First Impression

John: When I go out to eat, I generally hope for two things: that my food is tasty and that my server has a French accent. As you can imagine, that second one doesn’t happen too often in this area, but it happened at Douceur de France. You see, I thought that Douceur would be some restaurant where the owners included the ‘de France’ in its name so people would ‘think’ it was French. Wow, I was wrong. Douceur is French to the bone. Our server not only had a French accent, I think she spoke better French than English, but honestly, I actually can’t be sure about that because she was fluent in both. When you glance over the menu, you see words like ‘les,’ ‘la francaise,’ and ‘le pain perdu,’ it’s kind of intimidating. Oh and I have to mention one more thing. I have to. The ratio of women to men at Douceur is 10-to-1, easy. This is no exaggeration. I was so startled by this, I did a head count. Including employees, I think I counted 53 people: 49 woman, four men. You do the math. I should have known this was going to happen, I took a French class in college and there were 31 women and six men. The only other time I’ve seen this many women convened in one place (without men) was when I saw Titanic in the movie theater. However, at Titanic, all the women were crying on the way out, at Douceur, this was not the case, it was all smiles.

Tim: Breech has a radar that started going off as soon as we walked in the door. He looked overly anxious like he was trying to figure out a complex math problem. Ten minutes after we sat down, his eyes lit up. “Tim there are 49 women in here and only four men, that is amazing.” Maybe it’s because I’m married, maybe it’s because I don’t count people at restaurants, but I didn’t notice a thing until Breech mentioned it. After that though, it’s hard not to think about. There are not many places you can go as a male and be outnumbered like that. It was intimidating, in a good way. The rest of my initial impression was good. There are desserts and pastries on display at the front door and everyone speaks French, what’s not to like?

John’s Grade: A
Tim’s Grade: A

Appetizer

John: There weren’t any actual appetizers (there are soups and salads), so I’m going to talk about one of our entrées here. By the way, entrée is a French word. This was the most educational Dining Duo ever. Anyway, let me talk about the quiche Lorraine. I’ve been eating quiche since I was 3-years-old. It’s one of the three things my older sister cooks (thanks to Douceur, I am going to try and mention 49 women), whenever I visit her; if you want to eat, it’s quiche or nothing. The key to a good quiche is good fluffy eggs and a tasty crust. The eggs have to be beaten perfectly. Douceur came through on both accounts. The Lorraine also has ham, bacon and Swiss cheese mixed in. If you’re not a meat eater, they have a veggie quiche option. And yes, quiche is a French word too.

Tim: I didn’t grow up eating quiche like Breech, but I did find this dish rather enjoyable. It seems like the perfect breakfast food. A pie crust filled with egg and other assorted goodies. If you’ve ever ordered a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut, you will get an idea of how big this dish is. The crust is about an inch high and it’s filled to the brim with eggs, bacon and ham. Eggs have kind of a boring flavor, so the Swiss cheese was a nice touch.

John’s Grade: A-
Tim’s Grade: A-

Entrées

John: For the main course, we went with the Panini Poulet and the Les Tartines Corse (more French terms). The Tartines Corse is similar to bruschetta. It was a baguette covered in goat cheese and topped with diced tomatoes and fresh basil. I wasn’t too high on this dish. There just wasn’t much going on. At least when I eat bruschetta, there’s onions, olives, maybe some cilantro. There is a medley of flavors in my mouth, that wasn’t the case with the Tartines Corse. However, if you’re not that hungry, I suppose it would make a perfect ‘light’ dish. On the other hand, if you haven’t eaten anything in two days, you may want to order the Poulet. This giant chicken panini was filled with tomatoes, cheese, balsamic dressing and a red onion marmalade that gave the dish a unique, yet tasteful flavor. Maybe they should put the red onion marmalade on the Tartines Corse.

Tim: The Poulet was a fantastic dish. I’ve noticed that I have become quite the sandwich fiend over the past two months. This may not bode well for restaurants down the road because I’m getting pickier by the day. However, the Poulet still passes my taste test. It was a generous portion that Breech and I could have each eaten half of and then called it a day. I also should mention that I liked the Tartines Corse. The lack of toppings was a good thing, it kept my taste buds from being overwhelmed.

John’s Grade: B+
Tim’s Grade: A-

Dessert

John: Douceur is a dessert lover’s dream. Near the front of the restaurant, there is a display case that holds entire cakes. I’ve never ordered an entire cake from a restaurant, but it was awfully tempting at Douceur. However, since there were only two of us, I couldn’t justify it in my head to order a cake that served six people (This is actually shocking because I can justify almost anything in my head). Instead, we went with crepes. And not just any crepes, we ordered the crepes that were covered in strawberries, bananas and chocolate syrup. Fantastic. The crepes were light, so you don’t feel guilty for ordering dessert. And of course, anything covered in chocolate, bananas and strawberries is a winner.

Tim: I’ll echo Breech on the crepes. I wish there would have been slightly more fruit on the crepe, I felt a little gypped on the bananas, but who knows, maybe they were almost out. 

John’s Grade: A
Tim’s Grade: A-

Final Impression

John: First, there are bar owners in downtown Atlanta that would love to have a 10:1 woman-to-man ration. So if Douceur is ever hard up for money, they can sell their secret downtown. Second, we missed breakfast. Sure we had quiche, but Douceur’s breakfast menu is only available until 11 a.m., so you have been warned. Third, Douceur is not open on Sundays. I am only pointing this out because unless you go on a Sunday or at lunch time and try and order breakfast, there is just no way you’re going to be disappointed. If you don’t believe me, just ask your wife. Since 81 percent of the female population in Roswell has already eaten at Douceur, chances are she’s been there.

Tim: One thing I noticed about everything we ate at Douceur is that it was all ‘light’. We don’t too many Dining Duo’s where I’m walking out of the restaurant thinking, ‘Wow, Breech, I’m not even full, I could have eaten two more dishes.’ But that was the case here. You never want lunch to fill you up because that feeling can ruin the rest of your day. Breakfast is probably something I’ll have to come back for.

John’s Grade: A
Tim’s Grade: A-