Chez Henri

Lord, I think I waited too long on this one. I guess I hoped I’d be back…
I had a delicately cooked fish with a green, fresh, remarkably vegetal sauce. I mean, you don’t get that everywhere. This wasn’t some buttery, creamy, aioli, mayonnaisey nonsense, so the richness of the dish was left to the fish. Nice.
I couldn’t keep my hands off the bread and I had a remarkable glass of white wine.

Once you use enough groupons, you start to see patterns. Like many other groupons before it, the food was decent but I don’t think I would come here and pay full price. We sat in the bar so I wasn’t exactly expecting a stellar service experience, and I got just about what I expected. No frills… but for a place with a menu like this, I am not quite sure whether that is acceptable. Anyways, given how expensive the regular menu is, we opted for the bar menu. Granted, I am ok with going out and spending 50 plus on dinner, but nothing I had heard about this place seemed to warrant the prices that they were charging in the dining room.
We decided to go with the simple salad with olive oil and lemon, duck tamale spinach salad, and the cuban sandwich. We both agreed that the salad with olive oil and lemon was pretty mediocre. The ratio of olive oil to lemon was not even close (way too much lemon imo). This in comparison to Eastern Standard (I think it was) where we had the same salad and it was perfectly balanced for about the same price. I left feeling like I could easily have done a better job and made 5 of these salads for the same price. Again, simple done very well I am ok paying for, but not simple and mediocre. On the other hand, the duck tamale with spinach was good. I could have had it for my entire meal and I would have been happy. I might point out that it took around a half an hour for the salads to come out (it at least felt like half an hour). Whatever length of time it was, it was way too long for an empty restaurant. The cuban sandwich came out promptly when we were done with our salads however. We both agree that the sandwich was pretty good, but neither of us really saw what all the fuss was about. Again, the sandwich was good, but I expected it to be fantastic.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad experience, it just wasn’t particularly memorable either. Given all of the great options around (Temple Bar, Russell House, Park, Harvest, etc.) it is hard to see us ever going back here.

My boyfriend and I went here to celebrate our anniversary, at the suggestion of my roommate. I was a bit leery after reading through some of the recent reviews, but I was very impressed!
It was a very quiet night, so it was easy to get the attention of our server. There were two busboys and one hostess on duty, in addition to the one waiter. We never had a problem — if there was something we needed, someone was able to help!
The food was absolutely fantastic! I had the escargot and it was the most tender escargot I have ever tasted! It could’ve used a bit more sauce, but the flavor of the snails spoke for themselves. The waiter was even kind enough to show me how to eat those babies out of the shell (I’d only ever had ones already deshelled!). My boyfriend’s mussels were incredible as well! So tender and buttery… and that sauce!
My boyfriend ordered the steak frites (so good!) and I had the cassoulet. The steak was a little overcooked for what he asked for, but it was good nonetheless! Those fries were fantastic. My cassoulet was good as well — a LOT of food, and almost all meat and beans! I took half of it home! We finished with a fresh fruit sorbet and cookies, neither of which were particularly special, but were a nice finish to the meal.
The service was slow, but not particularly so. When I go to a nice restaurant, I expect to «dine,» not «eat,» so a little wait between dishes is actually appreciated. We felt no sense of things being snail-​like (except my escargot!).
When all was said and done, we were very pleased with our experience here! The people were friendly, the food was good, and the atmosphere was certainly unique. We would definitely go back!

I was really excited to come here… but ended up rather disappointed.
We had a reservation, and sat at the bar first and had a drink. The drinks were terrific. We then sat at our table. There was only one server on… yet there were 2 bussers? So our busser ended up being our server for most of the night. He did a fine job and was very very nice… but he didn’t know details about the menu (nor should he as a busser).
There did not seem to be any manager around «running» the place. There was a large party of about 10 people (which seemed to have a reservation since the table was set up well before they arrived). And then about 6 or 7 other tables… yet one server and no manager? We waited a long time for most things.
The food was good, not great. The mussels were actually fantastic, although it was one of the smaller servings of mussels I’ve had at a high-​end restaurant. The pork was good, but on the dry side. The Salmon was good, not great.
All in all, for the prices they charge and the level of restaurant Chez Henri is supposed to be, we were very disappointed. We went because we had a groupon… I’m not sure I’d go back without some sort of 50% off deal again. :-(

