n'est ce pas

Saturday before Satoshi's German class, we headed to Umeda for lunch.

There were a couple of restaurants near Nishi Umeda that looked interesting to try.

One in particular was N'est Ce Pas (literally "isn't it so?" in French)

The restaurant has been in business for over 50 years and it is a cozy little place.

The owner has a love for France and there are all sorts of pictures and figurines of the Eiffel Tower.

I think he also loves musicals because there were many autographed show posters covering the walls.

Though there are tons of choices on the menu, his two specialties are colopet and a la mode boeuf.

Colopet is a registered trademark name and was thought up by the owner, I am not sure what combination of words it includes but a colopet is similar to what the Japanese call a cream croquette. The chef uses evaporated milk to make his white sauce which is part of the filling of the colopet.

Satoshi ordered the colopet lunch 1260 yen (about US$12.60). This came with two colopets of your choice (we chose shrimp and camembert), a salad, hot or cold soup (Satoshi chose hot = consomme) and white or brown rice (he chose white).

These colopet were deep fried but tastewise were very light. The shrimp colopet is served with a lemon slice while the others do not come with anything. We were told the others were to be enjoyed "as is".

We liked both. I especially thought the oozy camembert cheese was a good choice.

I chose the a la mode boeuf which is a beef stew made with demi-glace sauce (this dish's name also has a registered trademark)...1525 yen (about US$15.25) The demi-glace is homemade and apparently the whole dish takes 2 days to make. This comes with a salad, hot or cold soup (I chose cold = vichyssoise) and white or brown rice (I chose brown).

You know this dish is going to be good when it comes straight from the oven bubbling over with goodness.

The meat was tender and there were also some potatoes.

And what would a dish with lots of gravy/sauce be without being able to pour some of this rich demi-glace onto your rice? (We loved this part)

We'll be back.

N'est Ce Pas (UPDATE: 2016 this location has closed)
2-4-41 Umeda, Sakurabashi Kitahachi 1F
Kita, Osaka
Phone: 06.6345.7089
Open Monday-Saturday 11:00-15:00, 17:30-22:00
Sundays call for hours
*they also have a shop in Tokyo and another in the Osaka Dai-San Building