LCD - La Côte D'Or Café

Wonderful restaurant. Delicious food. Attentive and charming staff. Beautiful décor. Authentically French. I feel at home eating here. Like many European restaurants, you do not feel rushed. There are no sports televisions blasting in the background, it's just peaceful, intimate, and about the food. I highly recommend the Bouillabaisse, the chicken Cordon bleu, the profiteroles, and a bottle of wine.Enjoy!

Went for Valentine's 2025 dinner. Menu was price fixe at $86 for appetizer, entre, and dessert. My how this place has tanked since we first went in 2001. The appetizers were both uninspiring and bland. My wife's veal entre was inedible with a portion size to make up for the lack of quality. She had to take it home and throw it out. My beef tenderloin was better, but served with McDonalds grade french fries. Very disappointed at the cost and quality of the food. This is very likely our last visit. Caveat emptor, you have been warned.

Came for restaurant week. I was promptly seated. I had the paté to start which was salty and could have almost been canned. My server recommended a cote du rhone wine which was HOT/above average room temperature. I had to get them to chill it and yes, I know a red wine can be served at room temp (though 65 is the max recommended) and am usually fine with a room temp red wine, but this was hot.My second dish was their beef bourguignon. It came out looking dry and was even drier to eat. The gnocchi was mushy and felt more like a runny mashed potato. The sauce of the dish was amazing so I packaged the meat and gnocchi so I could use bread to eat the sauce (the waiter almost lost his hand trying to take my plate while I was getting bread to get the sauce). I had another glass of the cotes du rhone as the waiter said he had some chilling for me and then I had a glass of burgundy which I ordered early for them to serve it at an acceptable temp.I finished with the Pavlova. The pavlova itself was tasteless and like eating air. It really needed the fruits that came with it to give it flavor.I would not go out of my way to dine here again

I came here for RW this past Sunday with six friends who were all enthusiastic to try the $25 3-course, brunch menu. So why is this a 2/5? Here's the tl;dr - 1. Our reservation was at 1 PM and we all showed up within 10 minutes, but the service and food came out so slowly that we left at 3:10 PM (and no, it's not because we sat there after we got all of our food).2. Majority of the food were aggressively mediocre, at best.3. Most of us were unimpressed with our experience - even my one friend who isn't picky and eats practically anything.First thing I noticed was that a couple of us had a place mat but didn't have any utensils. Flagging a server down took awhile, but hey, at least I didn't have to eat with my bare hands. The one thing that was really good is the complementary baguette and butter (and fortunately, we were able to get multiple baskets of bread that filled our stomachs while we waited for our food). The baguette was warm, toasty and fluffy. I'll give LCD this one, and our whole table had high expectations for the meal to come because of the baguette.APPETIZER: SOUP OF THE DAY: SQUASH SOUPBesides the bread, the squash soup was creamy and filling, with lots of squash pieces. It was a nice vegetable soup and I honestly would order it again. My friends who got this also enjoyed it and we all dipped the baguette in the soup which was a great combination.ENTREE: STEAK HACHÉSo there was at least 20-30 minutes in between our appetizer and entree. Most of us ended up choosing the steak haché. If you don't know what that is, it reminded me of a ground beef patty that you'd find in a high-end burger. The steak was thick and I had high hopes for it because it was topped with parsley and seemingly a lot of seasoning. However, I found that the texture was dry and the taste was boring and lacked depth. It sat on mushroom and white wine cream sauce, which was equally bland. The meat did not soak up much of the sauce since it was quite thin and loose, yet there's not enough sauce to really scoop up. There were also a side of fries, which had the perfect texture but it was under-seasoned like everything else. Overall, it was an uninspiring entree, and most of us who ordered this would agree.DESSERT: BREAD PUDDINGSadly, they were out of the poached pear in red wine, so I chose the bread pudding instead. This took so long to come that a couple of us forgot that there were dessert to begin with. I think we had waited at least 45 minutes after getting our entree. Presentation was OK but the bread pudding was pretty bland. There were a couple pieces of nuts and some sort of dried stone fruit within, but it didn't enhance the bread pudding whatsoever. It tasted store bought and not in a good way.Overall, I was unimpressed with what I got except for the squash soup (which I still think was delicious). My friend who got the BREADED SWAI FILET enjoyed his choice except that it was pretty greasy. Another friend got the MONTE CRISTO, and it was rich and heavy, but definitely a better choice than the steak haché.In general, we left pretty disappointed, given that the food was subpar and the service was slow and unresponsive (except they did refill our baguettes a couple times!!)

I had an outstanding lunch with three colleagues here. We order the three course lunch and it was quintessential French food. It was full of flavor and rich in presentation. The service was great, and the ambiance was welcoming.

First, 5 stars for the attention to detail ability to the reservation. We wrote in the request for a high chair. It was set up and ready upon arrival. This is a big deal for us because 90% of businesses don't read the reservation requests. Lovely wine list and excellent service. Food was delicious and kids food were plentiful. Really enjoyed this place!!!

We've been to LCD a number of times and it's always been pleasant and a bit of a hidden gem in this area of Arlington, if you like traditional French food. We were a group of four for dinner. One of my friends at dinner is from Chamonix and he also enjoyed his meal. The atmosphere and decor is French country and charming. We were there for Saturday dinner and service was attentive. We had French onion soup and country pate for appetizers. For mains: bouillabaisse soup, grilled pork chop and seafood salad app made into an entree at special request. Desserts: profiteroles, floating island, apple tart and crème caramel. Everything was delicious but the French onion soup, bouillabaisse, floating island and profiteroles were big hits. Sometimes we wish the menu could be expanded a bit (so we could go back more often) but we still enjoy the standards here! Thank you for a lovely meal - our French friends enjoyed it too!

We came here for restaurant week, our son is running on a I want to try French food kick. They had two menus for the event and they were cool about trading between the two. Apps:Pate - okay seasoning could've been strongerFrench Onion Soup - Very good Cesar Salad - okay pretty standardMains:Bavette steak - (peppercorn sauce) This was a classic play on steak frites Cooked perfectly the sauce was well seasoned and overall very nicely done. This is what our 10yo ordered and he housed it all. Chicken Cordon bleu: this is what my wife ordered. Overall it was okay but it was not a good as the steak. Arguably could've had more seasoning. Rack of lamb: my choice this was also solid the mustard and herb crust was nicely balanced. The cook was perfect just slightly past the point of the fat rendering so it was just how I like it. Desserts: Chocolate mousse Apple tart ProfiterolesOf all of these, hands down the chocolate mousse was the best. Service was decent nothing over the top but they were generally pleasant and timing for food was good. Atmosphere was pleasant. We would definitely be back should we be in the area.

We had a special birthday lunch for 30 people. Chef Jacques worked with us to develop a menu with three choices for appetizer, entree and dessert. The food was delicious and was served quickly and efficiently by very competent wait staff. The lovely party room lent a festive air to the party and everyone was in a festive mood and said they had a great time. I highly recommend this restaurant for a special occasion event.

My late wife and I probably ate at LCD about 75 times over more than four decades. Not our favorite French restaurant in the area but good and quite convenient, so that we often came with friends from the neighborhood. Tonight I was eating with friends who wanted to go to LCD. The service was pretty good but not great, and much the same could be said of the food.