Baltimore City Paper - October 2006
Out to Brunch
Sunday Pleasures At Tony Neighborhood Bistro

Brunch is back. All over town, open for brunch banners are going up. Roland Park’s Petit Louis has been running a Sunday brunch for a few months now, and while the place might be packed to the rafters at its midday brunch peak, it’s only about half full of savvy patrons on a Sunday afternoon. Perhaps humidity slows down word of mouth, which isn’t such a bad thing. The dining room’s noise level is the prevailing Petit Louis complaint that travels around town--some diners find it not to be the euphonious hum of civilization but merely a din. At least for now, Sunday afternoons in the beautifully appointed rooms--cheers for stained glass, gleaming wood floors, and marble tables set with reassuring amenities such as porcelain salt cellars and cream pitchers--are relaxing and sweet.

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Baltimore City Paper
EATS Section

Petit Louis Bistro has come to effortlessly inhabit its role as a smart urban bistro. The clanging noise made by urban diners is music to the ears…

Baltimore Magazine-50 Best Restaurants February 2006
Best French Restaurant

Petit Louis restaurant is the neighborhood restaurant of our dreams: fabulous wine list, great French bistro food, lively crowds, top notch service. We always like to start with something rich, like the salad of frisée laced with lardons and bleu cheese and topped with a poached egg, or the estimable terrine de foie gras with toast points. The duck-leg confit is always satisfying, but traditionalists can opt for the fine version of steak fries, the crispy fries popping out from their paper cone. If a lighter meal is more your style, a simple but perfect omelette or croque monsieur may be just the thing. Be sure, though to save some room for the sinful, chocolatey pot de crème or the trio of homemade sorbets. Topped off with a glass of Beaumes de Venise Muscat, this is an excellent way to end an evening of neighborhood warmth with bon vivant.

EAT – City Paper’s Best of Baltimore – September 2005
Best Fancy Restaurant

For the past six years, we have used every excuse in the book to dine at Petit Louis: birthdays, anniversaries (which they do so well, even giving us complimentary glasses of sparkling wine on our last one), New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day. Whatever the occasion, the service, food, and atmosphere are topnotch without being overly stuffy. This is the place to take your out-of-town friends who don’t realize that Baltimore has more to it than gritty streets and a prefab waterfront. Located in Roland Park, which looks convincingly like the fancy neighborhoods of Northwest D.C., your folks/friends will be in awe that, yes, Baltimore has rich people too. And because the restaurant is situated in a historical Beaux-Arts building, complete with leaded glass windows, dark hardwood trim, and a gorgeous dining room, locals will be excited to not be eating in yet another cramped rowhouse with exposed brick.
Petit Louis may not be the “fanciest” of the fancy restaurants in Baltimore, but it wins out over the competition because it doesn’t have to try nearly as hard to get impressive results. It’s French without being oppressively snooty or ridiculously expensive. Don’t speak French? Don’t worry, many of the servers here don’t either, but will patiently explain each dish in enticing detail. And what dishes they are. Every meal we’ve had here couldn’t have been more perfect, melting in our mouths like butter. Add a bottle or two of the country reds from the extensive wine list, and the only bad thing about eating at Petit Louis is the dreaded “French food hangover” you get the next morning from over doing it on rich food and wine.

EAT – City Paper’s Best of Baltimore – September 2005
Best Fries

OK, so French bistro doesn’t automatically make you think fries in the strict fries and a burger sense. And Petit Louis calling them “frites” doesn’t help matters, but their fries are French, as in the real-deal French fries as only the French (and Belgian) can do them-long, thin, and crisp yet tender on the inside. Petit Louis serves them in a cornet (a large paper cone in a cast-iron stand), and the generous helping might be enough for two to share, but better order an extra just in case.

EAT – City Paper’s Dining Guide – March 2005

Classy but approachable Petit Louis is the perfect neighborhood restaurant for old-fashioned, shabby-around-the-edges Roland Park: the classic French bistro fare, while excellently prepared, offers no surprises. The menu is both sophisticated and relatively affordable, and the atmosphere cozy. In short, it’s kind of like (neighborhood resident) Anne Tyler’s Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant with escargots and tarte alsacienne a l’oignon.”

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