Les Amis

I left Les Amis after a Valentine’s Day dinner glowing, giggling, and blushing. What an amazing place for a date with that extra-​special someone.
Okay, so peut etre the glow was due to the generous wine pairings, which were by the way, second only to Manresa’s brilliant couplings. Most other haute cuisine eateries I’ve encountered have failed miserably at the task. Yes, even the ones whose food I thoroughly enjoyed.
The most magical moments of the tasting menu were the (butternut squash?) ravioli paired with the Trimbach reserve Pinot Gris, the sashimi appetizer, the lobster soufflé, and the deliciously meaty bison. All of which would not have been so spectacular without the wine accompaniment.
Unfortunately, the only thing that prevented the dinner from being reminisced upon as perfect was the service. The Maitre d’/ Sommelier seated us and neglected to give us menus. We waited about 10 minutes without any attention until my hungry date swiped some menus from the cocktail bench. Everything took a little longer than it should have including the wait to be seated. Some of the wine pairings came out not at the beginning, but mid way through the course. I understand, it’s Valentine’s Day. They were packed so service was less than seamless.
Overall though, cute romantic place to sweep a girl off her feet. My luv-​ah was rewarded justly for a wonderful evening. I will definitely be back.

This very small, very intimate restaurant has an excellent wait staff and provides the perfect setting for a special dinner for two. The décor was soft and relaxing. A window into the kitchen at the back of the dining room allowed the chef to keep an eye on the service. At the front they have a minuscule bar area.
Our meals included the duck breast and a somewhat unusual version of bouillabaisse. The portions were small, but delicious. The wine was wonderful as were the pre-​dinner rolls (I had two). I only wish I had sampled the desserts, but nothing sounded tempting enough to make me indulge… maybe next time.
This restaurant is pricey, but is definitely one of the hidden gems in the Financial District.

i been to Les Amis for about 5 times now, and I haven’t disapointed ever since. The décor is tastefully and overall it feels quite classy but not overly extravagant. It’s more like a cozy yet fancy little French resturant.
I must have tried about all the starters and entrees, (not that many varieties, easily done with a group of 4) Everything tastes excellent, my favorite is the seabass and the lightly cooked Duck breast. I know it’s hard to go wrong with both given dining at such high end resturant, but we could literally lick the plates clean each time. Soup is the only flaw I find during each visit, sometimes it’s overly creamy and too light on taste.
I will give Les Amis a sounding 4 star rating, (too bad there is no half point here.)

This is the absolutely cutest restaurant! I love them small and intimate — and this one definitely delivers in terms of ambiance and service. I really wanted to love everything about this restaurant, but for some reason it didn’t meet my expectations. May be reading through all the reviews set the standard quite high, may be it was just an off night, may be it was the dish I ordered…
We were a group of 4 and we had dinner last Thursday. 2 of us dined off the DAT menu (that would be my db and I), 2 of us didn’t. The DAT menu was a different that night as the choices were salmon and chicken. I had the salad, baked chicken and the espresso cream puff things, my db had the exact opposite with the cauliflower soup, salmon and chocolate mouse. I found his meal better than mine. His would’ve been perfect except the cauliflower soup needed a little more salt and it was served lukewarm (is that normal?), so was his salmon (again, is that normal?). A little more heat and his dinner would’ve been perfect. With my chicken, I thought the portion was rather generous as I was expecting a smaller piece. It was OK, wish it had more flavor. I probably wouldn’t order it again. Unlike my db’s meal, my entrée was served piping hot.
Our friends ordered the veal and the chicken (a different chicken than on the DAT menu) for their entrees and cauliflower soup and scallops for their appetizers. My friend loved his chicken, he devoured it. His wife, on the other hand, didn’t finish her veal and I thought the portion was rather small. She said it was good though. I wasn’t sure if she was just being polite because I’m the one who chose the restaurant.
Perhaps I should’ve asked if their DAT lunch menu was available — the flank steak and pomme frites cooked in duck fat sounds DELISH. I’ll have to go back and give them one more try. They must have raving reviews for a reason!

