The floors are checkered linoleum. Inexplicably, a tree-size houseplant sits on the countertop, a little flag from Larzul’s native Brittany poking out.
But you’re not here to be wowed by the decor. You’re here for the nights when you hit the dining matrix: 1) You’re craving home cooking but don’t want to cook it yourself, 2) you don’t want to pay a lot for it, and 3) you’re sick of Souvla.
The food is the kind a French grandma might serve up on a Monday. Appetizers include mussels — served in white wine and garlic or with chorizo and a tomato cream sauce — escargot, tuna carpaccio, crispy calamari, lump crab cakes, soups and salads. For a main, you can choose from several types of fish — perhaps salmon, snapper or trout — that’s grilled, sauteed, poached or blackened (fittingly, an ’80s culinary trend that is no longer trendy). Add a sauce, such as garlic and parsley butter; tomatoes, capers and olives; green peppercorn with a red-wine reduction; béarnaise; or beurre blanc. Each preparation comes with roasted vegetables and perfectly cooked rice, every grain intact.