Went on our expiring Groupon (is it ever any different?) last night.
We got the early, so they weren’t overwhelmed with the dinner rush.
For service, I’d give them a 4.5. Folks were attentive, friendly and accomodating.
It’s nice to get an actual professional waiting crew here in the perenial land of college students.
For food quality, I’d give them a 3.5. The food was good across the board (Onion soup, salad, Steak Frites and Beef Stew). Everything was certainly tastey. It certainly wasn’t OMG, we’ve got to keep coming back here because this is absolutely fabulous. I think it’s definitely overpriced. If we didn’t use a Groupon we could have got more bang and pizzaz for our buck elsewhere
Would I go again? Maybe.
If I had another Groupon; more likely.
JB

When I see a Groupon to a place, my first thought is excitement. Embedded within that initial excitement, however, is a little bit of suspicion: it is usually when a restaurant is faring poorly that it turns to Groupon to boost its sales. That is, Groupon is a signal, and the terrible experience I had here turned to be additional evidence of this theory.
«I recommend everything» was the answer the waiter gave when we asked for menu recommendations. And then ran off to serve more higher paying customers because he assumed that, as the youngest people in the restaurant that night, we were not going to be a high grossing table.
«You would use a Groupon» was the waiter’s response while giving us a belittling as he took the barcode. After he took our Groupon, he snared at us and said, «Would you like another breadbasket?» as if to mock us.
Our tab came to be around $ 60, and given the very ordinary (and quite unfresh) salmon and the pre-​made, cold crème-​brulee, comparable to the kind I can get in supermarkets, this was actually quite pricey. The only descent part of our meal was the texture-​filled lobster pancake, which served lukewarm, seemed to play along with the concept of depressing that pervaded the restaurant.
Chez Henri is a pretentious and oxymornically depressing atmosphere; college students, take note: unless you want to go to feel stuffy and out of place, avoid Chez Henri at all costs. With mediocre food, terrible service, overpriced items, and an atmosphere to depress you even more than the stress of finals period, it’s definitely a bad experience in the making. Even if the parents are paying and you are trying to optimize your benefits, make them take you to Harvest, Rialto, or Henrietta’s Table instead.

Went here for dinner with a Groupon last night. The service was pretty horrible because they were under-​staffed. We had to literally ask where our waiter was after being seated for about 10 minutes without having anyone come to bring us drinks/​water/​bread etc.
The cocktails were very good (once they finally came) and the food was very good too (once it finally came). However the lighting was strange (incredibly dim) and the HEAT WAS NOT WORKING (!!) in NOVEMBER which is unacceptable for such an upscale place. If you looked around you could see guests putting on their winter coats because it got so freezing.
Overall, very good food (that was not too heavy either) and great cocktails, however I think the service, ambiance, and heat really needs to be worked on.
Will come back maybe in the future but will probably just do drinks @ the bar with some apps… not worth the big bucks for dinner.

I’ll summarize in one sentence — I’m not likely to return to this restaurant.
I had made reservations via Opentable for a Saturday evening at 8:30 PM. I had a Groupon that was expiring, so I wanted to put it to use to get the most bang for my buck.
Upon entering the restaurant, the hostess led us to our table in the main dining room. Just about every table was full and there was a hustle and bustle to the room. Servers and staff were moving through the narrow open spaces between the tables to keep diners happy.
I started with the Basil Margarita, thinking that would be an interesting combination. While the drink was tasty, there was no margarita to it. It was more of a Basil Martini. Stiff pour, which I always love and appreciate, but wouldn’t say that it was a margarita. For my meal, I switched over to the Pino Grigio which was ok, but nothing spectacular.
To start, we shared the ceviche, which was elegantly presented, but I would argue was on the small side. For my main course, I ordered the duck which came with a green salad and mashed sweet potatoes. The duck had a wonderful crust to it, though it was extremely tough to cut into and sometimes you had to chew on it a little bit. Not the worse duck I’ve ever had, but definitely not the best.
While I appreciate our friendly server’s attempts at exceptional service, she was clearly given too many tables. The time between when our dessert arrived and when she came by to ask if we wanted the check was extremely long. We finally dropped a hint with putting our credit card out on the table and having our Groupon piece of paper out. I don’t blame her, it’s clearly a management/​ownership decision to place more emphasis on expos and such as opposed to having servers with a smaller amount of tables assigned. Furthermore, the tables are a bit cramped, and could be thinned out just a little bit for a more pleasant dining experience. If I had paid full price for this meal, I would have left even more disappointed. In a competitive restaurant industry, this does not represent value to me.

