Bistro Blanc

I went to this place awhile ago but a certain unnamed boyfriend *cough-justin-cough* is lazy about uploading food pics so I have just given in and decided to write my review.

This was actually a pretty amusing restaurant outing. I wanted to meet up with my friend Joanna but she didn't want to really drive to me so I decided to go to her in Columbia MD. I did an extensive restaurant search on-line using my super-dooper grad research skills and came up with Bistro Blanc as my favorite (their menu looked tasty). I called Jo up and asked her if she was cool with it. Then I looked up the reviews (which I should have done before anyways-not such a great research huh) and saw that Tom Sietsiema (the washington post critic) was going to review it the next Sunday (they post the weekend reviews ahead of time on-line and you cant find it unless you know what your looking for). Sweet! This meant I was going to get in BEFORE all of DC came rushing in for a good meal.

The place was absolutely adorable. If I wanted a place to take a girl on a first date (or any date for that matter) I would take her to Bistro Blanc! The ambience was so comfortable and pretty. It was a Saturday afternoon though so, due to Tom's review, I wasn't expecting the 'best' of their food since their second-hand cook supposedly works the weekend lunch and brunch shift. Sigh.

We all shared a wonderful cheese plate which came with fresh fruit and tasty crackers. Justin particularly liked it because of their strong blue cheese but I really liked the bacony smoky tasting Gouda.

The best part of the meal though was the Pig and Fig (citrus braised pork shoulder + black mission fig + toasted brioche + vanilla muscato froth). It was so delicious and tender everyone whole heatedly agreed that it was amazing. Figs are one of my most favorite things in the world and we got a few fresh ones that I throughly enjoyed. Next time I am not sharing!

For my main dish I got the lamb burger. The burger was really well spiced but they put it on a brioche bun that was totally burnt! The kitchen should not be sending out a burger with a burnt bun-be it mcdonalds or the pig and fig that is bad business. I chalked it up to the weekend chef though and still took it upon myself to appreciate the fries that were liberally tossed with strong cloves of garlic and parmesan. Mmmm garlic.

Justin got the duck leg confit which we both thought was good and Jo got one of their 'flatbreads' which is basically a pizza with gourmet toppings. She couldn;t even eat all of it!

Bistro Blanc was definitely fun and though I am not a wine drinker it seemed like the place to go if you like wine. I hope to go back again sometimes :)