Le Jardin Brasserie at Les Crayères

Inside Chateau Les Crayeres, which is home to Le Parc aka one of the top 5 best meals in this lifetime, lies Le Jardin Brasserie…an intimate, casual bistro in Reims. It was actually the first meal we had had outside of Paris and I was a little concerned that our lack of French wouldn’t get us very far in the outskirts, but I was mistaken. B and I usually try in earnest to break out the small phrases of French that we know when we are greeted (especially after being 15 minutes late, oy)….followed quickly by “pouvons-nous continuer en anglais s’il vous plaît?” “Can we continue in English, please?” We are usually met with a smile and slight grin and are welcomed in our native tongue…as was the case at Le Jardin.

We were lead to a cozy little booth in the middle of the dining room where were were greeted by these deliciously puffy, cheesy biscuits which reminded me a lot of Ritz crackers. What a sight for sore eyes they were.

Freshly baked house rolls followed which I happily smeared gobs of butter on. It was quite the little treat after the long drive from Paris earlier in the day coupled by our inability to read the road signs fast enough. Haha, but we made it didn’t we?

The protein du jour this past trip which I saw on almost every menu were langoustines…beautiful, buttery sweet langoustines. It was also nearing the end of harvest season so fresh, sweet local tomatoes were also incorporated into almost everything. So of course, I ordered the langoustine with sweet tomato and avocado mousse. The subtle flesh of the langoustine, the tanginess from the tomato and the creaminess from the avocado made for the perfect bite.

B had the frisee salad with shaved black truffle…and I THINK there was an egg buried underneath there somewhere. 🙂

Entrees were simple but executed with care – not to mention, the portion size were just outrageous!

I had the roasted pork chop smothered in a sweet tomato sauce and onion. The meat fell apart from the acid of the tomato…clearly the result of spending hours upon hours in the oven.

Accompanying my fries were GBD fries with shaved parmesan. I had a field day dipping these beauties into the juices left over from my pork. Yes, it was fantastic!