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332 Springvale Rd., Great Falls, Va.
(703) 759-3800
Hours of Operation and Prices
Dinner: T-Sat 5:30-9:30, Sun 1:30-8
Full Dinner: $29.75-$38.50
Closed: M
Other Information
• Reservations: Inside, needed 4 weeks in advance
• Credit Cards: All major
• Dress: Jacket & tie
• Parking: Free
• Handicapped accessible
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Elsewhere, people are talking about a resurgence of French restaurants. In Great Falls, French has long prevailed. In its more than two decades, L'Auberge Chez Francois has hardly ever had empty tables, certainly not on weekends. That has less to do with food than with a sense of celebration and generosity. The dining room looks like a Gallicized setting for "The Sound of Music," with waitresses in dirndls and waiters in red vests. The menu is enormous, and the fixed-price dinners include garlic bread, herbed cottage cheese, a generous salad, a tart palate-cleansing sorbet and after-dinner cookies - all in addition to the usual appetizer, entree and dessert. Portions are abundant, prices are moderate and service is more than considerate.
Even more, the food is good. Sometimes it's wonderful, other times merely pleasant. Anything with sauerkraut 3/4 the choucroute with duck, pork and foie gras or the smoked fish version as an appetizer - benefits from the chef's lifelong understanding of Alsatian cooking. And if nobody will share the restaurant's signature salmon en croûte with you, a lone diner can sample its cousin, salmon with fish mousse. Remember that Alsatians are experts at foie gras and duck confit, and order accordingly. With this long list of traditional and modern dishes, light fish and richly sauced steaks, classics from bouillabaisse to cassoulet to kidneys with mustard, choosing is difficult. Desserts are no easier. How can one pass up the fresh-plum tart? The lime tart? The intensely chocolate creations or the towering souffles?
On my latest visit the soft-shell crab was flabby and not worth its surcharge, the squab was overcooked and the meringue-like kugelhopf was too sweet. But in such a big, busy restaurant, unevenness is no surprise. And the flaws are easily forgiven; after starting a meal with raspberry-flavored champagne in Chez Francois' garden, even an ordinary meal can seem ambrosial.
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