$$$$Price: Very Expensive • Contemporary French • Coral Gables
This is my forever favorite restaurant. Chef Pascal recently sold it & we were skeptical. The food remains great. Chef Danny follows in the steps of Chef Pascal & continues to deliver quality dishes, especially the cheese souffle & filet mignon. However, many touches were missing. The walls were stripped of the artwork & the place feels bare. There were no fresh flowers on the tables; flowers they were replaced with generic touch lamps. The amuse bouche is no longer given & they ration the bread. You receive one piece of bread per person, which although delicious, was not enough. Of course, you can ask for more, but where is the breadbasket? Chef pascal would always prepare an off-menu pasta for our son what was so divine. It was simple buttered noodles with cheese, but it was so decadent. Unfortunately, this time it was tasteless. A huge draw of this restaurants were always the souffles. Now, the only souffle available is the Grand Marnier; chocolate & pistachio souffles are longer offered). Lastly, Pascal would always send petits fours gifted with dessert. Those are gone, too. These might seem like small details, but they were what made Pascal's on Ponce extraordinary. The food continues to be good & the service was fantastic, but the essence has changed. I hope the new owner realizes that these were the touches that drew faithful clients to Pascal's for years. Overall, excellent dining experience with delicious food & good service. We will continue to go but hope some of those fancy touches return because it made the place more special.
