Le Soir

In the few years I've lived on Long Island I've had a number of bad restaurant meals. However, there are two (2) that stand out as the biggest disappoints--disappointments because the restaurants (at least at the time) were regarded as offering some of the better food on the island. The first disappointment was The Country House, in Stony Brook. The other second was Le Soir, in Bayport.

Now, I will say that Le Soir is in the top 20 for food rating in the latest Zagat's. So, either I went there on an off night, or it shows the dangers of having "regular" people rate restaurants.

For an appetizer I got foie gras (terrine) with figs and toast. When it came out, juice from the figs was running all over the plate, and the presentation was otherwise nothing special. (Not that this is a bad thing, but it was a sign that things there are not done with the utmost care--such as, e.g., at Louis XVI, which has by far the best food presentation that I've experienced on the island.) The foie gras and figs tasted fine (and the portion was fairly large), but then it's foie gras and figs, nothing requiring a lot of effort.

My wife got bay scallops in a beurre blanc. (No, not Coquille St. Jacques.) The beurre blanc was all right, I thought. Certainly nothing extraorindary. But my wife hated the whole thing and didn't finish it.

Between the first course and the main course they served salad and soup. The salad was not much better than what you'd find in a diner, and the soup (a puree of mostly root vegetables, from what I could tell) tasted like something out of a can of Campbell's.

For the main course I had rabit in a cider sauce with mushrooms and vegetables. This was dreadful. The rabit was fine, though quite bony. But the sauce had that starchy taste, as when you don't let a roux-thickened sauce cook long enough (e.g. 45 mins to an hour or so, no matter what anyone else tells you). The mushrooms and vegetables had no special or interesting flavor. In fact the potatoes were quite bland.

My wife had lobster with what was supposed to be a "lemon butter sauce" or something. Of course, in fact, it was the same dull beurre blanc that she had had with her first course. I think a stray leaf of tarragon managed to find its way on her plate, as well.

For dessert my wife had chocolate mousse, and I had a crème caramel. Both of them were terrible, and both had hard, tough bits of material in them. I'm guessing either the eggs were allowed to curdle in both dishes, or, in the mousse, inferior chocolate was used (and, thus, it didn't melt as smoothly as better chocolate).

One of the criteria, if not the main criterion, I use in judging restaurants is whether I could have made the same thing at home. This meal--not only could I have done everything much better, but I would have been embarrassed to have served it even to my wife (who has suffered through her share of my mistakes).

Two out of five stars.