Cafe Provencal in Kirkwood 10-11-25

 This place is always a solid 4/5 for French food. 

There are only a few French restaurants that we go to in the STL area (La Floraison, La Bonne Bouche, and Cafe Provencal).  

Cafe Provencal is very busy at 5 pm on nights that Stages St. Louis has a show nearby.  There was a line waiting out front waiting for the restaurant to open.

We told our waiter that we were going to the Fox and had a little more time than some of the other nearby patrons. 

We had a little weirdness with the cocktails.  Like I said, there were A LOT of people who all arrived at the same time.  We were sitting outside, but so were about 10 other tables.  Our waiter came with a bunch of drinks on a tray.  He gave Mike his gin and tonic, but gave my vodka collins to a guy at the next table, who took a drink and then said "this isn't right."  Our waiter took it away.  I knew that that had been my drink.  He came back out in just a few minutes with my drink in a different style glass.  Mike said he wondered if he just took the guy's straw, tossed it and poured the drink in another glass.  That was kind of a gross thought.  I drank it anyway.  

I started with the escargot.  I have only had them one other time in my life and I wanted to try them again.  They are good, but really you could put almost anything in that garlic, parsley butter and bake it and it would be good.  It is also kind of crazy to pay something like $16 for 6 bites of snail.  Now that I've had them, I won't need to have them again for a long time. 

Mike started with their classic French onion soup.  It is always good.  

Mike wasn't in the mood for wine, so I ordered a glass of Crocus Malbec.  They had 6 red wines by the glass and I used my Vivino app and went through every one of them.  5 of them kept saying "This would not be a good choice for you."  Thank goodness this one said it was a good match.  It was fine.  

For dinner Mike ordered the steak frites.  It was a steak with some roasted veg and fried shoestring potatoes.  The potatoes were too fried and there were too many of them.  But the steak and veg were really cooked properly.  Mike said it was good overall. 

I ordered 2 appetizers for my entree.  I got the French onion soup and crab cakes.  I should have only ordered the soup.  I ate the soup and then I ate the salad that came with the crab cakes and I ended up taking the crab cakes home.  

You can't go to a French restaurant and not do dessert.  Mike and I shared a profiterole with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.  It had a variety of berries on the side.  It was more than enough for the two of us and it was lovely.  

We enjoy this restaurant and its French faire.