Lavendou Bistro Provençal sent word this week asking its guests to save room for dessert. Anyone who has eaten there over the years probably didn’t need the reminder. The dessert list at Lavendou is longer than a lot of restaurants’ entire menus, and most of it hasn’t changed in years, which is exactly how the regulars like it.
Pascal Cayet has been cooking French food in Dallas since the 1980s. He came up in Paris kitchens, ran Chez Gérard for years, and has kept Lavendou going on Preston Road long enough that it has become a standing birthday and anniversary spot for a lot of North Dallas families. The room still has its blue and yellow Provençal fabrics, brick arches and dried lavender, and the kitchen still turns out the lighter cooking of southern France. CraveDFW sat down to a full dinner there a couple of years back, and the desserts were the part of the night that stuck.
Start with the soufflés, because they need a head start. Each one is baked to order, so tell your server you want one when you order your entrée, not after the plates are cleared. The menu has said as much for years, with a polite note asking guests to order their soufflé in advance.
The Soufflé au Grand Marnier is the classic, tall and wobbly, with the orange liqueur coming through as soon as the spoon breaks the top. The Soufflé au Chocolat is darker and richer and the better pick for anyone who considers dessert incomplete without chocolate. A raspberry soufflé has turned up on the menu over the years as well, and it’s worth asking about. With two or more at the table, order two different ones and pass them around before they fall.
The Crème Brûlée à la Lavande is the dessert that ties the place to its name. It’s a vanilla custard infused with lavender under a crackled sugar top. Lavender can taste like soap when a kitchen gets heavy-handed with it, so the trick is restraint, a little perfume behind the vanilla. The same flower turns up in the house apricot iced tea, if you want a second hit of it.
Then there are the tarts, which Lavendou groups under its own heading as Les Tartes du Chef. The Tarte aux Pommes is a straight-ahead French apple tart. The Tarte aux Abricots Amandine pairs apricot with almond, and the Tarte au Chocolat is built on frangipane with a little citrus zest to cut the richness. If you can’t decide, the kitchen has long offered a sampler plate of all three.
There’s also the Tarte aux Pommes du Lavendou, the house version, baked thin and served with vanilla ice cream. It’s a different animal from the classic apple tart and the one to order on a cold night.
For something smaller, the Profiterolles au Chocolat are choux puffs filled with ice cream and covered in warm chocolate sauce, about as old-school French bistro as dessert gets.
Order a coffee, or a glass of something sweet, split two or three of these, and don’t rush. Nobody at Lavendou is going to hurry you out the door.
Lavendou is at 19009 Preston Rd., Suite 200, and is open Tuesday through Saturday for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and dinner from 5 to 9:30 p.m. It’s closed Sunday and Monday. Reservations at (972) 248-1911.
