Petit Louis, Baltimore, Maryland

Whenever I travel, I seek out restaurants with these characteristics: It preferably serves French food; the food is simple with good ingredients; the prices are right; and the wine list is interesting.

Fortunately, Baltimore has a good restaurant that has all of these criteria, and I had lunch there today. They offer a fixed price lunch for $20, and that includes three courses, iced tea, or coffee. Usually they offer soup or salad to start with. The salad is a mesclun green salad with reggiano cheese and a red wine vinaigrette. The soup is always delicious -- I remember once having a marvellous artichoke and reggiano cheese soup to start. The main courses include a croque monsieur with frites (the best in town), a grilled chicken salad, pan seared salmon over a baby spinach salad, a shrimp and zucchini, smoked salmon, or a cheese plate. Desserts change, but I have had excellent chocolate mousse at this restaurant.

Today, I had the smoked salmon. I love the way they grill it -- it's never over done, but always juicy with the meat still translucent. The baby spinach was fresh and crunchy with a great vinaigrette dressing to complement it.

As you might expect, dinner prices are a bit higher and include everything you would expect at a typical French bistro, including Moules a la Provencale ($9.00), Onion Soup ($7.00), Escargots ($10.00), and Baked Oysters (11.00). I have had all of these starters at one time or another and liked them all.

Main courses include Steak au Poivre ($19.00), Grilled Salmon ($19.00), and Confit de Canard ($17.00). But my absolute favorite dish at Petit Louis is their Cassoulet, which unfortunately is not always on the menu.

The wine list is interesting. It includes mostly French wines from all over the country -- Loire, Alsace, Cahors, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhone, etc. Prices are reasonable. For example, you can get a Domaine Pichot Vouvray for $26.00. They also have more expensive wines, such as Krug champagne ($215.00) and big names like Chateau Pavie, 2000, which goes for $470.00!

Petit Louis is a very nice restaurant. I just wish people wouldn't pronounce that final "t," which make Petit Louis sound like a girl! I think perhaps this is my favorite place to eat in Baltimore.