Buvette Visited 12/3/2011 4 Forks

Buvette 42 Grove St., (between Bedford St & Bleecker St), New York, NY 10014

 The first word that comes to mind when I think of Buvette is tiny.  The second word is French.  Yes, this place is teeny tiny and very French.  But that's what makes it so freakin cute. Everything there is tiny, the tables, glasses and even utensils and menu.  So accordingly, their food is tapas (or small plate) style.

Lav and I had the roasted beets, cauliflower gratin, lentils and kale and I got an order of the croque monsieur.  The waitress was also kind enough to tell us that ordering 2 quartinos of wine wasn't economical and that we were better off ordering the entire bottle.  I love it when the waitstaff has your best interests in mind!

The croque monsieur and beets came out first (mainly because there's no freakin room to put more than 2 dishes on the table at a time).  Despite the size, there were plenty of beets piled on top of each other and even though the croque monsieur came on small crostinis, they were really filling and packed a punch.  The sandwich came on perfect crispy crositini bread but was nice and soft in the middle.  It was covered in cheese and had 1 sliver of ham in inside.  I was actually glad that it was more bit sized than a full sandwich otherwise, I wouldn't have had any room for the other dishes.  The beets were perfectly roasted and served with a red wine vinaigrette and walnuts.  Perfect.  Then the lentils and kale came in this small but adorable dutch oven looking like pot.  I couldn't taste or see any kale but none the less, the dish was seasoned well and the lentils were cooked to well (meaning not over or under cooked which is very easy to do with beans).  The cauliflower gratin was exactly like what it sounds like....the same as a potato gratin but only healthier (I hope!).    We left room for dessert and got the chocolate mousse with creme fresh. Now THIS is creme fresh.  Light and fluffy and I wanted to just have an entire plate of it.  Oh and the chocolate mousse was great too.  It was a nice thicker version of chocolate pudding.  I'm not a huge chocolate fan but this was extremely tasty and I loved every bite of it. 


Everything about this place is so adorable.  From the street it's on (Grove Street) to the waitstaff to the food.  But that's the exact downside.  My seat and table were so god damn small I felt like I was on the set of Alice in Wonderland.  Although I loved my food, it would be nice if there were more dishes and perhaps bigger plates.  Even though we got there at 6:30 (we thought we would be the only ones there!), the place was totally packed.  I would totally love to come back here but hopefully at a bigger table. Total bill: $50/pp with tip and tax. 


Photo Credit: Yelp