French Market Grille

Wined and Dined here for Valentine’s day and as usual was not disappointed. The atmosphere, service and food were all great. The staff were as always, very friendly, I never felt rushed to start or finish, it was a very relaxed and comfortable ambience.
This restaurant is definitely on my ‘places to go list’. Thank you.

What a dissappointing restaurant! The food was mediocre at best. I had the scallops in a runny sauce that had no taste whatsoever. My husband had the salmon which he noted was fair — nothing special. The service was slow. Servers and busboys and the host were running around like chickens with their heads chopped off. Running here and there forgetting to bring wine, bread, water, etc. The host was especially rude. We were warned by friends that the service was slow, — a 3 hour dinner. I had already purchased the groupon so I wanted to use it. We’ve taken this one off our list for sure.

Lovely afternoon dinner with no one else in the restaurant. Ordered one type of champagne but they were out and shifted me to a more expensive bottle without comping the difference. French onion soup adequate. Sea bass entrée Adequate. Dessert was the best effort on their part. Interestingly, the chef was cutting up Costco lamb chops as we were leaving; I.e. Not an overwhelming emphasis on superior product. I gave it 4 stars for the ambiance rather than the cuisine.

On a trip to the Escondido/​San Diego area, we chose this as our first dinner of the week. What a wonderful value! And the food was really excellent. My wife ordered the field greens salad with Apple — sheer perfection. I had the sweetbreads and mushrooms — cooked perfectly and accompanied with a sample of the field greens salad. My wife ordered the top sirloin with Bernaise sauce. It was cooked just the way she ordered it, and the char from the grill was magnificent. The steak had a wonderful Cabernet sauce with the bernaise served on the side. One might think the two sauces strange, but they worked together perfectly. The fries that accompanied the dish were excellent, though probably cooked in oil that was not a high enough temperature since there was no crisp to them. My duck confit cassoulet was absolutely delicious. The two duck legs may have been the best I’ve ever had. The beans were too al dente — my guess is they would have been perfect had my reservation been 7:30 or 8:00 instead of 6:00. After all, there’s no way they can cook beans to order for each diner. This place is also an excellent value with dishes priced most reasonably and a wine list that is incredibly approachable. The owner or manager was in the restaurant this evening and, on several occasions spoke to the waiter and cooks. What the owner/​manager did not do is insure that there was sufficient wait staff to accommodate the number of dining guests. Our waiter, the ONLY one in the restaurant, was excellent. We felt sorry for him that he was actually running in order to take care of nine tables ordering 3 – 4 courses and wine. That was inexcusable and will, in the long run, cost them business.

This place is absolutely terrible. The service is atrocious and the food is bland. We had the escargot which tasted rubbery and flavorless. The lobster bisque tasted like salty vegetable broth and had absolutely no lobster in it. We had better luck with our entrees: duck confit and the short ribs, which were so much better than the appetizers but still mediocre. The crêpe suzette dessert was disgusting. Basically tasted like it was soaked in orange soda without the carbonation.
I thought the tarte tatin was good. That is worth one star.

According to my husband, The sea bass was excellent and The vegetables and salad accompaniments were fresh and tasty. The lunch portion was ample.
My Cobb salad was good except for the dried out chicken. The roasted vegetable bisque was very good. The wine portion was pleasantly generous.
We enjoyed the quaint décor and the garden setting. Our server was excellent.
We thought $ 51 dollars for a «prixe fixe» lunch was a bit high, but I did have a $ 10 glass of wine.