Five stars for the host and the food presentation.
We didn’t have a reservation, but thought, hey Thursday night at 6pm, how bad can it be in the financial? But because it was Dine about Town they were booked. The host was incredibly gracious though and told us to wait a couple minutes. Luckily, he was able to fit us in. Major kudos to him, not just for the table but also for his overall attention to detail and fabulous demeanor.
Super cute dining room. Though I was out w/​my gal-​pal for the extended bday celebration and didn’t feel out of place, I can see how it would be great for a romantic date.
We started with the cauliflower soup. Nicely presented, but the accompanying swirl (Meyer lemon crème fraîche or something like that?) didn’t have enough flavor differentiation and the whole thing came off as just comforting.
I had the short ribs for the main course. Beautiful presentation, short ribs never looked so good. But again, not a lot of excitement there, could have definitely used more sauce to give it some oomph.
Lastly, we split the chocolate mousse for dessert. Beautiful once again. My friend loved the light texture but I wished it had more chocolate intensity.
So I came away with mixed emotions. Loved the service, ambiance and food presentation but I wished the food had been as stellar as it looked.

Had my DAT lunch here. Restaurant was a bit smaller than I saw online (I guess I can attribute this to nifty photography skills!) but it’s very nice and clean. Hey, there’s even pillows in the both so you can feel at home!
I had the lettuce salad — Not bad. Actually it was very tasty. Don’t expect croutons, tomatoes and the like. It’s as they described it in the menu. A variety of lettuce
Petrasole on Batsami Fried Rice — Usually I’m not a fan of batsami rice but they cooked it just right. Nice and tasty. The petrasole looked small because they rolled it up into a little bun but it was quite juicy and tasty.
Profiteroles w/​Expresso Ice Cream — This was pretty good too.
Typical of french restaurants, the portions are on the small side but the 3-​course meal will make you full.
Service was excellent! They fill your water without you having to wave someone down. The waiter also placed the cloth napkin on my lap.
I gotta say that their bread rolls are super yummy. Nice and warm and they will give you a refill w/​o asking. I could eat their bread all day!
Definitely a great DAT choice! We enjoyed our time here!

Dined here for DAT ’08. Nice way to get the two weeks started.
Seating, a little too close for comfort, well it’s cozy, IF you don’t have annoying neighboring diners who were too bored with their own conversation, looking over & listening to ours. Butt out!!!
Adored the French maitre’d. The rest of the staff was very professional & accommodating. Coat check available. Napkin folding upon excusing yourself from the table.
The freshly baked french and sesame rolls are sinful. I wasn’t particularly fond of the whipped butter, I’m a slab of churned butter with a touch of salt girl.
Food:
C1: Just lettuce w/​a vinaigrette. Plain.
C1: Cauliflower soup, quite good, w/​caviar and showcased the cruciferous veggie well.
C2: Butternut squash ravioli, expected a heavier dish, but it was actually thin pasta & displayed as three LARGE ravioli. Very good, but make sure you are prepared for the sweet nature of the squash.
C2: Poached salmon, it was still a little rare in the center, which was really nice, I like animal products that are still squirming, the fennel & potato salad were a little on the saltier side.
C3: Profiteroles, chocolate sauce drizzled atop, friend liked this, but I’m just am not a fan of the puff. The ice cream was not creamy enough.
C3: Chocolate mousse, normally HATE mousse, but this was quite good, there were balled pieces of fruit, similar to quince, along with a nice syrup & crunchy candied toffee bits. Yum.
Bathrooms: I got schooled on how to differentiate the men’s from the women’s. The signs are in FRENCH. Dames = Girls. And NO I didn’t have to ask, but I was standing there for a good 5 seconds.
Tip for parking: We tried to get valet outside, but it’s only for Rubicon, you can either lie, or you can just park in the bus lane, I swear you won’t get towed. Per the valet guy.
We sat here for OVER two hours and it whizzed by, good food, service & energy really helps make a wonderful dining experience!
According to the website there is a tasting menu, I’ll drag the boy out for that one.

