review: pigalle two ways

pigalle / 75 charles street south (in the theater district, not in beacon hill) / 617-423-4944 /tue-thu 5:30-10pm, fri-sat 5:30-10:30pm, sun 5-9:30pm /reservations accepted (and recommended) / entrees expensive ($22-30)

for some reason, i had never noticed before that pigalle is a small restaurant. luis, nina, v and i got to the restaurant late, but they didn't blink an eye and seated us fairly quickly, given that the place was packed (on a wednesday!). the room is designed carefully with an eye to space - the columns divide the room into three spaces and somehow make it seem bigger, rather than cluttered; there's a mirror on one side of the room that makes the room seem bigger, but is set above eye level so that you don't have to stare at yourself all night if you're facing it.

we were seated on the side of the restaurant on the night i went with luis, nina, and v - it was an 8:30pm reservation on a wednesday, we got there twenty minutes late, and were seated about fifteen to twenty minutes after that. while ordering, i asked for a glass of wine, and was really kind of offended that i got carded. i mean, i guess i can understand the concern, but it's not like you can do anything stupid after you've had just one glass of wine. and, if you're ordering wine in the first place, you must know something about it. anyway, i actually didn't have my drivers license, but i did have my passport. i felt kind of stupid using my passport to prove my age - it seems like it's overdoing it.

anyway, the real reason we were there was the food, and i should talk more about that. the first thing i was struck by was the menu - they've expanded the menu! most restaurant week restaurants use the event as publicity, and recently the boston globe ran an article about how many of them use subpar ingredients because people don't know the difference (which is just a very, very cruel trick, in my opinion). but pigalle seems to have the best interests of the diner in mind - instead of doing a set menu with one or two options for each course (first, second, dessert) they have essentially designed a bistro menu, with four to six choices for each course. it seems like the chef viewed this as a way to experiment with things one wouldn't normally do. it's a good way to test out new dishes on the unwitting public, really.

my dinner was duck-heavy, and i realized that it probably wasn't the most optimal choice of courses, but i really wanted both the duck liver and the crispy duck so i decided to go for it. the duck liver was slightly better last year, i think - i remember the duck livers being smaller last year and i liked that much better. however, it's still an excellent first course. the duck itself was wonderful - very crispy skin, even better than the chinese restaurants do it. the portion was quite generous and the mushroom fricassee was excellent. it was the first time i've ever liked shiitake mushrooms - i guess i like them fresh but not dried? there weren't too many lychees but perhaps they melted into the fricassee, which was sweeter than i had expected (in a good way). the duck was excellent in combination with the lychees and mushrooms, and i'd never had maitake (hen of the woods) mushrooms before. i like them a lot - they have a nice, firm-but-not-chewy texture and a nice delicate flavor. the duck also came with mashed potatoes which wasn't really necessary (and i would have preferred a green vegetable) but which was nice. they gave so much mashed potatoes that i shared it with v and still couldn't finish it.

dessert, as usual, was excellent. i don't know who the pastry chef is, but he or she is very consistently good. i had the vanilla tapioca pudding with granola (oats, sunflower seeds, and flax seeds, by my count) and maple ice cream. perhaps i've just been starved of ice cream all summer while i was in chicago, but the maple ice cream was quite heavenly. the tapioca pudding was excellent - very creamy - and the granola added another texture, tasting nutty but not too healthy. i had a taste of v's chocolate souffle tart, and the almond sorbet on it was...reminiscent of the way the chai ice cream i had at aujourd'hui with the honey cake - it was all cool and wonderful.

i found myself at pigalle again, three days later, with my parents, nora, and charles - i had made my reservation before nora made hers, but at any rate i certainly wouldn't complain about another evening at pigalle (hence the "two ways"). we had a bottle of red wine - i forget what it was, beyond it being a blend of red wine grapes from southern france - to go with the rest of dinner. i, of course, was determined to have completely different things than either of my previous visits, settling on the crispy tuna roll with pickled vegetables, the roasted salmon with beets three ways and a port reduction, and the chocolate souffle tart (i was a little disappointed with the third dessert available - summer fruit with rhubarb consomme - as the rhubarb consomme had already been done by no 9 park in may). all three were excellent.

the tuna roll was basically tuna tartare encased in crispy phyllo. the pickled vegetables were pretty good, if a little strong - in fact, though japanese in inspiration, it was more chinese in flavors, and it was a little overdone. i guess it seemed like it was a very american take on japanese food - it just wasn't quite delicate enough. but it was a wonderful idea, and the tuna and the crispy phyllo is really great. (the pickled vegetables were chinese turnip, julienned carrots and cucumbers, and ginger.)

the roasted salmon was really great - i was very happy that i ended up getting it over the steak. the skin was really crispy, the meat perfectly done, and the combination of flavors really fantastic. i've discovered that i do like beets. the skin of the salmon was salty, which was a nice contrast with the sweetness of the beets and port reduction.

and finally, i think the tapioca pudding was probably the best dessert. the chocolate souffle tart was good, but merely a good chocolate dessert, made better by the existence of the almond sorbet.

i'd like to go back to pigalle, not on restaurant week - though pigalle is undeniably a great deal for restaurant week, as normally some of the second courses cost as much as my entire meal did. i would also like to go to upstairs on the square for dinner - i opted not to go for restaurant week because it was so uninspired, menu-wise.