I don’t even know how to start this review.
We went to this place for SD Restaurant Week. I picked this place because we wanted something different, like French food, and this establishment seemed affordable with a very interesting menu.
As soon as we walked in, the atmosphere was very welcoming. But, don’t let it fool you, this is where all the fun stops.
Service: horrible!!! After getting our table, for roughly 30 mins nobody paid any attention to us. We had to signal the waitress that we are ready to order. When she finally came over, she said: «I can’t find your server, but I’ll just take your order» — like she is doing us a favor or something. They weren’t even that busy!
Food: Horrible!!! there was nothing French about it. I wouldn’t feed this pile of crap to my worst enemy. We ordered the Lobster Bisque and the escargot. The bisque had more salt than the pacific ocean. Had I eaten the whole thing, I would be at the hospital waiting for a new kidney. The escargot was bland and tasteless. Poor snails. they died for nothing.
The entrees were edible, but they were as French as I am the queen of England.
For desert we ordered the Crêpe Suzette and the Tarte Tatin. The crêpe Suzette tasted like something you would eat at a refugee camp and the Tarte Tatin was something you would buy at the grocery store.
Overall this place is not worth even a single star. I wish I could give it zero stars.
The one mistake we made was not reading the Unilocal reviews. We did that after this horrible dinner and we regret it so much. It appears that 80% of the reviewers had a similar experience. Establishments like this one make me upset. It shows that their owner gave up and no longer care about his/​her business. The thing that pisses me the most is the fact that this establishment advertises itself as a French restaurant. If I was a Frenchman, I would be insulted. there is absolutely nothing French about this place.
Do yourself and favor and save your money. you would get a much better food across the street at the grocery store.

We arrived for dinner at 7:30pm on a Thursday night. The appetizer (lobster bisque) was burnt, entrée was ok and the dessert so so. The server was horrible. We are not going back there ever again.

My husband and I ate here on New Years Eve. The bread was unexceptional, the salads came swimming in dressing, and my husband’s rack of lamb was super tough and flavorless. I gave him some of my filet mignonette which was tender although it’s sauce was overly salty. We will not return.

Christmas dinner. Food was bland, cold, and sub-​par. Service was terrible. Lousy attitude.

Have been here three or four times. Asked my beautiful wife if she would like to have a date with me and celebrate the completion of a home project that was long overdue and quite arduous, and she accepted.
We were promptly seated, there were perhaps five other tables dining on this cold and rainy Saturday night. The chairs are very comfortable and the room has a burnished elegance that is very French and quite charming.
I ordered Perrier (WHY have they switched to plastic bottles for the smaller size?) at $ 3.50, and a glass of champagne (about $ 8.00). My wife had a glass of the Hess Chardonnay (about $ 10.00). Service provided was professional, capable and attentive.
The bread here is exceptional. Chewy on the outside, perfectly cut and served with salted butter. Some of the best in San Diego, don’t know if they bake in house, but trust me, you WILL love it!
For appetizers, my wife had the French Onion soup ($ 8.95), which she said was excellent. I had the charcuterie plate (prosciutto, pâté and salami)($ 13.50) with cornichons and Dijon mustard, served with a lightly dressed side of greens. Have had it once before, and it may be one of the true perfect appetizers, size wise and taste. Everything is balanced and tastes delicious, but you are still ready for dinner afterwards, which is the whole idea, right?
For our entrees, she had the short ribs ($ 25.50) and I had the tenderloin with candied shallots and cabernet Sauce ($ 28.50). She ate all of her short ribs, which is always a good sign! My filet was cooked perfectly and tasted yummy. Both dishes came with mashed potatoes and fresh vegetables (carrots, peppers, green beans, peas, onions… hers added brussels sprouts). The vegetables are notable because they were seasoned wonderfully and had that crisp «snap» that all sauteed vegetables should have but is frequently missing, even at five star restaurants. I had a glass of the house Cabernet with dinner.
For dessert, she had the chocolate bombe ($ 6.50) which is dark chocolate mousse and marinated cherries with crème brulée and has a crispy hazelnut bottom. I had the bananas Foster cheesecake ($ 7.50) which needed more brown sugar and butter to make it perfect. Only ate about ½. It was good, not great.
Overall, this little gem of a restaurant continues to shine and please us greatly. Hopefully more folks will check it out and elevate the star level to what it really deserves to be!