Another review from me of a venue for fine dining?
Well its New Years eve and we were lucky enough to get a reservation for a late late dinner.
4.75 stars!
Nice and cozy place without the pretense.
Service was friendly and attentive.
Had the new years eve prix fixe.
The amuse bouche was a golden and red beet, cleverly marinated.
1^st course
— The caviar trio (American sturgeon, Ikura, smoked white fish roe which reminds me a bit of kazunoko) was presented on top of miniature crepes. Nice but not outstanding we find.
— The foie gras ravioli in a consommé broth with duck confit was overly engineered, the foie gras got lost in translation. If I were to attempt this dish I would have taken out most of the oil which topped the broth.
2^nd course
— The lobster was a teeny bit over done but not by any means rubbery.
— The quail was perfectly seasoned and perfectly cooked. Can’t get any better than that.
3^rd course
— Turbot and seafood vol a vent was impressive. The Turbot was done nice and crisp on the outside. The mousse in the vol a vent was remarkable.
— duo of veal, braised and smoke-​roasted. I have no idea how they
managed to create that wonderful texture for the braised portion (I know there was a hint of lemon oil involved but it contributed to the taste but not the texture). The roast was also commendable, perfectly fine tuned.
Dessert:
Dark chocolate mousse cake with marinated pear.
Strawberry spongecake-​like creation (sorry I forgot the as-​expected-​sophisticated name)
Each course was better than the one before, we like that kind of a progression :)
We finished our dinner just in time to dash outside to see the fireworks … happy 2008.

We all know that size matters, and Les Amis is a perfect jewel. Housed in a former firehouse, it is sophisticated, intimate and charming all at once. Service is considerate but also unobtrusive.
We started with an amuse bouche of scrambled eggs with shaved truffle. It was creamy and earthy and an auspicious beginning for a good meal.
My good-​looking date and I shared the foie gras and I say kudos to a restaurant that makes me want to eat fruit of any kind, including lingonberries. Of course, I adore foie gras, but it still begs to be mentioned.
He had the trio of rabbit; the grilled bunny was sublime. I ordered the veal, and it was wonderful, including the scrumptious spinach purée. The wine choices were excellent.
To sum it up: Les Amis makes me want to write with superlatives!

Damn, I waited too long write a review of Les Amis. Dinner there was awesome, thanks to @. I remember that the waiter convinced the kitchen to let us order something that was only on the prix fixe menu.
Highly recommended.

Very delicious. I tried Les Amis for lunch and did the prix fixe for $ 25. It was worth it! The butter lettuce salad was especially good.
Nice cozy setting. Fancy but not snobby. The service was great. I recommend this place to friends all the time!

One of the worst nights ever.
Came here on a Saturday night for an 8 o’clock reservation to celebrate an anniversary with my baby. We should have turned around as soon as we saw that there were only four other people eating here… on a Saturday night at eight? Crazy!
Deciding to throw caution to the wind we entered the cute dining area and were seated by a gracious host… who I think also was our waiter, someolier, bartender and coat check person.
It started badly when my martini had to be sent back 3 times… I finally decided that it was because he was using Gin when I had requested a dry vodka martini each and every time… this was later confirmed when looking at the bill. I felt bad as the guy was obviously NOT a bartender and I don’t think had ever made a martini before.
Anyway, the amuse buche came out and it was some seared ahi, normally something that I am way into… unless the fish and the oil are rancid. It made us both want to puke.
Other than all this, we had a nice bottle of overpriced wine and some other foods that were not worthy of the price tags and completely unmemorable.
Just to add insult to injury they said there was a special dessert not on the menu… profiteroles, my sweethearts favorite. We ordered them with caution and they arrived stale. Thanks for a horrible night Les Amis.

