Purely Continental
Delightful L’Olivier stays true to owners’ French roots
L’Olivier, at Alameda and Galisteo in Santa Fe, is resolutely French. It’s owned by a French couple with French restaurant training. Despite lip service to Southwestern flavors on its website, the menu is French, too: foie gras du jour, no less. Braised beef, roast pork, European-style tarts and airy ile flottante, or floating island, for dessert.
You won’t find green chile except in the mashed potatoes, and the only other Southwestern touches we detected were pasilla chiles mentioned in the sauce for the duck breast and the chile sauce for the calamari, a sauce that could pass for Asian.
Purist, then, and no doubt the better for it. Fusion is good so far as it goes, but sometimes it’s a relief to find a menu unapologetically featuring not-from-here classics.
We started our meal with the obligatory calamari ($13.50) for That Person. It was all it was expected to be. I opted for the tuna tartare ($16.50) and thoroughly enjoyed it. A nicely sized scoop of raw tuna, chopped in small chunks, arrived with a caper garnish, lemon and olive oil, a little avocado and a side of crispy potato wafers — potatoes gaufrettes. I resisted sharing, though there was surely enough.
For an entree, my guest chose the short ribs ($29), a pot roast-style meal that she loved. Who wouldn’t? The beefy ribs were fall-apart tender and served with some of the shallots that accompanied their roasting, as well as freshly cooked green beans and those green chile mashed potatoes.
I chose L’Olivier’s elk tenderloin ($36), which was likewise excellent. It was grilled, medium rare, as ordered, and was very tender. Farm-raised elk, no doubt, with the barest hint of gamey taste to distinguish from beef. The underpinning of red wine and anis sauce, accompanying the poached pear served alongside, was a tad sweet for my taste, and if I’d made this dish at home, I wouldn’t have paired it with mashed sweet potatoes, as L’Olivier does. The same goes for the sauce grand veneur — a riff on the red wine and black pepper sauce poivrade that is one of my favorites, but sweetened with currant jelly. These sweet notes might work with wild elk, but with farm-raised, I found them less satisfying — if totally in keeping with classic European presentations.
For dessert, we were tempted by the tart of the day ($10), a very French combination of shatteringly crisp mille feuille pastry topped with sliced winter pears in a caramel sauce. It was quite good, but it was eclipsed by the ile flottante ($9). Two puffs of very soft meringue floated on a pond of vanilla crème anglaise surrounded by fresh berries. Very light, very restrained, very classical and delicious.
The service at L’Olivier is very good, and we enjoyed the unpretentious and airy atmosphere. If you’re looking for classically French food in Santa Fe, this should be on your list.