped space where my partner could hardly get out of her seat to use the restroom, and I had to eat my soup hunched over. The table was near the host stand, which is in the center of the restaurant (?).

You might think being so near the host stand would ensure attentive service, and you'd be wrong.

We ordered french onion soups, cheese choux, steak frites, and a burger. We were told that we needed to put in our whole order at once, and did so the first time our server approached the table. Other tables did not receive a similar admonishment. Other tables were also asked if they would like their coats checked. We were not, despite our unusually cramped seating.

We were not keen on wine, but we never received a cocktail menu. I didn't even know they had cocktails until I saw other tables receiving them.

The soup took more than 25 minutes to arrive, which is pretty sluggish. The broth was delicious, and maybe the only bright spot of the meal. The soup was loaded with an artery clogging portion of delicious cheese, which I was eventually thankful for when our main courses did not arrive for an hour and 15 minutes after we ordered.

Strangely, we did not receive an apology from our waitress about the food tardiness, though another waiter and the hostess did apologize. The other waiter offered us a choice of dessert on the house. All good, I wasn't too bothered until the mains arrived.

I wasn't able to choose the temperature on the burger, but it was advised to be medium rare, which suits me fine. What I received turned out to be burnt (no, not nicely charred, burnt) on the outside and completely well done on the inside.

My partner's steak was requested for medium rare, and turned out anywhere between medium well and blue rare with an impressively large hunk of gristle in the middle. The fries were nothing to write home about, unless you particularly enjoy writing about lukewarm fries.

My partner chose not to complain. I sent my burger back and asked for the check. I have sent food back maybe 3 times in the last decade. We were given the check and a pre-boxed apple tart (no, we were not given a choice of dessert, as previously offered).

In hindsight, I wonder if our waitress anticipates forgetting a handful of food orders a day and sets aside some apple tarts to smooth things over. I don't think we said or did anything to deserve the treatment we got, but other wait staff seemed more attentive.

I don't think a good french onion soup redeems anything else about this dining experience, so I'd recommend you take your...

My overall grade for Le Bouchon is: C+

Some foundational stuff - I love French bistros, France, French food, both fancy and rustic. Which is why we chose to visit Le Bouchon for the first time.

The restaurant is VERY popular. We made reservations via OpenTable and the best "lunch" reservation I could get was 1:30 - a little later than we would've preferred, but so be it. At 12:30, we were done with our errands, so I called the restaurant to see if they could get us in earlier than our 1:30 rezo. No dice. No problem: we went to a local bar to wait out the hour.

The restaurant hits the vibe of a French bistro very nicely. It's small, crowded, popular and many of the customers seemed to know each other. Very good news for the neighborhood folks.

Both the menu and the wine list are very nice and we couldn't wait to order our lunch, also received recommendations from the clients at the local bar.

Server was very nice and prompt and provided good service. She did however, fail to mention the rabbit pot-pie and other specials. Hmm. Ok.

We wanted the burger & the mussels for lunch and then, they're out of both the mussels & the burger. Ok - they were packed and it was 1:30 after all - so, ok.

Started with the duck pate & the onion soup followed by the trout in pastry and a croq madame with frites. Yum.

The soup was great, but the duck pate, was maybe a bit too "rustic" versus our expectation - looking for a bit more smooth version - still no worries.

The trout came out and was beautiful and very nicely executed. The croq madame came out and looked great - couldn't wait to dig into the fries.

The trout proved to be disappointing due to the "heavy-handed" salt in the sauce - and my frites proved to be in the same situation. Not just a little over-salted, but quite a bit. To the point that the taste in my mouth on the way home, was the same taste you have after snorkeling in the ocean and you're on your way back to shore on the shuttle boat, only to just taste the salt of the ocean in your mouth the entire way back.

The wine list was great - had a nice 2013 CDP at 1/2 off - on Monday's it's 1/2 off wine prices - yay!!

We skipped dessert because we couldn't get over the over salted meal and just finished our wine and left.

It's obviously a successful neighborhood joint where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came....

But for us that don't go into the city too much anymore (not the fault of the restaurants), we really will probably go back to our old favorites and maybe one day come back to see if this was just an anomaly.

The locals seem to love this place. But for me, I'll head elsewhere next time I'm looking for some French...

FROM 5 to 3 STARS - If Food and Service together make the perfect place then this place is a 3 star at best. Heather (apparently acting as manager? Out of her depth for sure) is insensitive at best. One of there large paintings fell off wall and hit my head (drawing blood), and the hostess offered a drink to be nice. Heather said no, that was not right and a mere hit by a wooden photo did not warrant anything - not even an appology? Dumb manager - she needs to work at McDonalds where someone can hold her hand. Rather than a apology, she decided to explain they were decorating and that is why it happened? The Duck is good, the rest of the menu has suffered from years of cut backs, that have left the spot a shadow of its former self. I have tipped 10% twice in my 55 years, Heather was the second time.

UPDATE 2020

The family has grabbed the reins at the venerable Le Bouchon and Heather is no longer screwing up a wonderful business. The sons of the legendary Jean Claude have intelligence and skills to bring this place back and beyond its former glory. My only suggestion is that it would be nice to have it firmly be a french theme, as a example, playing non-french pop music may be a deviation from what the restaurant is trying to sell.

UPDATE 2025

How could a place which was at the height of French cooking fall so far so fast. When Jean Claude ran the place before his death, he had the prestigious French awarded "Order of the Duck", its been quietly removed from the accolades at the front of the store for a reason. Surprise kitchen, guests can actually tell what they are eating! The duck now tastes like it was souse-vide and then finished by frying in a old oil ( can be seen by dark color, which only happens with old oil). The L'Orange sauce used to be clear, now its so loaded with corn starch its practically a thick molasses. The starters were actually better than before, with complements to the Chef! The Red Hen bread has been replaced with a cheaper version. In the end this place is a sad progression of ever cheaper ingredients with few of the original Jean Claude staff remaining. While the place used to be 5 stars under Jean Claude, its fallen to a mere 3 stars in this humble...