Worst dining experience ever! I wish I had read Katie N’s review before going to Chez Henri for dinner last week, because it is spot on my dining experience. Like Katie, I had a Groupon.
I decided to treat my baby sister to dinner here since it is by the Harvard campus and she was having a crap week full of exams and sickness, but instead it was just the moldy cherry to her crap week sundae.
We walked in to be greeted by a jolly looking man who told us the wait for a table would be a while but we could sit at one of the lounge tables if we didn’t want to wait. We didn’t want to wait, and my sister was starving so we took the table by the door. We soon realized that maybe we should have waited because every time the door opened a bone-​chilling gust of wind would hit us.
The service was excruciatingly slow, as the only server for the bar area seemed to be the 1 bartender. We first ordered the grilled chorizo w/​mashed potatoes and the conch fritters and then we opted for the lobster arepas and got the torta for dessert. The food took forever to come out, and we got the arepas before the chorizo and fritters when we ordered the latter first. At the end of the meal, my sister wanted the crème brûlée for dessert, but they were out, so we ended up getting the torta. It took them over 15 minutes to bring out a cold piece of chocolate cake! I was getting so irritated at the end of the meal that I was tempted to just leave and deduct the price of the cake from our server’s tip.
The food was unbelievably mediocre and overpriced. The Chorizo dish could have easily been overcooked kielbasa with instant mash. I don’t even know how to adequately describe the conch fritters, except they were nothing like was I would expect of a fritter, which would be a crispy tender morsel of fried delight. Rather, they came out looking like burnt turds, and were extremely chewy on the outside like they had just been reheated in the microwave. They definitely did not taste like they were made fresh to order or even fried to order. The only good part about the arepas was the lobster salad, the rest of the dish was bleh. The corn tortilla was mushy and grainy and it was surrounded by this extremely sour lettuce salad/​garnish.
I wish I had taken a picture of my sister eating the food, because her face pretty much summed up the meal. She did not look appetized and her eating the food looked like torture. I had to apologize after putting her through this miserable experience, and promise to get her a crème brûlée from Finale’s.

Hullabaloo verified — the Cuban *is* all that, justly famed and worth every cent of it’s $ 14 asking price. The heft of the meat is offset by the flaky lightness of the bread — you can almost trick yourself into believing you are just having a light meal, at least until you break into the second half, at which point the gloves come off and the sandwich gets down to business. A boon for those prone to gustatory excess, since if you dining companion is not such a glutton, then you may find yourself the beneficiary of an uneaten portion of her own Cuban (since what else could you possibly order, amirite?), and end up in a pork induced fog of oversatiety.
Cuban is accompanied by a perfectly satisfactory pile of crispy plantain chips and a little dish of salsa. Bread is buttered, then apparently buttered again, and maybe buttered a third time before being thrown on the press. It can get to be a bit of a mess, ask for more napkins.
Do not miss: the chorizo appetizer, the TRUE hidden gem on the bar menu. Perfectly grilled chorizo, on top of mashed potatoes. The only right way to kick it off, before the Cuban kicks your ass.

