Balafoodie's Profile
Main Line Chowhounds! Avril BYOB opening in Bala Cynwyd tonite!
Very disappointing! This Bala foodie is bummed.
A group of four went on a Wednesday night with a reservation. The place was hopping.
First of all, the service was horrible. We were seated, given menus, and wine opened promptly, but it ended there. We had to ask repeatedly for water refills (the owner finally obliged) and two of us were missing a knife for our main courses. We waited for our server to come over or even look our way, but he was too engrossed in conversation with his colleague right by the kitchen door. (She, BTW, looked around her station while they were talking.) Our friend had to get up and go over and ask for knives. He didn't offer dessert and took awhile to bring the check.
On to the food. Two of us started with the Wild Mushroom Barquette with Sea Scallops $12. The mushrooms were few, the sauce was bitter, and the pastry was, well, the closest thing I can think of is, stale. The scallops were delicious. Our friends enjoyed the Crab Crespelle $10. My husband had the chicken legs. He found them undercooked and bland.
Two of us had the Gnocchi with Pistachio Pesto. I thought it was awful. The pesto sauce was very dull---couldn't detect any pistachios ground up, only whole or pieces of the nut that were kind of soggy from the sauce. The gnocchi were dense and heavy.
Our friends found the Lobster Profiterole a little strong on the mustard, but good amount of lobster. Again, the pastry didn't seem fresh and was dense when it seems like it should have been flaky.
My husband had the pork and was underwhelmed. Happily is was well-cooked, but not very flavorful.
Not being impressed with anything and not being able to attract the attention of our server for quite sometime, we skipped dessert.
As we were waiting for our check, the smell of cigarette smoke permeated the room. I think it came from the kitchen. No one was smoking in the dining room and no one was seated outside. I am very sensitive to smoke and the smell was so strong that I started to stuff up. It was also weird that the owner spent time with every other table and happily brought us water, but didn't say another word to us.
I want to give it another try, but it's a fairly expensive gamble.