Excellent! I recently went here for a swanky lunch with with my boss and a work colleague and we really enjoyed the salmon dish and the dessert.
It’s tucked away in FiDi and it’s oh so sheeshy and swank. I would definitely come here again. =]

THIS RESTAURANT ROCKS!
My husband took me here for my birthday and it was PERFECT. I think he must have said it was my birthday in the OpenTable reservation because when we showed up, they said they wanted to give us a booth but it wasn’t ready yet – so to have some champagne on the house while we waited!
Never one to turn down free booze…
When we were seated, it was a GREAT seat! The restaurant is small and cozy. In no time at all, I was handed a birthday card from the restaurant! That’s a first for me and I’ve dined at a lot of nice restaurants. The sommelier was super nice too. He helped us pick out wine pairings for the dishes we ordered and each glass was perfect. Even the wine glasses were different for each wine – not just red vs. white. The food was also spectacular!
Halfway through entrees, and a little drunk by now… we excused ourselves to smoke a cigarette. Well they offered to keep our food warm for us! When we came back, not only was the food kept warm but they had re-​plated it. It was as if we got all new dishes. The only bummer of the night was that we were so stuffed that we couldn’t stay for dessert. Not to mention that we had a bottle of wine at home before we left for the restaurant. I have a feeling they were planning something special for dessert for my birthday.
I feel AWFUL that we left before dessert! The service and the food and everything was so good. The staff was great. I’ve been recommending this restaurant to everyone. I’ll definitely come back and I’m going to make sure I don’t get so trashed and stay for dessert ;)

3.5 Stars
Let’s See…
I give it 1 star because I know the Chef…
And another star because he’s from Philly… LOL
No seriously, in all honesty, I really do think this is a fabulous place… I’ve eaten here twice now and both meals have been solid. For those that may be skeptical of my being unbiased due to the fact of the above, you need only read my reviews to see that I am a bit of a tough critic when it comes to Food. And being that I am from Philly, I am all about keepin’ it real…
With that said, before I delve into the details of the food, I really must give props to the chef & staff. As soon as I walked in the enormous red doors, I was immediated greeted by the Maitre D & Sommelier, Pascal Fosse. He is not only charming, but he was very accomodating and extremely knowledgable when it came to the wines. Bravo Pascal and many thanks for a great dining experience!
And just as many have said before me, the décor is as said, quite intimate and cozy, especially in the evening for dinner, where one would say that it was rather romantic…
Now moving onto the Food…
We started off with soup & appetizers, my companion had the Purée of Parsley Soup with the Sweet Garlic Flan, which we both thought was divine… I chose the Spiced Squab and Sonoma Foie Gras Mousse, which I thought was lovely, and we shared the Crisp Veal Sweetbreads, which I thought were quite good as well.
For my Entrée, I had the Citrus Marinated Liberty Farm Duck breast, which was well-​prepared. This was accompanied by a Duck Confit Caillete Red Beet Jus which was really delicious…
For dessert, I had the Crème Brulee which came with these heavenly Mango Raviolis, floating upon a raspberry foam… Can you say ‘Divine’!!!
Talk about your Happy Ending, I certainly got mine that night…
All in all, I highly recommend this place, and not because I know the chef, but because Chef Thomas Weibull has mad skills, the Service is impeccable and to quote a fellow Unilocaler, the Restaurant is ‘wonderfully intimate’…
I say, Give Les Amis a try…
UPDATE 08÷25÷07:
Bumpin’ this place up to 4.5 stars due to my last visit…
The New Review is too long to put on here, I think, so check it out on my food blog —
Les Amis Revisited…

WoW…
I think that pretty much sums it up :)