Even bearing a discount voucher we were fed like kings and treated like royalty. We truly enjoyed every aspect of the dining experience here. Service was great, with just the right amount of attention. We were checked on after each course was served. Servers kept an eye on us from a far and were ready to take our dishes once they were devoured. They even came by to clean the table after our entrees, before dessert.
The atmosphere is lively but we were seated at a corner table for two by the window. We had great space around us while other sections of the restaurant seemed to be seated closer together.
Food and drink were great. Portions are huge! I had the special soft shell crab (15 $) with a very large salad underneath. The crab came with a sauce which paired nicely with it. I had the Criollo Bouillabaisse (29 $) which had everything I dreamed of and more. Almost every single fish under the sea was in the pot in front of me. The pot had an unbelieveable amount of seafood and took me a while to finish all of it. This latin spiced stew came with salmon, calamari rings (very tender), bass, shrimp, crawfish (1), mussels (6), and clams (2). The stew was not just there to fill the pot, it went well with the seafood. This was topped with a piece of toasted bread cover in what I believed to be a cuban inspired spread (this was also really tasty). My fiancé had the steak frites (32 $). This came out as a huge pile of fries sitting in a tasty brown steak sauce. Piled atop the fries was some beautifully sliced steak (ny sirloin). I loved how this came pre-​sliced so my fiancé didn’t have to struggle and risk splattering some of that sauce on my shirt. The sauce went well with both the fries and the steak. Steak was very high quality and cooked perfectly. Really liked the sauce and thought it was a nice twist compared to the french version with bearnaise. Dessert was a solid bread pudding with awesome christina’s ice cream atop (one small scoop). While fusion food doesn’t always work, they don’t do anything too crazy, and everything I had here was great. P. S. They make a great mojito.
One minor gripe here is the value. The atmosphere is cool, but not fancy. Location is a bit off the beaten path in Cambridge. Waiters wear jeans. Taking all this into account, is the food worth what they are charging here? It’s hard for me to say, but as long as they keep offering discount vouchers, (which most people in the restaurant were using) I’ll keep coming back regularly. I would probably come back once in a great while for a special occasion even without a voucher (the food was that good). Right after my fiancé and I were finished we were talking about how we wanted to come back again (true sign of a 5 star place).

I came to Chez Henri with no expectations, curious about just how a Cuban-​infused Frenchman conducts himself. Does he smell of fresh baguette while he dances salsa? Does he add wine to his Cuba Libre (rum and coke)? Will the steak frites have habanero? Turns out, not much of either.
The Ceviche Mixta was a good standard starter, but it just didn’t compare to the Chicken-​Fried Quail. I initially feared that the frying would mask the flavor of the quail, but it actually enhanced the gamey-​ness, giving the quail a dark, smoldering taste. So good!
The Steak Frites were the formal French fare you’d expect. I’ve had far better, less mealy cuts of steak, but the bordelaise sauce was praise-​worthy, and it hits the bullseye of cravings for French fare. The Criollo Bouillabaisse was an interesting entrée. Not as thick as I’d like a stew to be, but full of fresh clams and mussels with a heaping helping of salmon and a white fish I can only guess was cod. A nicely fused dish, enhanced by a sprinkle of saffron and a kick of chipotle-​garlic rouille.
The Chocolate Gâteau dessert was Chez Henri’s number one endearing quality. Dark, moist strips of chocolate cake interlaced with the best thick, buttery vanilla cream I’ve ever had in my life. It is rare for me to be seduced by a dessert, but for that one moment in time, it was enough to make me believe I no longer needed men!
I just wish the food here was more of a fusion. French and Cuban can be combined into a stunning brainchild, but I didn’t see much of it here. I would have given this place 4 stars, but the inability to live up to such amazing potential is far too disappointing.

