l’Acadamie

Several times while Shannon and I were out and about walking we'd walk passed this one corner that always had a huge lineup going into one of the buildings. It did not matter whether it was a week night or a weekend, there were always at least 20 people waiting at the door to get in. At first we just assumed it was a very popular club or something, but after walking by a few more times I realized it was a restaurant! A very crowded several floor restaurant that is apparently incredibly popular. Naturally this piqued my curiosity and I had to check it out, so we made a mental note and vowed to get into that line in the future.

We had made plans to go for dinner with our landlords tonight and one of the places suggested just happened to be l'Acadamie, the restaurant with the long line up. This was the perfect opportunity to discover what all the fuss was about. We make our way down there and I'm walking down the street chatting along when I'm pulled off to the side. We're there already. What luck — there is no line up at all! I would've surely walked passed it had I been with less observant company.

It is definitely to our benefit to be with French speakers because there is no way I could've translated some of the things on the menu. Alright, that's only partially true, because we were offered English menus and declined because we tend to think we can order for ourselves when really we'll just end up getting hamburgers because we can't decipher ingredients dissimilar to English spelling. We wouldn't have been able to make much conversation with the waiter though, who did not speak English very well, and would've therefore not been able to determine that there is no academy on site or that the restaurant has no affiliation with one. I thought perhaps part of the popularity of the place was due to the fact that the prices were so reasonable (which they are) because the kitchen staff was primarily fueled by students.

I ordered the frog legs because nothing else on the menu deviated enough from previous A Food Year feedings, but when I return I will surely try one of the other appetizing dishes. The legs were not as good as I remember them from my only other experience eating frogs, but still quite well prepared. They were lightly battered with a simple salt, pepper and lemon flavor, though as time went on and they started to cool they became much less appetizing. They had a mild ocean taste that I don't recall from before, but the texture is very nice. The vegetable sides were really nothing special; some boiled or steam squash, carrot, bok choy and broccoli.