Chef Christian Alumno

Restaurant Listing: Review, directions, more

If you consider the way Americans traditionally have viewed French cooking, it’s almost as if every meal must be an occasion, replete with elaborately sauced dishes and white-glove attention to detail. Don’t the French ever just want to grab a bite?

Of course they do. And I suspect that’s what’s behind the success of Jupiter’s Le Metro Neighborhood Bistro, which appears to be going strong after a year in business.

This is French (and to some extent, Continental and contemporary American) food that occupies a comfortable zone somewhere between the everyday and the extraordinary. For the most part, veteran local chef Christian Alunno knows his way around the kitchen. But he also knows that his location — in the Abacoa community’s Main Street area — doesn’t lend itself to over-the-top or frou-frou dining. Better to build a loyal base of patrons who might come in more than once a week than to aim for the diner who visits a couple of times a year for special occasions.

Certainly, the restaurant has an inviting, slightly modern look that would encourage repeat visits — with a prominent bar and tables spaced at a nice distance from one another. The staff is welcoming, too. They’ll walk you through the menu, let you sample a wine before committing to a bottle and suggest a return visit for lunch (yes, the restaurant is open throughout midday). That said, when Le Metro gets busy — as it was during one of my two recent visits — there can be inexcusable delays and a certain discombobulation. But, hey, at least the joint is jumpin’ — something that can’t be said for many eateries during these tough economic times.

Naturally, the real attraction is the food. There’s a zestiness to much of what Alunno prepares that can’t be denied. Take a couple of star attractions among the starters. An escargot and mushroom casserole ($9.95) will make a snail lover out of anyone — the dish packs lots of rich and earthy flavor into a small bowl (the Pernod and garlic butter don’t hurt) so that the slithering creatures become more a rustic pleasure than culinary oddity. And those Provencale-style shrimp beignets ($10.95) are like a French-inspired cross between popcorn shrimp and beer-battered onion rings — absolutely delish in almost a bar-food way. But with those hits was a big miss — namely, an uninspired Bistro House Salad ($7.95 for large portion) that combined glaringly unripe tomatoes with what tasted like supermarket-grade bagged lettuce.

With entrées, the same formula generally applied. What was good was very, very good. I love what Alunno does with a decent piece of meat, grilling it to perfection and letting the sauce complement rather than overwhelm what’s on the plate. Two examples: the filet au poivre ($28.95), an almost fork-tender, 8-ounce tenderloin with a deftly prepared green peppercorn sauce, and the classic steak frites ($27.95), a fine 12-ounce New York strip with the same sauce and OK fries (I’m still waiting for a local French restaurant to really nail the frites thing — at this point, I continue to say McDonald’s does it better).

Another winner: the rack of lamb ($26.95) with picture-perfect tiny chops that had that distinct lamb flavor without crossing the line into gaminess. Perhaps the chops might have been less aggressively seasoned — they’re prepared with a rosemary, Dijon mustard and garlic crust — but that’s a minor quibble.

At the same time, as much as a server tried to sell me on the restaurant’s popular Dover sole ($31.95), done in a brown butter sauce, I just wasn’t pleased with the slightly dried-out piece of fish that was placed on our table. And a pasta special one night — a lobster ravioli offered as both an appetizer ($12.95) and entrée ($22.95) — was passable, but not enough to woo me away from any of the higher-end Italian places around town.

Dessert offers one first-rate option — a sampler platter ($7.95) that lets you try a trio of offerings. The best, by far, is a spot-on chocolate mousse that has the requisite lightness of a mousse: Think chocolate in cloud form.

And think dining that allows you to enjoy a three-course meal without necessarily forsaking a mortgage payment. Granted, a $28 steak may not be “cheap,” but it’s certainly better than a $40 to $50 steak, which is what you’ll pay for a less satisfying piece of beef at many a local chain steakhouse. And the three-course early-bird special at Le Metro (4:30-6 p.m., Monday to Saturday) sounds a like a great deal at $18.95, especially with such items as pan-seared salmon and lamb shank.

True, maybe there are no early-bird deals in Paris — at least the time I checked. But the point is that French food doesn’t have to have snob appeal. Le Metro is very much a bistro you can call home.

Le Metro Neighborhood Bistro

FOOD: B+

SERVICE: B

ADDRESS: 1155 Main St., Suite 120, Jupiter

TELEPHONE: (561) 429-5464

PRICE RANGE: Moderate to expensive

HOURS: Lunch: 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Saturday; dinner: 5 to 9 p.m., Monday to Saturday

CREDIT CARDS: Visa, MC, AmEx

RESERVATIONS: Accepted

WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Yes, including restrooms

WHAT THE GRADES MEAN:

A – Excellent

B – Good

C – Average

D – Poor

F – Don’t bother