Chez Henri was the meal that launched my weekend away with Boy. We have reservations for seven and somehow LUCKILY managed to get there just in time with a spot out front (after circling a few times and thinking it was going to be hopeless and finally agreeing we ought to park in resident parking and just split the ticket if it arrived).
They were ready for us. We were seated right away and started to eyeball the menu. Our server came up to us and was pleasant and grabbed our drink order. We decided to share a carafe to the house-​made winter sangria. It was tasty. Not too sweet. Not quite what I’d have done myself, but, good.
For appetizers we started with the Ceviche Mixta and the Red Wine Braised Wild Boar Sausage. The ceviche was a bit bland for my taste and consisted mostly of cooked shellfish, but I enjoyed the cracker-​like fried plantains with it and used them for dipping. The wild boar sausage was the best thing I had at Chez Henri. It really left me excited for the meal to come.
For entrees we shared the cassoulet (this one had duck confit, sausage, and beef — looking at the menu, I see it changes) and the other dish, whose name I forget, were like these spinach ricotta cakes (dumplings?) with butternut squash and beet purees, spinach, and roasted beets.
The cassoulet was decidedly bland. I say this having recently had cassoulet at two different competing french or french fusion places, one which is one the same block as Chez Henri, but it’s presentation was nice and hearty. The other dish had a very impressive presentation with the red roasted beet and orange squash purees playing nicely with the white of the ricotta cakes and the spinach. The spinach with this dish was cooked expertly. Spinach is often overdone flavorless mush, so I applaud the spinach. But the rest of the dish was lackluster and the flavor, though nice, fell short of impressive.
Partway through our meal I overheard a different waitress spouting off specials (which we also spied on a chalkboard on the way out) — ginger something PORK BELLY? Okay, we totally would have ordered this. Maybe it would have left a better impression. I don’t know.
Dessert was so unmemorable I don’t even remember what I ordered. I know I didn’t finish it. And this was only a week or so ago. I do, however, remember the coffee with dessert. This was the terrible coffee you’d expect in an all night diner that gets barely any business so it’s just left to sit. I don’t know if that’s the case with the coffee, but it’s the taste of the coffee. So not good.
Service drifted off a little towards the end but she was always friendly and processed our bill quickly when we mentioned we had somewhere else to be and was, overall, okay.
I will probably be back to Chez Henri, because the native Floridian in me needs to sit at the bar and try this Cubano they’ve got, but I don’t see any meals in the dining room in my future, especially when there’s much better French cuisine to be had just a few doors down.

I do not like this place. I didn’t get the famous El Cubano that everyone raves about, but I did get shuffled around the bar like a cheap whore at a saloon.
Customer service in this place is non-​existent. I told the hostess and the bartender that I was waiting for a friend. The bar was lousy with overweight women preaching the gospel of Jane Austen, and college professors talking about wheat grass and carbon footprints. These people apparently have priority over the lone woman who is actually drinking at the bar. I was told to move three times to accommodate those wearing horn-​rimmed glasses and sweater vests.
When my dining companion arrived we were ushered to a table BEHIND A CURTAIN. Seriously? Yes. Seriously.
The food was good, no doubt. The service belonged in the bathroom, swirling in the toilet bowl.

Man, I wish I had read the other reviews before ordering the cheese plate!
Anyway, the bf and I went to Chez Henri on a Sunday night and sat in the bar area. We ordered the chicken empanada, the cuban sandwich, the cheese plate and the duck tamale over spinach. The chicken empanada was pretty good, 3 pieces that also came with black beans, salsa, and sour cream. And a super lemony side salad.
The cheese plate though! Ridiculous. I expected a little more effort from a restaurant if they’re going to offer a cheese plate. Instead, what I got were 3 pieces of cheese (decent sized) with a handful of dried cranberries, one dried apricot, and a small bowl full of peanuts. Oh yeah and some bread that was overly crunchy. The cheeses were all pretty mild, showing zero range and the guy who brought it out didn’t bother telling us what cheeses they were. Honestly, Chez Henri, don’t put a cheese plate on your menu if you aren’t going to at least try.
The cuban sandwich was pretty delicious although I think Publick House’s cubano may be better. I wasn’t a huge fan of the fried plantain chips although the salsa is good. The duck tamale was pretty good as long as you ate it along with the spinach underneath with its bacon strewn mustard dressing.
Final thought: Not really worth the price even with a groupon. And isn’t that sad…

