The Biggest Red Flag To Look Out For At A French Restaurant

The first place you'd probably think of visiting for a fancy or special dinner is probably a French restaurant. Having been shaped over centuries with a huge repertoire of recipes, it's not surprising that French cuisine is often touted as one of the best. But if it's a good time that you're after, one of the red flags that you need to look for when sitting down at any "French" restaurant is one that's seemingly very minor: some of the dishes on the menu aren't French.

Great cooking, no matter the origin, takes a great deal of time to learn and practice to master. This is especially true for quality French food, where precision and proper techniques are keys to turning out a good meal. While there's nothing inherently wrong with restaurants choosing to serve "authentic Italian pizza" together with Classic French Bouillabaisse, it's best to beware — except for a rare few, such restaurants are likely to cut corners: the ingredients might not be the freshest to manage costs across many different recipes, or the chefs wouldn't have the expertise to pull off any single dish well. Either way, the result's the same — you'll likely not have a good time dining, and an even worse time when the bill comes.

The French people (and chefs) are generally very protective of their cuisine. As a result, you'll be hard-pressed to find a French restaurant worth its salt serving anything that isn't 100% de la France. However, there are a couple of exceptions to this rule. When you come to restaurants that advertise themselves as serving fusion dishes like, for instance, French-Mexican, you'll definitely notice a few Latin twists in the menu (as well as combos like a duck confit taco, or a coq au vin enchilada).

For the eagle-eyed diner, you might occasionally find dishes that don't sound like they're French on some restaurants' menus. Take Flammkuchen as an example. While German-sounding, this dish, known in France as the tarte flambée originated from Alsace, a German-speaking region of France. This dual heritage gave other names to the dish that sometimes would appear on an Alsatian-French restaurant's menu. There are many other cases of fusion dishes in French cuisine, so don't feel alarmed whenever you find a dish that doesn't seem very French. Ask the server or make a quick search online to find its origin, if it gives you peace of mind!

Picking a French restaurant is hard, a good one even harder. But if you take notice of this teeny red flag, you'll for sure increase your odds of getting a dining experience worth every penny you spend.