Noisette Restaurant & Bakery

We came here for Easter. We haven't been in this space since it was There. It's beautiful; bright and open. We loved everything.We started with the baguette and butter. Super delicious as that housemade jam was life-changing.The wine/drink list is also fantastic, as we ordered several beverages.Two of us had the vol-au-vent de homard and the third had the cuisse de canard confit.Unfortunately, the cook on the lobster was uneven, with some pieces being overcooked and some being perfect. Nevertheless, we cleaned our plates.The duck confit was amazing and also completely devoured.We got a slice of crepe cake which was so beautiful and delicious.Unfortunately, we were all still hungry after! I seriously cannot tell you the last time I wasn't satisfied after a good meal, regardless of size. It was almost as if the main courses were more on the appetizer side of sizing.The bakery side has Parisian sandwiches, aka jambon sandwich, on which, incidentally, I could happily live. We'll definitely need to go back. Maybe eat before hand...

Yelp says I've been here eight times, so I guess this must be my favorite Denver restaurant. The space is gorgeous. There's a beautiful tile floor, a decorated ceiling with elegant chandeliers, a sweeping glass wall, and soothing colors. There's a good amount of space between the tables and a small bar next to the door (no bar seating). The next room contains the bakery and a little bit of seating for it.The staff is very polished and provides excellent, friendly, and knowledgeable service. The food is superb. The concept is "cuisine bourgeoise." Noisette takes everyday home cooking from the French countryside and elevates it to fine dining. I love this idea. The execution is flawless.We started with the foie gras. The serving was generous and came with some delicious brioche toast points plus a caramelized blood orange sauce. The liver was very smooth and flavorful.We also tried the scrambled eggs ("brouillade" sounds much fancier in French, though). I've had a number of egg dishes here, including a lovely quiche. What these guys do with eggs is unworldly. This dish is a saucer of very soft scrambled eggs with truffles and a bit of chicken stock. It is certainly the best egg dish I've ever tasted.I must mention the bread service. The menu describes this as a house-made baguette, but what you really get is a plate of micro baguettes the size of dinner rolls plus a crock of delicious brown butter (called "beurre noisette" in French, hence the name of the restaurant). Heating butter until its water content evaporates and the milk solids caramelize unleashes a unique, deep, rich flavor. A small example of the trouble the kitchen takes with each dish.I tried the cassoulet on this visit, a classic country French dish that involves throwing bits of leftovers and beans together to make a stew. I received a large crock with a huge confit duck leg, a pork collar (center cut pork shoulder), and a house-made Toulouse sausage plus lots of beans, of course. Every component was delicious, but the duck was amazing with perfectly crispy skin and extremely tender, flavorful meat.Every entrée here comes with potatoes and I'm allergic to them. They whipped up some sautéed spinach for me as a substitute. I'm not a spinach fan, but this was very tasty. I also had an issue with the almond crust on the foie gras, but without any fuss they were able to do a serving without it. Terrific service without any bother.My friend tried the duck breast with wild mushrooms, a very large portion, and his daughter had the steamed king salmon, served in a lovely pool of beurre blanc. They both enjoyed their dishes.Alas, no room for dessert on this visit.The attached bakery is not to be missed. It's open Wednesday through Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and Sunday until 2:00 p.m. They make an excellent selection of French baked goods plus those amazing quiches I mentioned. They have a new selection of lucious breakfast sandwiches, only available on Saturdays so far, plus a couple of lunch sandwiches that are available every day.Noisette is a really wonderful restaurant and bakery that is at the top of their game. Well worth a visit or five.

