Birthday Dinner @ Chouchou

SQ and I enjoyed a nice and quiet birthday dinner yesterday. We dined at this lovely French bistro called ChouChou (pronounced Shoo-Shoo) in the Forest Hill area. It is a small quaint restaurant almost in the middle of nowhere but definitely worth trekking to. I ran across this place through a recommendation from a co-worker and it was a great restaurant indeed!! Service was great and the food ... it was Yum-Yum excellent! SQ ordered the prix fixe menu that came with a selection of appetitizers, entrees and dessert - all for only $25.95. He chose the Frisee aux Lardons (Frisee salad with poached egg and pancetta as appetitizer and I got the Sauteed escargots with garlic, butter, and puff pastry. Both were delicious. Sorry we both got so excited about the food that we forgot to take pictures of our appetitizers!

For entrees, I ordered the duck confit - shredded duck nestled inside the lightest, tastiest, thinniest fingerling potatoes I've ever had. Simply deleeessh!! SQ ordered the mussels with the side of shoestring fries. Mann, that bowl must have had 50+ mussels in there... they definitely didn't go cheap on the portions even though the mussels were part of the Prix Fixe menu. The broth that came with the mussels was excellent.

Then came the dessert. By this time, I was too full to have any - but since SQ's order came with dessert, we picked the Mixed fruit tart to share.

And mann o mann....I practically ate 1/2 of this tart even though my tummy was about to explode. It was soooo good!! The crust was thin and sugar-coated, which provided a great balance with the fruits. Excellent!! The dessert was my favorite even though I liked everything else too. I would definitely recommend this place if you are looking for a non-pretendious French bistro that gives you all the things you're looking for - service, price, and great food!!