I love all things French....usually

Oh how I love french food. And french restaurants. Steak tartare, steak frites, giant plates of country ham, baguettes, croissants. And luckily, LPR loves himself some escargot. In fact one of my favorite meal/food experiences was when we were in St. Maarten and had lunch on the beach-I started with carpaccio, he started with escargot, and then we shared some sashimi. All while our waitress spoke in French and English. And gave us complimentary house made rum at the end.

So...whenever there is a French restaurant with carpaccio, some sort of tartare, and escargots, I'm ready to go. I'd passed by Figaro in Los Feliz, and really wanted to check it out. We happened to be going to the Steve Allen Theatre to see Nevermore (go see it. now. it's great), so it was a great opportunity to go.

Let's start with the good:

• GREAT happy hour menu that includes mini-martinis for $4 and carpaccio and escargots for $5
• Pretty decent frenchy-bistro atmosphere.

The bad:

• Terrible service. We had considered dessert, but it took our waiter so long to check on us that we were afraid we'd miss the show if we ordered even coffee.
• Not so great food. I got the carpaccio* to start. When it came out, I thought there had maybe been a mixup and they had given me salmon carpaccio. The beef was pink, not the bright red it should be. It was waaay over dressed with too much lemon. LPR had the escargots. He said, fairly unenthusiastically, that they were "fine". For my entree, I opted for the salmon tartare. A bit too fishy, and the potato blinis tasted like something from a box. LPR had the sea bass cassoulett with clams. It was served with an unnecessary tomato tempura situation. (it was good, but didn't seem to go with the dish) There also seemed to be a weird use of fresh basil on everything.

We probably would have enjoyed our food more had the service not been so. unbearably. slow.

And so we continue on our (my) search for great french food in LA.

*what is that, the 3rd time I've said "carpaccio" in this post?

This would be what we stared at for a good 15 minutes as we waited for our waiter. or the dessert menu. or the check.