I really wanted to love Noisette. It's been on my to-try list for awhile, not only because I love French food, but also because I have loved their dishes at all the festivals and events they've served food at. But Noisette was... fine. Not great, but not bad.The decor is cute. A little pink for me, but fine. My husband probably wouldn't walk in here by himself. The service is great and the chef-owners are super nice, which makes this tough.One thing I don't like is that there's no bar seating. My husband and I often like to walk into restaurants during happy hour and sit at the bar and chat with the bartenders. Sometimes I dine by myself (like I did here) -- and then the lack of bar seating is even more uncomfortable.Only 5 cocktails on the menu -- 3 of them gin based. I usually expect a little more from a cocktail menu at an upscale restaurant these days. The biggest thing for me was that the food was... fine. I admit, my opinion is definitely tinged by the lack of gluten-free alternatives. It's always an issue with French restaurants: the apps all come with a baguette or a brioche or on a crepe or inside a pastry. Most places in Denver have done a bit better accommodating the huge number of gluten-intolerant people here (even if it's just getting some gluten-free bread from another Colorado bakery). The gluten-free crackers they brought for the foie gras were NOT good -- but I was not impressed by the $33 hard chunk of foie gras with super-tart sauce either (and I usually love foie gras) -- but maybe it was the crackers. I should have gotten something else, but I think the endives were the only gluten-free option.The lobster main dish was really good -- a whole lobster for $75 is ok pricing I think. I have had good lobster many places, though... so not sure I'd come back for this one? Total for just myself: 2 glasses of sparkling, foie gras app, lobster main, French-style cheesecake and espresso martini -- $178.

The aesthetic here is so cute! It pastel, bright, and airy. Beautiful place for brunch. Our server was very attentive and kept checking back on us, especially as my party of 5 took a while to order.I ordered le sandwich, which had a very pronounced dijon flavor. The eggs were cooked to perfect, very soft and silky. The duck and pork sausage was cooked to medium temp, but did get progressively saltier the more I ate. The sandwich itself was very well put together.The bloody mary, on the other hand, was so good. It was very citrus and pickle flavor forward, which was right up my flavor palate. It was so easy to drink and not thick like other bloody marys.My party enjoyed their dishes overall. Not to mention the yummy baguette with the cultured brown butter! Would recommend this place!

Came here for Valentines Day (though, we always do the day after to avoid the crazy busy crowds), and had really high expectations. My fiancé found this spot by looking at a list of Michelin recommendations, so we knew it had to be good.To start, we got warm bread. I had high hopes since this spot is also a bakery. But the bread was honestly "just bread". It didn't have much to it and the butter needed some flaky sea salt on it in my opinion.For my main dish, I got the salmon. Again the flavor was just a bit muted and didn't wow me. What I really did like were the puréed potatoes. But I've also never met a potato I didn't like!My fiancé got the duck with with pork collar, sausage and beans. It was a very hefty serving and he said he liked it just fine, but it didn't blow his socks off.The wine we each paired with our meals was great. And the dessert was pretty good.Now, to where this place really excels: service. Our server was attentive, friendly, and even sent us home with some shortbread cookies. She said they typically send guests home with pastries from the bakery but they had just ran out. Bummer! But still super amazing of them to send us home with some goodies. When I had the shortbread cookies with tea the following day, that was actually what blew my mind. SO so buttery and not overly sugary sweet. I will for sure have to give the bakery a try.As for returning the restaurant, it's not on my immediate to-do list, or even my short term to-do list. For the price and expectations, I have other denver restaurants I love that o think are a bit more solid on the flavors. But I'll absolutely stop in to give their bakery a fair shot!

The ambiance here is so elevated! It's retro and European and all feels very modern at the same time. The variation in dress was surprising. People in suits and dresses and then others in nice shorts and polos. This was my introduction to French food so most things on the menu were new to me. We got the BETTERAVES AU CURRY and POMMES DAUPHINE À L'ANGUILLE FUMÉE to start. The first was a delivious beet salad which may be my favorite part of the entire meal. All of the components came together so well. The Pommes Dauphine was like a fish hushpuppy. Not what I expected and really enjoyed it. For main dishes I got the young chicken and my husband got the duck breast. Both so juicy and flavorful! I enjoyed the duck breast more the day of and the chicken more the day after as leftovers. The flavor profile was new to me so I had to let them sink in a bit before I could appreciate the taste. Both super heavy - if I were to do it again I would have split an entree with my date to save more room for dessert!

Stopped in for a pastry and coffee before heading off to the mountains. My reduction of stars was the barista/attendant at the bakery/coffee bar was not personable or friendly. Barely a word and it was like we were kind of a nuisance. The croissant was yummy, but the cappuccino I got tasted burnt. Unfortunately, with the great reviews I left underwhelmed. Might give it one more try someday but I'm not in a rush to go back.

