Food Pundits of Southern California

Christophe’s Restaurant & Lounge in Upland

Christophe’s Restaurant & Lounge in Upland California

Last night Jen, JJ and I went out with our friend Jasmeer to Christophe’s Restaurant and Lounge.  While this may be my family’s first visit to this establishment, Jasmeer has been here several times and after tonight I know why he’s made the trip time and time again.  Bottom line, it was a really great experience.

When we first arrived we gave our names for the reservation, which was not required but likely helpful during busier hours of the dinner service, and our waiter informed us that our table was already ready for us.  Through out the rest of the dinner experience he addressed us by name which was pretty neat and thoughtful.  Our waiter, who I believe was Corey, was helpful in discussing menu items from both the dinner menu and the 101 martini list and even gave suggestions that we ended up taking advantage of.

For our Hor D’ Oeurves we ended up ordering the Bruschetta and the Baked Escargot Bourguignonne.  No one else in our party was as willing as I was to have the Escargot which was fine by me because that meant I got all of them to myself.  While I can’t comment on the Bruschetta, I can say the Escargot was cooked perfectly and the garlic butter flavor wasn’t too over powering which I am usually used to with Escargot.  Hat tip to Jasmeer for his willingness to even dip his bread in the butter mix that layered the bottom of the plate after I devoured the Escargot.  Speaking of bread, Christophe’s would be great to visit for their bread alone.  I should have asked but instead chose to believe this but I’m pretty sure they bake their bread fresh and serve it just the same.  Warm and fluffy bread is served with a whipped butter and before you knew it we had gone through two baskets of this treat.

Our Dinner Selections

Both Jasmeer and I ended up ordering the New Zealand Lamp Chops.  Jasmeer went with the lamb chops with the green peppercorn sauce and a side of authentic rice pilaf while I went with the balsamic red wine reduction sauce and the vegetables. The only negative take away from this dish is that I was extremely disappointed that I couldn’t eat more of them, the flavor of the sauce and the orange persillade crust was perfect.

Jen decided on the Steak Poivre which is a pepper crusted rib eye steak served on top of a bed of French fries and topped with a spicy peppercorn sauce.  We ordered our son JJ the Fettuccini Alfredo which I’ll end up taking to lunch with me today since he only eats when he wants to eat and that only happened when we ordered our desert.  Regarding the Steak Poivre; my wife enjoyed the flavors but thought the meat was a little too much on the fatty side.  When all was said and done she had a rather decent amount of fat scraps left on her plate which isn’t the greatest  thing when you are talking about an 8oz steak.

Desert Menu

So I’ve been to plenty of establishments where the desert menu was not found on the main menu but I’ve never had a platter of the desert options brought to our table by a waiter for us to select from.  I had to take a photo of this but unfortunately it didn’t come out well enough to do justice to most of the items on the tray.  Christophe’s offers seven different types of desert including two types of chocolate cake, cheesecake and even a red velvet cupcake.  We decided on one of the chocolate cake slices which was really heavy on the chocolate, rich and creamy and hit the spot for all four of us sharing it.  Whatever you end up choosing for your desert selection I think you’ll be pleased but I’d certainly suggest either of the chocolate cake items.

Drinks!

Christophe’s has a martini list with 101 martinis on it.  I ended up having the Nutty Irishman which is a whiskey martini with Jameson, Bailey’s and Frangelico as well as one called a Sexy Alligator with Malibu, Midori, Pineapple, Chambord and Jager.  Jen went with the Raspberry White Chocolate martini that has a raspberry vodka, vanilla vodka and white chocolate and raspberry in it.  Jasmeer opted for a local beer named Dale Brothers Pomona Queen which I tasted and went down smoothly.

Final Thoughts

The ambiance of Christophe’s was high class yet I was still able to come in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.  While they are not really kid friendly and don’t have a kid menu, you can bring your children to this place though I doubt they have high chairs or booster chairs.  The food and over all experience was much better than a visit a few years ago to a certain French establishment in Riverside near the Tyler Galleria.

We met two people worth noting in this post.  The first was a gentleman called Skip who turned out to be a well known regular at Christophe’s.  He was a thankful distraction to JJ at times and even came in from the patio to talk to us and the kiddo for awhile.  Thanks Skip and thanks for suggesting we look for Red Breast Irish Whiskey next time we are out and about trying different drinks.  The second person we met was Christophe himself who came out to our table and asked us how everything was.  It appears that Christophe also works in the kitchen itself because he had on an Apron and looked as if he had been cooking.  This speaks volumes to me because an owner chef tends to instill a quality and care into the food that is prepared.  Rather or not he visits his customers tables on a regular basis I can’t say one way or another because it may be that all of my photo taking gave our waiter Corey the idea we were from some media outlet but if Christophe doesn’t visit his tables often he should because it was nice to meet him.

Here are the photos we took during our dinner experience.