The good old country life

Fete Champetre or country garden parties were a popular form of entertainment in 18th century in France and famous artists even painted these scenes in their artwork.

In Manila, lovers of French cuisine can have a party of their own at the charming Champetre, the new restaurant of Marc Aubry, which stands where the former restaurant of Marc Aubry (Je Suis Gourmand) at the ground floor of the Net One Building at Fort Bonifacio Global City.

When I used to go to Je Suis, I remember with fond foodie memories their salmon with arugula salad, foie pate,  escargots, lamb shank and coq au vin. Thankfully, Chef Marc kept some of the old dishes and added quite a few new ones as well.

The first time I ate here was with my Assumption friends and respective partners (minus A who was busy burning calories by riding bikes up steep mountains and other things of that sort). We sat at a round table by the deli and practically had to shout at each other to be heard.

The place was more upbeat and vibrant, the lighting a little too bright and the furniture a bit shaky. This is definitely your French bistro comfort food round the corner, forget romantic dates here.

Going on to the food. The menu was written in a curlicue type font, making it hard to read. It was easy to see they still had the oldies but goodies, such as the foie pate and escargot- those were ordered ASAP.

These snails as just perfect; hot brown morsels drowning in herb butter. I love dipping plain bread into its sauce!

The foie pate was creamy and delicious- you couldn't ask for a better homemade foie pate anywhere else in the city!

It seems that my friends and I always have our favorites wherever we eat, and here's what they got:

Salmon salad

Mushroom soup

Seared foie gras salad

Because I read One Big Bite before coming here, the specially ordered Steak Tartare they had eaten beckoned to me. I loooovve ordering things off the menu! I just had to try it!

So I asked if I could order it, and they said I could. Then I asked if I could have it seared like how I had it in Aix en Provence with Christophe, and they said they could! I loved the restaurant already! I got a main course portion with fries on the side. Here's how it looked

 Basically a hamburger, done the French way. And, oh, except its raw inside. And this one had tons of capers! OK I am allergic to nuts and sometimes I'll order, like a salad and take out the walnuts piece by piece. I tried taking the capers out one by one, but there were just too many! They overcame me and conquered me. I could no longer eat the thing. It wasn't the same steak tartare I had in Aix at all- duhh.

That's what I get for being adventurous.

The other, smarter diners ordered these colorful, yummy-looking dishes

lamb chops

Steak frites

Grilled prawns ratatouille

Grilled scallops and mushrooms

Onglet

As you can see, each main course in heavy and quite filling with a hefty portion of sides that can feed a small family of 4! We didn't have any more room for dessert, plus the restaurant was already empty on a Thursday  night at 10pm!

I was there again recently with a different group of friends. A very boisterous, everyone has their own opinion and it needs to be heard type of friends, hehe! Good friends to hungrily finish 3 bottles of red wine with! It was also a Thursday night, and this time the place was packed. A bunch of men in the back room, and all types of groups in the front.

We ordered the same escargot and foie pate but this time I just had to have the eggs en cocotte with Portobello mushrooms. And it did not disappoint me - it totally made up for that steak tartare (which I won't be ordering again). In fact, there are so many interesting dishes on the menu that one should come back again and again just to try them all.

I also ordered the veal cheeks bourguignon with creamed cauliflower, but it was L's overflowing seafood risotto that made me salivate. On a heap of creamy, cheesy risotto goodness there were about 4 kinds of seafood- and not just the cheap-y squid ring type, I'm talking about the jumbo prawns, seared scallops and sea bass!

I know what I'm having next time...

And we got to order dessert: the apple tart and the chocolate mousse, both extremely satisfying. Too bad I forgot my camera for that night....you will just have to go there and order it for yourself!

If this is country living, who needs the city?

Champetre
632.815.8801