yay!

Every couple of weeks, we go to dinner with friends of ours and alternate the restaurant choice.  After a stinker on our part, our friends suggested Frederick’s for a special occasion, my birthday :).  We’ve heard that Frederick’s is fabulous so we were excited about their choice.  Frederick’s is touted as a Franco-Vietnamese restaurant.  Truly, it seemed much more French than Vietnamese to me, but the food was delicious just the same.  

J was woefully late due to work commitments, so we polished off a bottle of PlumbJack syrah (and opened our second) before he arrived.  Once he made his entrance, we decided on appetizers – the seafood platter and the escargot.  The platter was a beautiful array of lobster, crab meat, shrimp cocktail, smoked salmon and raw oysters topped with caviar.  The escargot smelled absolutely amazing when it was brought out  (I am told it tasted delicious as well – I am not an escargot fan) and was served in garlic butter sauce enhanced by the addition of chorizo and mushrooms.

sea bass

mm.. steak

Turns out we all have the same taste, as between the four of us we only tried two entrees.  One of our dining partners and I ordered the beef tenderloin which was served with a sort of ho-hum veggie mix and a truly delicious scalloped potato dish.  I had mine topped with crab – a very nice touch!  J and our other dining partner chose the truffle baked sea bass with artichoke hearts.  The fish seemed to be the winner of the night as I haven’t heard the end of it from J (he is currently attempting to replicate the meal as I write.)  Apologies on the picture quality, it is quite dimly lit in the restaurant and we all thought my flash was obnoxious.

crepia

We tried a total of four desserts.  Our sweet friends remembered that it was my birthday this week and had pre-ordered a slice of the chocolate pecan cake (it even had a birthday candle :)).  We also had the rum euphoria (a winner!), the apple crepia (delish with a lovely ice cream topper), and the ginger creme brûlée (sadly no one seemed to favor this one).

brûlée

Overall, Frederick’s is a nice dining experience. However, this is not your trendy, hip eatery.  The crowd definitelyskews to the 50+ age range.  Our reservation was for 7:30, J arrived at 8:20 and we left around 10:20 or so and we had closed the place down.  Seriously, we were the very last ones out by about 20 minutes.  Ten o’clock on a Friday!!!  Service is friendly, but not polished and tends to the over-eager.  The decor reminds me of my Grandma’s house … but given the patronage and their apparent loyalty to the establishment, it’s probably not necessary to update.

Our rating (average of all diners’ scores):

Frederick’s is definitely worth a visit.  We plan to try Frederick’s Bistro on NW Military which is billed as Frederick’s hipper, less pricey younger frère.

Frederick’s Restaurant
7701 Broadway, Suite 20
San Antonio, TX 78209
210-828-9050