Dining Out

Celebrate Bastille Day at Bastille!

Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the National Day of France and celebrated on July 14 each year. The French National Day is the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, a major event of the French Revolution. In honor of Bastille Day we decided to revisit Bastille Restaurant in Alexandria for this month’s Dining Out article.

Bastille is located at 606 N. Fayette Street in north Old Town. Although there are no views of the Potomac River, there is ample free street parking to help relieve that hassle. The restaurant has a comfortable bar and a bar dining area as well as two more dining rooms. On nice days there is a beautiful patio in the courtyard for al fresco dining.

We picked a good evening to visit Bastille as they had just released their new summer menu. Unfortunately, that meant I couldn’t order their delicious beet salad but there are many new items to enjoy. I will just have to wait for fall to roll around for my beet fix.

We are particularly fond of the Prix Fixe menus offered here. There are currently three 3-course Prix Fixe Menus available. The Bistro menu is $45 while the Brasserie is $57. They have recently added Le Menu Budgetaire that offers three select courses with a $29 price tag with a glass of house wine available for an additional $5. All are excellent values. The choices are numerous as you can see from the photo of the menu. All of the items on the fixed price menus and several other choices are available ala carte.

For my dinner I ordered from the Brasserie menu. My first course was the French Onion Soup. The soup was served in a piping hot crock with a perfect amount of melted Gruyere cheese. The caramelized onion/roasted onion broth was delicious. For my main course I ordered the Loup de Mare. This translates into Seared Mediterranean Branzino Filet with Couscous “Tabbouleh”, Romesco sauce and Arugula. Branzino or Sea Bass is a popular fish in the Mediterranean region. It is also known as European Bass, White Salmon or Common Bass. This firm white fish was cooked with the skin on which made for a nice crunch with each bite. The fish was cooked just right and very flavorful. Even though it isn’t offered on the Brasserie menu, I finished my meal off with their Creme Brulee a la Vanille - a Madagascar vanilla bean custard with burnt sugar to top it off. As an aside, Crème Brulee is pretty much my “go to” dessert if it is on a menu and I am pretty picky. This version was perfect.

Ms. Gastronome, here. I opted to

BASTILLE BRASSERIE & BAR

606 N. Fayette Street Alexandria, VA 703-519-3776 Bastillerestaurant.com

DINING OUT > PAGE 32