Very good almond croissant at the bakery there. Not many items to choose from, I got there at 12 noon on a Friday.

Do yourself a favor. Go to Noisette on a Saturday after 9am, when their sandwich specials are being served. Order the truffle croissant.I love breakfast sandwiches - and without exaggeration, this was absolutely the best one I've ever had!

This review reflects DINNER SERVICE ONLY.If you read no further, stick to a baguette, the Vol-au Vent, a round of cocktails and main entrees/dessert elsewhere.I truly wanted this Michelin Guide restaurant (no Michelin stars awarded) to show up and bring high dining fare to Denver. I am currently of the opinion that Noisette should just be dropped from the Guide. They excel in the space/decor and concept. They fall moderately short in service and far short on culinary execution.There were two of us on a Saturday night and the dining room was ~70% capacity. It's a small space to begin with and meal is set up to be a slow enjoyment of flavors rather than a gluttony event, so the kitchen should not be challenged. We started with the Crepe aux Caviar ($52). This is a delightfully light dish that was perfectly executed in the egg set with light scallion bites. However, driving the $52 price is the kaluga caviar. The choice of kaluga is interesting, and unnecessary. Kaluga is rare but by no means is it superior. It has a creamy texture and buttery-nutty flavor that is soft to the palate. This dish already has that component in the well executed lemon crème fraiche. No, this dish actually needed to push forward the caviar component, not bury it. The result is subtle light egg with subtle light crème and subtle choice of caviar, equals the crepe version of vanilla ice cream.Next, the impressive star of the night, Vol-au Vent ($20). THIS should be the $52 offering as it is spectacular. If you have never enjoyed veal sweetbreads, this is the place and time to try. The sweetbreads are coated and pan fried into bite-size "nuggets" then nested into a perfectly buttery puff pastry. The sweet, meaty, yet light meat upon the pastry is literally placed in perfect balance with the onion soubise (think traditional simple buttery-rich béchamel built up on sautéed onion purée). The dish was perfect and could only be improved with a few short strands of caramelized onion on top.The Baguette ($9) with room-soft brown butter is a must. It is perfectly soft inside with a classic European artisan crust and those scattered bites of the raised crust "ears" we all should look forward to as a mandatory element of every baguette.The Dorade ($48) is a salt assault on the palate. Perhaps I should accept the blame here to expect a fish that is source from the Mediterranean and that has such a thick under-skin fat layer, to be perfection in Colorado. The problem here is the kitchen is using fists full of salt at multiple stages and that fatty layer that over time just imparts the "fishy" flavor that is off-putting. Presentation is also a failure as they bring the dish with skin side up. This requires your first maneuver to be flipping the whole fish and watching the flakes of fish fall to the plate. So much could be improved. First, the first bite was so salty that the rest could not be undertaken. Second, the presentation showing the skin is lovely, but impractical. The fish should be split with one side showing the skin and the other giving the diner a change to enjoy the first impressions without witnessing a deconstruction. You won't be surprised, we sent it back, with no recognition from the House that this was a one-off mistake.We replaced the overbearing salty fish with what should be a safe choice, the Onglet de Boeuf ($33). It was safe like riding a school bus and sitting in the front seat next to the driver. It still sucked to be on the bus. I recently was at a Pub and ordered a hearty sandwich. The kitchen lost the ticket and 45 min later, a rushed order was sent out from a very busy kitchen. The sandwich was composed of both loaf ends and missing key ingredients. I was served a F-ck You Sandwich. The Onglet embodies a F-ck You replacement. Unlike the overly salted fish, the Hangar steak lacked ALL seasoning. Even the ends, where the crust was best developed, lacked flavor. Even the bed of onion hollandaise that the beef sits upon was void of flavor. HOW?!? To be sure, the beef was actually cooked to perfect temperature. Sadly, the accompanying Pommes Purée (not the menu-indicated accompaniment) is the only flavor presented.Service is amateurish for a high-end restaurant. Our waiter lacked opinions. Asked for recommendations, he pointed us to the entire menu. When the poorly executed dishes were discussed, he all but admitted he had never tasted the dishes. With a final bill for two traveling north of $250, the servers should, at the very least, know which side the silverware should be set. Let's at least PRETEND we are fancy.