The Review.

An in-depth analysis of new and existing restaurants in the Vail Valley.

Review out of date - restaurant has changed names and style.

Our first look at Centre V.

On a spur of the moment, we walked over to this restaurant in the recently completed Arrabelle complex in Lionshead.  Just opened this winter and self described as a "French Brasserie", we normally would give a new operation a bit more time to work out the kinks.  As it turns out, the eatery seems to be doing just fine right out of the box.

Housed on the ground level of the hotel portion of the building the dining area is spacious, high ceilinged, and very comfortable.  There's enough wood and other sound deadening material to allow customers to hold a relatively quiet conversation - a feature that's too often not possible in many of the other more popular restaurants in town.

Table settings, stemware, and flatware were appropriate for this kind of upscale bistro facility.

The menu's interesting and quite different than what we might have expected.  For an appetizer we ordered a raclette  to share that came with the obligatory roasted potatoes, cornichons, and toast.  Sue's main course was a crock of mussels accompanied by pomme frites.   I had roasted squab with green beans and mashers.  

 Meal Highlights:  The food was all delightful.  While I was a bit uneasy about the raclette, it was delicious - probably better with the softer French bread than the toast, but nonetheless fine.  Sue's mussels were described as perfect and the frites, while maybe not up to the standard of those in our local restaurant of the same name were still very good.

I was amazed at being able to enjoy truly perfect simple green beans, and the plain mashed potatoes were equally so.  The squab may have been a bit dry, but its sauce was superb.

Simple food to be sure but completely satisfying.

Lowlights: We found little to knit pick about.  The bread course could have been served warmer - and might have been brought a bit earlier in the meal.  Background music was a bit loud and possibly out of character for the type of restaurant.  Think Edith Piaf.  

Synopsis:  Overall just a very nice experience.  We found a relatively inexpensive Pinot Gris by the glass and and a Clos de l'eglis by the bottle which were in our price range.  Getting out of any relatively high end restaurant in town now for $150 for the two of us almost seems like a miracle.

We can happily award this close-to-our-house restaurant a and we'll be sure to visit it again in the near future.

Reviewed by ORP on 04/10/2008

Back to the Review Index, The Best of Vail, or the Main Page