(photo: Matthew Quinn)

I’ll admit it. I’ve been going to Le Metro for years. So when given the opportunity to review their new menu, I was excited. Le Metro is also a bakery where you can stop after work and pick up fresh bread to serve with your home-cooked meals. Many frequent this hot spot for lunch. Their filling gourmet salads are reputed to be the best in town and their sandwich choices feature that glorious bread of theirs. Come evening, Le Metro is a lovely spot for dinner, with a varied menu sure to please.

If you’ve ever been to Paris, you’ll be pleasantly reminded of bistro dining. Your first reminder of the City of Lights will be the smaller reproduction of the curved metal Le Metro station sign adorning the entrance to the restaurant. Other tributes to the French capital include Art Noveau details, French bistro specialties and, of course, the bread.

Le Metro is the flagship restaurant for owners Maura Crawford and Vince McConnauagh, who are also kept quite busy overseeing their other projects, Sole and Muse in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. These concept restaurants offer Buffalo fun, inspired dining—each with its unique charms and varied cuisine. Le Metro was the first in this lineup of greats. They are now the sole Le Metro in town, as the Elmwood restaurant has been reincarnated and is no longer affiliated with the Williamsville Le Metro. So, for the food, bread and ambience people have definitely enjoyed through the years, head to the Tony Walker Center in Williamsville where you will find Le Metro tucked neatly in the corner space.

On the night we visited, we entered the upscale barroom, where patrons watched a Sabres game. I appreciated the fact that the volume was muted on the game so it wouldn’t interfere with the atmosphere in the main dining room. We found ourselves seated at one of the chocolate brown leather banquette tables which frame the simple, square space. The colors in the dining room were alluring, with backlit cream and gold tones surrounding the recessed ceiling border and rich toffee colored walls. Our white-table-clothed table was candlelit. Curvaceous frosted drop lighting cascaded from the tin ceiling in groups of three.

Le Metro’s new menu is quite extensive. There is literally something for everyone here, from the lighter Vietnamese pho to a thick steak frite, where you select your cut of steak—Flat Iron, Delmonico or Kansas City Strip—and accompanying sauce. There are pasta selections, varied pizzas with numerous and interesting toppings, and “Les Specialites” of the house. Not to mention the grand salades, which are a meal on their own.

True to the French theme, Le Metro offers a pâté of the day and a charcuterie platter, which is an assortment of cured meats, pâté, grilled bread and cornichons. An assiette de fromages gives you a selection of artisan cheeses, fresh fruit, country bread and quince paste— a wonderful way to end your meal.

As we pursued the choices, the waitress arrived to take our drink order. Le Metro has a full bar and an accommodating wine list, and we decided on a Washington Hogue cab/merlot and a whimsically named “Ménage a Trois” red blend from Folie Deux in Napa, California. I also had spied the “breads and spreads” on the appetizers list and asked her to start us with muhammarah.

Muhammarah, from the Mediterranean, blends walnuts, roasted red peppers, honey and cilantro, creating a colorful, sweet spread. Combined with grilled country bread, the result is irresistible. For those who are carb shy, you just have to put aside those fears and go French for an evening. I found myself working on my third slice before appetizers came, and this is not normal!

For appetizers, we had chosen sea scallops and a goat cheese and caramelized onion tart. The tart was placed atop a tomato marmalade, topped with caramelized onions and fennel and garnished with sunflower sprouts. Proving baking is the restaurant’s forte, the tart was nice and flaky, filled with fresh goat cheese and balanced perfectly with the tang of the tomato marmalade. For our other appetizer, four seared and truffle-dusted scallops were lined up in a row, on top of the vanilla bean sauce with a group of asparagus at the end. The rich flavor of vanilla bean is a classic combination with scallops and was pleasing.

Our entrees arrived in large, shallow bowls. Mine was arrabbiata, a Roman pasta dish meaning hot and fiery. Le Metro’s version has three large shrimp wrapped in crispy prosciutto on top of fusilli (spiraled thick spaghetti about two to three inches long) with sweet peas and a spicy tomato vodka sauce. The chefs had taken simple, fresh ingredients of tomatoes, garlic and hot pepper flakes to create a mouthwatering sauce. Everything was prepared well, the fusilli had a nice bite to it and the shrimp were plump and succulent. I felt the heat of the red pepper.

Those who fear spice would much rather enjoy my friend’s dish. Chicken grand mere means “grandmother’s chicken,” and, yes, your French grandmother would make this for you. Aptly described as a fricassee, it is a dish where the meat is first sautéed in butter, then stewed with vegetables and potatoes. This creation included cubes of celery root, huge fingerling potatoes, chunks of bacon, cipollini onions, chanterelle mushrooms, whole-roasted garlic and both the leg and breast of the juicy chicken. Everything was cooked well, inspiring my friend to remark, “A well stewed chicken is a wonderful thing.”

We wanted to try one of their nightly dessert offerings, so we decided to split one our waitress recommended as her favorite, an apple crostata with crème anglaise and apple syrup. We soon found that Le Metro has adapted the traditional rustic Italian crostata, which has a folded crust topping for the crunchy, caramelized topping we thoroughly enjoyed. The crème anglais and a dollop of fresh whipped cream finished the delicious creation.

There are many ways to enjoy Le Metro. Stop at lunch for a healthy, satisfying salad, dinner for casual bistro dining, or have a glass of wine at the bar and pair it with great bread and the pâté du jour. Le Metro provides space for larger parties or business functions, and the restaurant has a large outdoor patio for dining in the summer. Bon appetit!