Gotta love work sometimes. We get to eat in «fancy pants» restaurants where the entrees are in the double digits, and the desserts usually cost more than what I would normally pay for an entire meal elsewhere. I had the lovely task of selecting a restaurant for lunch. Given the number of fine restaurants in the area, it wasn’t exactly easy. Plus, I don’t normally eat at such places, so choosing one based on reviews and menus available online was the best I could do.
So Les Amis — a small, contemporary French restaurant. Very cute, somewhat hidden. From what I’ve heard, it’s in an old firehouse. Yes, we checked for a fireman’s pole — no success. We arrived at the peak of the lunch hour and were promptly seated. The wonders of OpenTable, I suppose. The seating was comfy, and the lighting not too dim. I hate when you’re struggling to read the menu at a work-​related lunch. Come on, it’s not supposed to be romantic.
I ordered the halibut. My two companions ordered the shrimp pasta. Everything looked delicious. My fish was great — very subtle flavors. We dined, conversed, and finished off the lunch with a double dose of dessert. At Les Amis, I had the chocolate souffl cake (no fancy description as it isn’t on the online menu), while the others had the Feuille de Pomme (Cinnamon-​Toffee baked Granny Smith Apples with Lemon Thyme Breton and Caramel Glacé) and the House-​made Sorbets.
Tummy is happy, full, and wondering when the next of these lunches will be.

I had a wonderfully intimate dinner with a few good friends here last night. The restaurant is surprisingly small, but very cozy and sophisticated. As we were seated at our table, our server was kind enough to ask us if he could make us feel more comfortable by taking our coats and providing us with more pillows. The dimly lit space was very relaxing, and everyone around us seemed to keep their conversations low, so it was easy to chat with each other.
We all ordered from the DAT menu (if you plan on ordering from it, make sure you specifically ask for it because they may not bring it out at first), and it was interesting to see that none of the DAT dishes were on their regular menu. It definitely made the DAT dishes seem more like their specials. Considering that a single entrée on their regular menu is about $ 25 – 30, the DAT menu was a wonderful deal. Between all of us, we ordered every item on the DAT menu so that we could try a little of everything. For appetizers, I really enjoyed both the butter lettuce salad and the asparagus and dungeness crab soup. For the entrée, I thought the slow cooked Atlantic char (similar to salmon) was better than the braised short rib ravioli dish. For dessert, the pineapple tart tatin was definitely the winner.
The food was very good, however not terribly memorable, but I must say that I was most impressed by the service and ambiance. The space probably seats about 30 people, so it’s a good idea to make reservations, however there were several open tables during the time we were there. A wonderful spot for a romantic dinner date or a small group of good «amis.»

Les Amis is such a cute little French (?) restaurant in the FiDi. I love the large red double door entrance but don’t be fooled — this place is tiny inside. Fellow Unilocalers and I dined here for the DAT menu. While the food was good but not spectacular, the ambiance and service was great! If you come here for DAT, then I suggest the following dishes:
(*) appetizer — either the white asparagus soup or butter lettuce salad
(*) entrée — definitely the arctic char (think a mix btwn salmon and trout) over the short rib raviolis
(*) dessert — hands out the pineapple tart tatin! the espresso ice cream inside the proliferoles was tasty tho!
Check out the pix I’ve posted…

I found this place through my OpenTable account, and found numerous good reviews, so I thought, yeah, great date place. And it would have been, if not for a few improvements that could be made to the food.
I really like the giant red doors that open up to a posh entryway, and then into a tiny and elegant dining area. We were the first ones there on a rainy Wednesday evening, and the host greeted us warmly… and the excellent service continued throughout the night.
Unfortunately, they brought out a complimentary starter, that (and I never thought that I would ever describe food this way at an upscale restaurant) tasted JUST LIKE VOMIT. I don’t know what it was, but we both looked at each other, trying not to gag.
Ugh. I shiver at the memory.
The rest of the meal was delicious, but was tiny in portion size. My date is a big eater (but not a big guy) so he was disappointed at the portions. Especially when they brought out what was described as «cheese CAKE» on the menu, and was only a tiny DOLLOP of cheese in a giant bowl. Needless to say, he was not impressed.
If you’re looking for a romantic date spot in the financial district, this might be it if you’re not a big eater.