Tiny Le Penguin In Greenwich, Connecticut, Is A Model FrenchBistro

Greenwich, Connecticut, has in the current century earned a reputation for having a few very good restaurants, which draw people from beyond its Gold Coast. One of the best was for years a tiny, quite serious French restaurant named Jean-Louis on Lewis Street whose owner, Jean-Louis Gerin, retired in 2012 to teach and consult. The premises were replaced in 2013 by a bistro named Le Penguin (does anyone remember a(unrelated) long-gone restaurant in Bronxville named Le Gai Penguin?) run by Anshu Vidyarthi and Antoine Blech, who also run the excellent Asian restaurant Orientale next door, as well as Le Fat Poodle, Siren RestoBar and JuJu in Old Greenwich.

Vidyarthi has a long career in hospitality, including at some of Los Angeles’s notable restautrants like The Ivy at the Shore, as well as the opener of Le Colonial in Manhattan and L’Escale in Greenwich. Blech, too, has his bonafides with stints at Spago and L’Orangerie in L.A. and Le Bec Fin in Philadelphia, as well as Le Bilboquet, Le Comptoir and Le Colonial in New York. Clearly they know what they’re doing for all their restaurants have a faithful crowd who go from one establishment to the other.

Le Penguin is full of bonhomie (though from six till nine the crowd gets loud), with French blue accents and banquettes against a pumpkin-colored wall hung with sconces and mirrors, with well-set tables and good lighting. The women dress with a welcome casual chic. The waitstaff knows the menu and acts with dispatch (though after nine they tend to linger at the bar, ignoring the dining area).

The menu, appended with specials, is solidly French bistro in style, listed in French with English subtitles. Careful seasoning and spicing is key to the success of dishes like escargots ($17) with plenty of garlic butter and buttery puff pastry and ravioli ($17) with wild mushrooms, pea shoots, a touch of sage and parmigiano. Tender calamari cooked on the plancha griddle ($18) take on welcome flavors from a salad of arugula and cherry tomatoes. A tomato tart ($17) with puff pastry, arugula sand spicy tomato sauce should have started off with better, sweeter tomatoes.

Among the main courses, I thoroughly enjoyed the fat scallops ($40), pan seared and served with celery root puree and the smart idea of peppery, crumbled chorizo. I always order trout when I see it on a menu, and Le Penguin’s is a classic rendition à l’amandine ($ 35), roasted with plenty of brown butter that add crispness to the almonds, along with haricots verts and fingerling potatoes. The fish of the day ($46) was a nice slab of swordfish, somewhat overcooked that night. Lamb chops ($52) were a good choice, both generously proportioned, juicy and medium rare, and priced sensibly.

The desserts are all those favorites no one can turn down, from a rich chocolate mousse ($15) to tangy-sweet lemon tart ($15). A tarte Tatin ($15.50) needed more caramelization, and the floating island ($15) looked more like a floating lily pad.

The wine list by the glass and bottle is printed on one page, and I’m perfectly happy with its brevity for a good bistro, its choices and its prices— plenty by the glass at $14—though not with its lack of vintage dates.

Good French bistros are not as numerous as they should be in the Connecticut/Westchester area, so Le Penguin is one to be treasured by locals proud of its existence as well as by those driving out of the city in search of a good meal far from the Manhattan crowd.

Le Penguin

61 Lewis Street

203-717-1200

Open daily for lunch and dinner.