I know nothing of the menu in the restaurant. I’m sure it’s pretty good.
I came here with a mission, however. Well, a mission and a Groupon and my awesomely spectacular girlfriend.
My focus was on one thing and one thing only: The Cuban sandwich. Until I saw the ceviche appetizer, which I focused on enough to scarf down and thoroughly enjoy.
Good drinks as well. The mojito was a bit too limey for my taste but still went down very smoothly. Too smoothly in fact, which is exactly what a mojito should do.
The only downside was that they had soft-​shell crabs on the specials board. Somehow we did not see this giant chalkboard as we walked in and no one in the restaurant mentioned it until we heard a waitress talking about it as we were eating dessert. My girlfriend without a doubt would have been feasting on crab. She was disappointed about this.
Back to The Mission. This plays knows how to do a Cuban. Any sandwich that is crispy, porky, pickle-​y and leaves my fingers smeared with a think layer of butter is a giant bundle of tastiness.

I woke up the morning of our reservation, and it was with sudden relief that I realized that it was a Sunday. Hopefully with the possibility of resident permit only parking spots, EXCEPT for SUNDAYS, we had a chance at an easier parking experience than many of their customers have had…
Chez Henri is located on a small cross street from Mass Avenue, between Harvard Square and Porter Square, where there’s a Starbucks on the corner, same block as the Berryline on Mass Ave. It is on the left side, when you are heading away from the Charles River.
As a large party seated at two tables served by different waiters, we had varying experiences. My table was pleased by the service provided by our server, well, until it came to dessert. The other table felt a bit rushed by their server.
The bread service consisted of cold chewy slices of bread with pats of chilled butter — spreadable, and the bread was able to handle it, but still…
I was considering the $ 39 prix fixe. I immediately noticed that the menu presented to us did not match what I had spotted online. Yes, while the fish entrée was still available, the french onion soup was MIA. I considered the mussels, and asked if the red curry would make it spicy. I was told not really, but once I revealed that I was a spice wimp, our server decided that spice was relative, so let’s call it spicy.
Yes, he scared me off of ordering the Sautéed P.E.I Mussels with Red Curry-​Coconut Milk & Grilled Crôut myself, but fortunately my tablemates had no such fear. The mussels were great — tender and meaty — and the sauce was yummy and not considered spicy even by me. We even dipped bread into the sauce to further enjoy it. The day’s special clams and chorizo app was good too, but the clams were tougher than the mussels, so I preferred the mussels by a wide margin.
I had the Pan Seared Long Island Duck Breast with Wild Mushroom Spätzle, Winter Greens and Orange-​Pomegranate Glaze $ 30 medium rare as recommended by the chef. While tasty, unfortunately the meat was chewy and the skin not crispy the way I like it. However, while mushroom-​lover I am not, I really liked the wild mushroom spätzle accompaniment. The flavor and the textures were enjoyable as it was soft yet chewy where the dumpliings had been browned. Those who ordered their duck medium were happy with their choice, while the other who had medium rare decided that the quality of the duck wasn’t high enough to handle this preparation, and found the dish too sweet.
As for other dishes ordered at the table, I enjoyed my taste of the Trout Meuniere with Shrimp Beurre Noisette, Haricot Vert & Pomme Purée ($ 27 a la carte), and regret not having ordered it in place of my duck, but the protein of the other entrée offered in the Prix Fixe — Skirt Steak a la Plancha Orange-​Ancho Chile Jus, Manchego Potato Gratin & Green Bean-​Jicama Salsa — was deemed flavorless by the diner, with the best part being the scalloped potato.
For a bit of something sweet to end the meal, I ordered the Vanilla Panna Cotta with Mango Coulis and Coconut Macaroon $ 8, which arrived in a pool of raspberry sauce and was missing the macaroon. Our table agreed that if a listed ingredient was replaced that the kitchen should really let us know. What if there was an allergy involved! Or what if we just plain didn’t like raspberry?
When we had the chance, we pointed out the clearly missing cookies from our two orders of the panna cotta, and were appeased by the presentation of an entire plate of the treat. The macaroons were chewy sweet and yummy, although they were in the oven a touch too long, resulting in a very deep tan. These were enjoyed by the entire table. Props were also offered for the coconut ice cream.
The menu on their website could do with some updating, as not only was the prix fixe inaccurate, but the prices were a little off too (ie. the duck was $ 30 but was listed as $ 29 online).
The group concensus however was that the bar knew what it was doing — great mojitos! — and we should go back to order the famed cubano sandwich off the bar menu sometime.

