San Diego Spotlight : A Taste of French Cooking In the Style of France

For all the French restaurants we have and have had in this country--and there used to be more than at present--it never has been easy to locate establishments that serve meals in the same style as do restaurants in France.

The differences are not simply in menu selection and preparation, although there is no question that a boeuf bourguignon is a horse of another color on the other side of the Atlantic, but in the entire approach to food service. Generally speaking, restaurants in France supplement a la carte listings with several fixed-priced menus, which propose both modest and extravagant meals of never fewer than three courses. These usually are a relative bargain, at least compared to the a la carte offerings, and the menus typically are arranged and portioned so that diners conclude the meal happy and satisfied but not overwhelmed.

Perhaps the only eatery in San Diego that takes this approach is Midtown’s The French Side of the West, which opened quietly several years ago with a four-course menu priced at $12.50. The prices have crept up since then--there are now three prix fixe menus, at $17.50, $19.50 and $23.50--but the style remains notably French and the preparation, if never brilliant, continues to be reliable.

The plate of charcuterie that opens all meals at the French Side immediately highlights the differences between this and other French restaurants. It offers tastes of strong, Lyons-style salami, a few cured olives, a bit of Brie, a tiny scoop of the restaurant’s “homemade” cheese, which tastes like a blend of several musky cheeses, and bites of whatever pates the kitchen has made that day. The selection recently included a bit of tomato-flavored rillettes , a paste of smooth, richly seasoned shredded pork; a flat, dry-textured rabbit terrine that tasted remarkably like school cafeteria meat loaf, and, cleverly, a pile of pheasant livers that had been cooked with much garlic and a splash of red wine. These obviously are rich foods, but they are typical of the French table and go down quite happily.

The choice opens slightly with the second course, which offers the usual soup-or-salad alternative. The salad is a bore and should be avoided unless you really crave greens at that moment, whereas the soup, which changes daily, can be quite good. The kitchen recently offered a soupe de poissons , a French favorite that is something of a short-cut bouillabaisse; various fish trimmings are cooked together with seasonings, then strained, so that the result has a good body. This tastes like the essence of fish, and is accompanied by the necessary trio of garnishes, or grated cheese, toasted bread rounds and rouille , a mayonnaise sharpened with garlic and red pepper that should be stirred directly into the soup.

After these preliminaries, the choice of entree will determine the price of the menu. In the $17.50 category the selection is perhaps the most traditional, with such bistro-style favorites as boeuf bourguignon and coq au vin joined by pork medallions in a sharp vinegar-red wine sauce, chicken breast chasseur (a heady brown sauce flavored with tarragon, shallots and brandy) and halibut in parsley butter. The mid-range list offers swordfish with three sauces, grilled salmon in tomatoed white wine sauce, grilled duck breast in green peppercorn sauce and a filet mignon with a tangy topping of butter flavored with herbs, curry powder, minced sour pickles and other items. At the high end are such relatively extravagant dishes as the grand aioli, a platter of grilled assorted seafood with garlic mayonnaise; another platter, this time of many meats flavored with a Provence-style herb mixture, and veal medallions with morel mushrooms. There is, in short, more than sufficient choice in every category.

To complicate matters, the restaurant also offers a special menu on the final Sunday of each month that features the cooking of a specific region of France and, for an additional $9 over the $22.50 base price, includes regional wines with the principal courses. This menu was sampled recently on a night that honored the Perigord, the home of the black truffle and of the special, extra-fat goose livers called foie gras . Instead of the usual charcuterie plate, the meal started with a few slices of tinned pate de foie gras , which is very tasty stuff but pays no tribute to the talents of the kitchen, and with pheasant liver treated in the style of foie gras , which was very good indeed and did compliment the kitchen’s talents.

The entree, lamb loin baked with minced mushrooms in a pastry shell, illustrated the unique problem of the French Side: The entree usually is the weakest point of the meal, which of course should not be the case. The lamb, if handsomely garnished with an aromatic ratatouille, a creamy potato gratin and a smooth sauce of cepe mushrooms, was overcooked and dry, to the point that the distinctive flavor of the meat was quite lost.

The entree of sea scallops in a puff pastry shell was again the low point of a meal chosen from the mid-priced menu. The sauce needed more flavor--the menu mentioned saffron, which was hard to identify--and the dish needed, simply, more sauce. The French usually are not stingy when it comes to moistening. Once again, the vegetable garnishes were quite attractive.

Dinners close on a simple note with traditional bistro-style desserts, such as caramel custard and chocolate mousse. The creme brulee , unexpectedly flavored with orange, arrives hot and crusty from the broiler and is perhaps the best choice.

The decor also takes a low-key French tone and is big--as are the French--on rustic accents, which come in generous doses here and run to stone walls, heavy beams, hanging copper vessels and candlelight, which combined with the stone walls gives the place the appearance of a fairly comfortable cave. The wine list, exclusively French and surprisingly broad, often is expensive relative to the menu but does offer some good choices priced at $16 and less.

THE FRENCH SIDE OF THE WEST

2202 Fourth Ave., San Diego

234-5540

Lunch weekdays, dinner nightly

Fixed-price dinners $17.50 to $23.50. Dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, about $50 to $70.

Credit cards accepted