Pascal
31451 Rancho Viejo Road
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
I'll let you in behind the scenes of this little restaurant blog that I love to write for all of you. When I finally get around to posting the restaurant review, it usually has been about a month since we visited the restaurant. Give or take a week or two. There are a few major major reasons for this. One, is I have a real job, which takes up way too much of my time. Family and friends are another worthwhile distraction. I also have a Netflix/Amazon Prime addiction which also takes some time away from me writing my restaurant reviews in a timely manner. Lastly, I'm not the world's quickest writer. It takes me far too long to get my words down, but I knew I had to get this review done quickly, so any of you that wanted to visit this restaurant could do so before they closed for good.
In case you have not heard, Pascal in San Juan Capistrano is closing as of March 30th. Chef Pascal Olhats is pretty much the most legendary chef in OC history. That is not just hyperbole, it is a fact, and I'd be willing to debate this with anyone dumb enough to disagree. Chef Pascal had been a chef in our great county for 35 years. In that time he has worked tirelessly at his own restaurants, mentored too numerous to list head chefs, he has won plenty of awards and accolades, teaches French cuisine at Saddleback College, raises money for worthy causes, donates his time and energy to plenty of food events we have had the pleasure to attend, and if all of that was not enough to convince you that Chef Pascal is a treasure, he also was invited to cook at Julia Child's 80th birthday party. Some pretty big stuff there.
Unfortunately, in September of 2018, Chef Pascal was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma. He is doing six rounds of injection chemo. It does seem to be working, as so far 80 percent of the lymph nodes have receded, which is a very encouraging sign. The decision to close Pascal was a difficult one, but lucky for all of us, we all still have opportunities to try Chef Pascal's cuisine. He's still going to be involved at the Cafe Jardin at the Sherman Library and Gardens in Corona Del Mar and plans on having favorite dishes from Pascal available for lunches. There's even talk of special dinners, so stay tuned for that.
Back to the present though, we really wanted to get to Pascal before they shuttered for good, so we quickly made a reservation via the Open Table website. Pascal is located a little out of the way, in a shopping plaza nestled on the other side of the freeway, very removed from the busy downtown corridor of San Juan. His restaurant is one part storefront, with bakery items, prepared meals, sandwiches, and salads available for takeout, and then on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings they offer sitdown dinners in their tiny, yet comfortable 24 seat dining room starting at 5:30.
The menu is broken up into 4 courses and lets the guest create their perfect sized meal. They also have Prix-fixed pricing, which allows you to have a selection from each category for a set price. There was also a special farewell offer, which limited you to two entree options, along with a soup or salad and a dessert. Both Katie and I decided we were going to forgo the first course, which was appetizers, but we ended up hitting the rest of the menu. Let's see how our first and last visit to Pascal ended up for us.
What would a French meal be without bread? Luckily, we did not have to find out since our meal started out with this very generous basket of sliced French Bread. Wow, this stuff was fresh, and the butter that came with this was rich and creamy. None of those cold, hard to spread butter packets here. Katie and I both plowed through this bread in record time.
I had really wanted to have the French Onion Soup ($12), but since Katie had her heart set on it, and in the spirit of showcasing more of the Pascal menu, I let her order it. This was quite simply the best French Onion soup I have ever had the pleasure to try. It came out scalding hot in an iron bowl, had a delicious Swiss cheese topping, fantastic onions and broth underneath, and was finished off with a white port that Katie was instructed to pour into the soup. She called this magical. She was right on the mark with this statement.
So, even though I was a little disappointed that I let Katie have the wonderful soup option, a few bites into this Lyonnaise Salad ($12) almost made me forget the soup she was happily slurping away across the table. This classic French salad included butter lettuce, frisee, which is curly endive, croutons, smoked bacon, poached egg, and a Dijon mustard dressing. I'd call this a breakfast salad, as it had some really good cubes of bacon and the yolk from the poached egg added a nice richness to the salad. The dressing was evenly distributed here as if each piece of green was individually brushed with the slightly tart dressing. Very good balance with this fresh salad.
Katie was back and forth on what she wanted for dinner but finally settled on this Beef Filet ($38). Even though she always requests that her beef come out medium well, this still ended up being very tender medallions of beef. A sign that they know what they are doing in the kitchen. The beef was pepper-crusted lightly, with a very nicely prepared Roquefort port wine sauce. The sauce was not over-bearing, but the Roquefort hung out in the background, allowing the beef to shine. It was accompanied by a sweet onion fondue and a roasted mashed potato. A very comforting dish in Katie's opinion and I definitely concur.
I never get duck nearly enough, and I wasn't going to let this Duck A L'Orange ($38) slip through my fingers. This was my first time having this very classic French dish. The sauteed duck was sliced and served in a pool of an orange sauce. The duck was very fresh and not musty like some. The sauce was definitely citrus-inspired, but not overpowering. This came with some sliced Periguord potatoes and broccoli. It was a very deceptive dish, as it had way more duck than it looks like in these pictures. Very well executed.
Dessert would be the last thing we ever ate at Pascal, so we carefully decided on the Chocolate Chestnut Tart ($13). This tasted just like a chocolate souffle, but with a little more structure to it. It was topped with some very good vanilla ice cream and surrounded by sliced strawberries that I left for Katie. I liked this dessert, but wish it was a tad sweeter. I've learned that desserts from around the world are not as sweet as what we like in the US. Different palettes for sure.
Even though you only have a couple of more days to visit Pascal, you should totally do so if at all possible. This is the kind of restaurant that has become a dying breed, and that's a real shame. A lot of people would call the French food served here old fashioned and a little out of date, as people these days seem to like lighter entrees. I loved the artistry and the presentation of the food that was presented here. Yes, it was definitely a special occasion place, as the prices were a little too rich for our blood to splurge for on a regular Thursday evening out. Service was very cordial, but due to the fact that there was only one waiter for the 10 or so tables, this meal ended up being a two-hour-plus long affair, which is way too long. It did give us time to savor our first and last time at Pascal and has gotten us very excited for a visit to Cafe Jardin in the near future. We also wish continued success to OC culinary legend Pascal and hope his health continues to improve.
Out of five leopards, (because Chef Pascal was born in Normandy, France, and their provincial flag has leopards on it), five being best to zero being worst, Pascal gets 4 leopards.
For more information on Chef Pascal and his culinary pursuits, head to his website here: https://pascalrestaurants.com/
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