Meant to take a picture. I had the eggs Benedict with Canadian bacon. It is the best I have had so far in San Diego. The hollandaise was perfect consistency and richness to really give this meal the finishing touch. I would have like a few more hash browns, but honestly, do I need more potatoes

If it weren’t for the chef cooking us a good dinner, this would have been a one-​star rating for me.
My friend and I have been here many times and this was our first experience with a horrible server (#35). It’s a Monday night and there was only one other table with customers who were already eating. After we were seated, it was pure agony with this server. It seemed as if she could only do one thing at a time and then had to disappear forever. She gave us water and then it was something like 15 minutes before she returned to get our order. Since my friend had been there many times over the years, she asked about the prix fixe menu that they have. This server first said she didn’t know what she was talking about. My friend repeated herself and then the server said, «Oh, you have to be on our mailing list to get that. YOU have to tell me what’s on it from an email that’s sent out everyday». She said it was a VIP thing and her manager told her that she couldn’t tell us about the prix fixe menu. WE have to tell her what’s on it and what we want to order. We’d never heard of such a thing! Since we knew there was a prix fixe menu, wouldn’t it have been better customer service to let us know what was on it and give us the option of ordering it rather than play these little secret games? All she managed to do was frustrate customers who’d patronized this place many times over the years.
We had to ask her for bread and her response was, «it’s in the oven». How long does it take to toast bread and give it to the diners without being asked? Then she dropped off our bread and we had to ask for bread plates!
When we ordered, I asked her what kind of sauce was on the sea bass. She said it was «tomato base». I asked if there was cream and she said «no», but when my order arrived, it was a white sauce with just a little bit of chopped tomatoes in the sauce.
After our entrée, she brought us the dessert menu. Again, after many minutes she returned and we asked about the profiteroles. She said, «Oh we don’t have those or the Lemon Tart». She said that the profiteroles are baked every day and when they’re gone, they’re gone. We asked, «So, were some baked today»? She said, «No. He only bakes them every couple of days». What? She just told us they were baked every day! When she dropped off the dessert menu, why didn’t she tell us which items they were out of that night?
Such a frustrating dinner service! With only 3 tables filled from 6:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m., you’d think she could have attended to a total of 7 diners without a problem, but she didn’t.
Won’t be returning here any time soon, if ever.

We’ve just been here for the first time. The ambience is a little bit dated perhaps, but the tables were nicely layed with white linen cloths and everything looked clean. We were really positively impressed with the food though. Everything was really good!
My wife was impressed with the crab cake because it was NOT soaked with oil (as it is the case so very often), but crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. You could see and feel the texture of the crab meat, and not just some mushy paste. I had the calf liver with roasted onions and it was really good as well. We shared the chocolate bombe for dessert, and it was delicious as well.

French onion soup was savory with hint of rosemary, salad was fresh and well dressed. And the steak was perfectly cooked to medium and very tender! But the weekend lunch selection for french food was pretty slim. I felt like I was dining in california restaurant not French.

We had dinner here around 8:00 PM on a Friday night and it was pretty easy to get a table. There was probably only 3 other occupied tables at the time.
We started off with an order of crab cake to start with. It was well prepared with a crispy outside and a soft inside of crab meat as opposed to mushy crab like paste.
For the entrée I had the halibut special. The fish itself was excellently cooked. It was very tender, moist and flakely. However, the orange colored sauce which dressed it was much too salty and overpowered the entire dish.
The service wasn’t bad but for the amount you pay for dinner I would expect a little higher quality service. For example the server didn’t refill water unless I asked (twice). Also, they didn’t help box up leftovers for you.
Overall the menu has a lot of good items which I’d come back for to try.

So everything we ate was delicious. The waiter was very friendly and knew his stuff. He was very honest about the wine list and offered a by the glass on the bottle list if I ordered 2 glasses. I guess this place had issues, but no longer seems to have them. I would recommend it and will be back. For what it’s worth, the sweetbreads are divine and loved the duck pâté. I almost ordered another round and there was two of us.

