Papillon - Fremont

The Bay Area is full of dining choices but if you are looking for old school Continental cuisine, consider Papillon in Fremont. We dined there yesterday and went classic from start to finish: escargot, French onion soup topped with puff pastry, Beef Wellington and strawberries flambee! Note: the strawberries flambee are not on the dessert menu but can be requested (cherry is also available). The price is $35 but it is dessert and a show! You can also advance request banana flambee but you have to do that before coming to the restaurant. For wine, we had a Bordeaux that went very well. Everything was exactly as I had hoped it would be.

We went with my husband on May 7, 2022 to celebrate his birthday since he likes French cuisine. The place has nice parking and beautiful flowers outside the restaurant, we really liked it. The interior seems like a French house interior from the last century. Nice details and decorations, a bit not in my taste since I prefer more modern designs, but definitely underlining French personality of the place. We were seated at a very nice spot with red chairs, by the door to the outside part of the restaurant. Our table also had a fresh orchid flower and a candle, which is super nice and creates romantic atmosphere. Now onto the food. I decided to order 4 appetizers, while my husband had 1 appetizer and a main dish with French Onion soup on the side. We both ordered baked brie with jam it was really amazing, tender, flavorful, served at just the right temperature. I highly recommend it. French Onion soup had extremely rich and dense flavour, was nicely served and I am ready to order it again and again. I ordered salmon carpaccio, and I was a bit disappointed since it was just a plate with smoked salmon, an egg, capers, and onions. I was expecting to have raw salmon meat which carpaccio typically is. However, I may have not paid attention to the dish description maybe it said that salmon is smoked, so that is on me. After appetizers were served we unfortunately had to wait for about an hour to get the main dish and the remaining two appetizers. That's why I gave 4 stars. It seemed like there were some issues with making the main dish which was short ribs and timing everything to come together. We made that conclusion because when the dishes finally came, short rib was juicy and hot, while my appetizers were pretty cold and no longer as enjoyable. So the short rib was on the Special's menu and was tender, juicy, a bit crispy on the outside and had nice flavor to it. We shared the short rib since my appetizers mushroom ravioli and mussels were cold and pretty much inedible. We ordered desserts, and again it was a bit of a mixed experience my husband got Affogado, and I got the Papillon Cheesecake with strawberry sauce. Affogado was amazing caramel, chocolate, ice cream, and espresso flavors are combined into a wonderful mix. Our server said that people order it often. My cheesecake was a bit weird since the eggy flavor of the cheesecake did not seem to work well with the sourish strawberry jam. I acknowledge it may be only my perception of flavors though. I would go with Affogado next time. I also want to mention that because of the waiting times we spent about 2.5 hours, and because of our seating location by the door we both got extremely cold. We had a really nice server who brought us hot water and different tea options so that we wouldn't be just sitting and freezing. It was really nice of him. He also apologized when we explained that my appetizers were cold overall it left a nice impression of the service. Well, we went in the beginning of May. I bet if you come in June, you won't have any issue being cold.

Such a neat experience and so much history. This was my girlfriend's grandmothers favorite restaurant and was so fun to see what her hype was about. Butterfly decor brings out what Papillon is all about. Large cuts of steaks, fresh crab on the menu and peach bread pudding was the show stealer thick, cinnamon y and rich in flavor, its a must have!

Service was good, food was surprisingly good too. The clientele were all seniors over 60 but apparently seniors know good food! We got a crab cake appetizer. It could have been a bit more moist, but it was pretty decent. I liked my mixed green salad with walnuts, and the girlfriend really enjoyed her clam chowder. Their lobster sauce is really good, you can get prawns in lobster sauce or tiny rock shrimp. (However, it tastes really good because it just straight up has a lot of butter in it . My rock shrimp came with a nice, cheesy risotto The girlfriend got shrimp scampi with angel hair. It's not that oily mess you get at a chain restaurant, it's a lovely garlicky sauce with something green (pesto? cilantro? blended into it. I mentioned in passing that it was our anniversary and they threw in free dessert! It was cheesecake, very rich, really good

We went to remember a lost relative. One of her favorite places on her birthday. And without disappointment again. Out of the park.