Chez, you make my heart go pitter-​patter and my stomach go, «SCREW THE GYM, there’s bouillabaisse on the menu!».
The mojitos here are like David Beckham gazing at you from the pages of Vogue in Armani underwear. So deliciously satisfying. I would bed it. They’re that good. And a perfect compliment to the flavor-​packed dishes.
I started with the ceviche, which was incredible – I think I licked that bowl clean. Moved on to the bouillabaisse – chock full of savory shellfish and spices. It’s hearty and does quite the job on the taste buds. Finished off with a trio of refreshing sorbet. I pretty much devoured every crumb and sugar on all three dishes and left feeling like a major fatty (the good kind).
Three words shall conclude my review: NOM NOM NOM.

I’m kind of surprised by the mixed reviews here, I had an absolutely amazing meal here last night. It was spot on in every way– literally (don’t you love when people say literally?) soup to nuts. I mean it though, I started with the French Onion Soup, which I’ve been craving for months for some reason, and ended with the apple crostada (there were nuts in it!).
I went with the Prix Fixe 3-​course meal, for $ 39. It was cool that you could order the items from that menu a la carte if you wanted to, but I was living it up and went for the gold this time. I knew I wanted the soup and one of the entrees, and I didn’t think I’d have to work very hard to get my date to share the dessert with me. As usual, I was correct!
The soup was exactly what I wanted. Standard, but fantastic. It wasn’t too salty and was served at the right temperature, which are the two most important things, I think. The Gruyère was melted perfectly over the croûton. I may have cried a little, I was so happy while I ate it.
For my entrée, I went with a trout dish that had a French name that I don’t remember. I didn’t know if the name meant something, so I asked the waiter and he explained the way the trout was prepared, in great detail. I was impressed that he knew exactly how it was cooked, and explained it so patiently and carefully. It meant a lot. And confirmed that it was definitely what I wanted. Again, I was totally correct. It was outstanding! Light, delicate trout in a wine and beurre (it feels fancier than saying butter) sauce with shrimp, mashed potatoes and crispy haricots verts (again, green beans lacks something). The portions were quite generous, but it was hard to keep myself from licking the plate clean.
To end the Prix Fixe, I chose the apple crostada. I’m sure I was too full to be eating it but holy jeez it was good! Chopped apple with a flavorful glaze, nuts and speckled vanilla bean ice cream, in a flaky pastry shell. It was divine. As I said before, my date valiantly assisted in the decimation of this adorable treat. What a giver!
Chez Henri nailed it on all counts– service, drinks and cuisine. I’ll start saving up for a return trip, because it’s certainly not budget friendly, but worth it for a special occasion.

So I got a Gilt City coupon for a 3 course dinner for two with 2 entrees, 2 starters, and a dessert. It’s a service not unlike Groupon, Google Deals, or Living Social — I recommend them all.
I enjoyed what was perhaps some of the best service I’ve ever received at a restaurant and a comfortable environment, not to mention food. Oh the food!
I had the Bouillabaisse of shrimp, crawfish, Cod, Salmon, Mussels, Clams, and a Deliciously salty-​spicy-​garlicky broth. With a Ceviche of the freshest calamari and sweet mango, I was quite satisfied. My mother had a delicious and generous crab and blue cheese salad — two flavors which complimented nicely despite the strength of the cheese and mild sweetness of the crab — before a trout dish with rock shrimp and root purée. We each enjoyed our dinners immensly and hardly had room to demolish the amazing lemon-​berry Crème Brulee that followed it all down.
I’d certainly frequent Chez henri were I better funded and closer to the city but I will be back, nonetheless.