Petit Trois
A Mark Wiens Moment
Watching food vlogger, Mark Wiens, taste food has to be one of the most enjoyable things you can do on the internet right now. This man simply makes food look SOOO good!
I used to think that his reaction was so fake. Like, how could food contort his face into such a drastic and immediate expression. Well, since finding Mark on the internet, I have had a few such run-ins with food so good that I have to make that “O” shape with my mouth: the marinated shiitake mushroom at Sushi Go 55, pindang during my trip to Indonesia, scallop nigiri at Tsukiji Market, and a traditional Japanese dinner cooked by a 70 y.o grandma in Yunomine Onsen. These are bites so good that it feels criminal to continue eating, and the only thing our mouths can do is freeze up and let the explosion of flavor make love with our tongues.
I experienced one such flavor explosion during my visit to Petit Trois.
Steph and I ventured to Petit Trois for a belated Valentine’s Day Date. We were a bit busy this year, and since V-Day was on a Wednesday, we decided to do something nice on the weekend on our Date Day instead.
As I scoured the web for where to take Steph to celebrate our relationship, I came across Petit Trois. The establishment is quite hyped, and I’ve heard about it before with its big brother, Trois Mec. But in my mind, I basically equated Trois to $$$$…Now your boy’s a college student and can’t really shell out the money on a whim, but Valentine’s Day only comes around once a year, so I thought, “Hey, why not?”
The night before, I watched an Anthony Bourdain video and heard him talk about the strip mall and how much of a staple it is in the LA food scene. He discussed Petit Trois and Trois Mec, which sit beside each other, hidden behind a construction pit, in one such strip mall. Nested next to the “Best” cleaners and a Yum Yum Doughnuts, Petit Tois looks like nothing more than a part of the typical neighborhood backdrop to the unsuspecting eye. Even with Bourdain’s forward, it was quite peculiar to step up to a restaurant you expect to have mind-boggling food and see it casually sitting in such a location.
Intimate is how I would describe the bistro’s ambiance. This is an open kitchen out of necessity. Three chefs bustled away on dishes for 12 or so people in a space that looked about the size of my own, college apartment kitchen. The kitchen took about half the room’s space, leaving only kitchen-side stool seating and a bar-style seating gallery on the opposite side. Prior to arrival, I was nervous. I’d never spent this much money on food. What if it wasn’t good. What if it was too pretentious for me? Steph and I looked at the menu, unsure how to approach our first French meal ever. Our waitress came around, and I sheepishly asked what a “croque” was. To my surprise, she explained the dish casually in layman’s terms, catching us up to speed with the restaurant and making sure we understood exactly what was on the menu. My anxiety-inducing fear of pretentiousness was alleviated, and I was ready for my Petit Trois experience.
Upon the waitress’s recommendations, we ordered 3 dishes: the french onion soup, the confit-fried chicken leg, and the omelette.
Let’s just start with the star. Literally one of the best bites I’ve ever had. The confit-fried chicken leg.
The first thing you see on this dish isn’t the chicken but the frisée salad on top. It may just looks like a typical spring mix you buy at Trader Joe’s or get as a side dish at an AYCE KBBQ, but this mixture of endives and other green things breathed life into this dish. The combination of the greens’ natural flavors and the zesty vinaigrette that coated each leaf gave the dish a brightness and lightness that was simply incredible. The salad’s flavor profile was so complex from beginning to end, and — Steph may kill me for saying this — it may have just been the star of this dish!
But of course we can’t forget about the fried chicken. The fried batter was a skin-thin crust accompanied with a crumble-like layer of fried goodness on top. This allowed the chicken to shine through instead of being buried under a thick layer of batter. The combination of the light, fried-chicken and the crisp frisée married into an explosion of flavor. First, you get the bright tanginess of the salad. As you bight though the crunch of the greens, your tongue transitions from the punch of the salad to a juicy, full-bodied bite of dark chicken meat. And as the juices of the chicken ooze off the sides of your tongue, you bite into a salty, crispy batter crumble.
Ah. Perfection.
Before the fried chicken, we had the french onion soup. Boy, this thing is quite a hefty appetizer. A hardy soup buried under a mountain of cheese, Steph and I were practically full after the first round of food. The soup lets the sweetness of the onion shine through, and it is nicely balanced. Very unlike the much too salty versions I have sampled in cafeterias growing up. The best part of the dish, however, was definitely the layer of cheese on top. I have bad memories with gruyére (just ask my brother Ben about this), but the cheese brought the perfect amount of salty cheesiness to the sweet/rich soup. I especially enjoyed the cheese that had crusted over the edge of the bowl, creating a chip-like cheese snack I couldn’t get enough of.
As for the omelette, it is probably the most “basic” thing to get at this fine establishment. In all the reviews I read about this place, the omelette seemed to be a surefire pick. I feared that Petit Trois would be a foofoo type of restaurant because of dishes like this (I actually expected to leave hungry and have to go get street tacos to fill up afterwards). Well, if the heftiness of the french onion soup was any indication, I should have been prepared for the richness of the omelette. The omelette was beautiful, with a perfectly consistent pale yellow cook, filled with a pillow of two types of creamy cheese. What I expected to be a light, brunch-like dish was actually hardy, rich, and decadent. The cheese was just as smooth as the egg, and flakes of pepper were peppered throughout the omelette, providing surprises of spice on every bite. The side salad was lovely. Featuring large pieces of green butter lettuce, it provided just the right amount of crunch to compliment the egg and serve as a pallet cleanser between bites of the rich egg. And just like the confit-fried chicken leg, this dish was perfectly balanced, richness of the eggs complimented by a tangy/light salad. Every bite just felt right.
Petit Trois was a great step into the decadence of French cuisine. Steph and I both hope to be back here as soon as possible. Steph actually dreamed about that confit-fried chicken leg for a couple of days afterwards! There are so many more dishes to try (like escargot) that we’ll have to come back real soon.
Yes, it’s expensive, but the portions are huge and the food is so perfectly crafted. Cook at home a few extra nights and save money to come to this place because the difference between this and home-cooked meals is worth the price of a visit.
Chris: 5/5
Steph: 10/10