Went here for restaurant week. The lobster bisque soup was extremely watery with no flavor. The short ribs were mediocre and the top sirloin was hard as a rock. The crêpe dessert tasted as if it was grilled in the same area as the meats. For a French restaurant they have VERY little French wine selections — mostly all glass options are California, Argentina and Chile. No option for a first growth French Bordeaux and barely any from Burgundy.

We arrived at 6:30 on Wed. Only patrons here on 4÷29÷15. Waiter was pleasant. We elected to sit on the patio. We got an order or bread. Very dry bread and hard. We sat outside. Very pleasant evening. We did not ask for better bread.
The Music that was playing was quiet and pleasant.
Waiter took our order. I had the steak, medium rare. My wife had the scallops. It took 33 minutes for the food to arrive. While we waited two sets of other customers came in.
The food was great. My steak had a nice crust and the center was cooked to perfection. The vegetables were also cooked beautifully. My wife’s scallops were also very good. She enjoyed her meal greatly.
Not sure why table bread is so hard to get right. I was expecting for the rest of the meal to be served with the same carelessness as the bread, but I was happily surprised. I would definitely give 5 stars for it not the bread and maybe a tad too long for the 33 minute wait since we were the first customers there.
Go and enjoy.

I had a wonderful lunch there today. The salmon was flavorful and the vegetables perfectly cooked. The service was kind and efficient. I would come back again.

Went to lunch around 2pm. We didn’t have beverages and just asked for water. That took about 10 minutes even when I asked a second waiter to bring me water. The restaurant couldn’t have had more than 4 – 5 tables that had people seated so they were not busy. I had French onion soup and hubby had crab cakes. My soup was warm not hot and I was insulted that they charged me $ 3.50 for a basket of bread to go with my soup. My husband had to send his crab cakes back because they smelled very bad and had a fishy, nasty taste.
The place looks old, carpet is coming up (trip hazard) and looks old & dirty.
I should have listened to hubby when he asked to go to In & Out for lunch.

Had dinner with a group of friend last night (11 of us total). We had a few appetizers and a couple of bottles of wine.
Place was empty throughout our dinner which was sad because we found this to be a very reasonably priced restaurant with very high quality meals.
Wine list is pretty descent but what we really enjoyed was truly the food. Well prepared and well presented. I recommend and will come back again.

Well sometimes a Resturant can crash & burn & other times it can make your taste buds dance and make you go mmmmmmmmm!
Wednesday Nov. 12 was a delight to eat there. I had the rack of lamb, medium rare, and it was melt in your mouth delicious. My friend had the braised short ribs, and they were melt in your mouth tender and delicious also. We started with some escargot, A bottle of Château du pape, and finished off the wonderful dinner with crème brûlée and a chocolate bombe.
I used a Groupon which made dinner priced very reasonable. However I would definitely go back and pay full price to enjoy dinner here again.
Elliot is the new chef there, he has been there for about four months. We talked to Elliot as the restaurant was very quiet at 5 o’clock when we went for dinner. Elliott was very enjoyable to talk with about the food, the wine, and his background. He has been a chef in London and in New York, and has been a chef for over 27 years. He is very dedicated in making sure his guest enjoy their food. He even said if there was something special we wanted to call ahead and he would make it for us. In talking with Elliot you could see he is very passionate about his meals that he creates.
Our waiter, I’m going to call him Ed because I don’t remember how to spell his name, has been there at French market for about eight months. He is from France and has a delightful accent. He was very attentive in his service and making sure everything was just perfect.
I have read some of the previous reviews and it seems as though the French market has not always been spot on. I would however recommend going and enjoying a meal here. As the evening progressed a number of other couples arrived for dinner. Sometimes a Resturant deserves another try.
Some friends of mine were here for the Valentine days desaster. :-)
I even convinced them to give it another try.
Bön appétit!