Food review blog from San Francisco.

Restaurant: The Butler and the Chef Bistro (San Francisco)
Food description: Buckwheat crêpe with chicken and emmenthal cheese in a dijon white wine sauce, side of baby spinach salad
Food rating: 8 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

No, I haven't gone anorexic on y'all--been braving a rough week of bronchitis and pink eye--and god, I could use some good food right about now. But first, lemme catch up a bit... So I'll start by mentioning that the menu didn't really do this chicken crepe much justice. They didn't even give it a fancy little French name, like the La Parisienne crêpe right above it. Though it may have sounded drab, it tasted the complete opposite and I'm soooo glad I stumbled upon this hidden gem. I kinda gave up on crepes after everyone and their mom started offering them and the quality was just whatever. I pretty much forgot about how good crepes can be, until this crepe thankfully reminded me. You'd think there's not that much you can with just chicken, cheese, mustard, and a crepe, but seriously, they did a terrific job and has caused me to reevaluate my current postion on crepes overall. I'll start with the crepe itself: it was made from buckwheat and was a lot less sweet than Americanized crepes. I'm not a big fan of the sweet-and-salty mixing up, so I liked that it was hardly sweet. The buckwheat was very strong and flavorful and added a robustness to the overall dish that was a nice change from the usual bleached flour crepe. The crepe was razor thin but still strong enough that it didn't fall apart under the weight of the chicken. It was also slightly toasted, which added a nice crunchy texture, yet was still pliable. The chicken, which I was half expecting to be generic and dry, was smothered in melted cheese and had the perfect amount of dijon to add zing without overpowering the dish (but you have to like dijon to enjoy this dish). The ratio of ingredients was perfectly balanced and blended together to form a very sophisticated tasting crepe. The cheese was a great selection and was light, so you didn't feel all weighed down after eating it. The spinach salad was a nice break between bites, but there was sooo much of it. Plus I tend to avoid the salads here, after being served one with a dead housefly in it on a previous visit (and not even receiving a discount!). But salads aside, this crepe was a winner and I'm using it as my benchmark for what constitutes a good crepe.