ROSENFELD RESTAURANT REVIEW: LA FERME & M.E.A.T. EATERY & TAPROOM

ROSENFELD RESTAURANT REVIEW: LA FERME  & M.E.A.T. EATERY & TAPROOM

We are bringing back the ever popular 2 for 1 restaurant blog, and have a real study in contrast with these 2 places. Let’s start with La Ferme. This is the old Bistro Gastronomie space in West Boca Raton. That was the very high end restaurant that lasted only 6 months, dashing the hopes of area residents who hoped for a high end restaurant of their own. But it was reborn as La Ferme, and the décor is exactly the same. They now have the highly acclaimed chef John Bellame, who was voted best chef in Palm Beach County when he was with Stephane’s. The prices are still high but we came with high hopes as well. The service was great, and even the managers were very kind and attentive. I started with the French Onion soup, which was good. I then had the duck, which came with a confit leg and breast. The leg was awesome but the breast wasn’t great. I told the manager this (since they stopped by to ask) and they agreed with me. That led to some free deserts. My wife had the scallops, which were grilled and on top of some tasty green vegetables that I couldn’t identify. It was excellent. They had no children’s dishes, but were able to improvise and get the macaroni from the mac & cheese with just butter and all was good for my little one. That being said, it is really easy and inexpensive to have kid’s options available and they should certainly have some given their West Boca location where there are many families. The deserts were a hazelnut chocolate cake and an apple tart. The tart was OK, and the cake was not good. It was the only chocolate cake they had, a huge mistake in my opinion. Clearly they are still ironing things out there but the food was good and we will give them another chance.

M.E.A.T. is located in an office building on Federal Highway in Boca. It is a very tiny place, but has lot of seating options in the atrium area and sort of bar like seating. They had an impressive array of tap beers and some nice big screen TV’s. My client was looking for a burger and I had heard some good things about this place which was close to his office. Not only do they make fresh burgers and their own sausage, they also have a smoker and make their own BBQ meats. I had the turkey burger and duck fat fries. The burger was great, although very small (5 oz.) and with lettuce that I didn’t want or ask for. The fries were awesome, very crispy. They make their own condiments which were good too. My client had a regular burger and cole slaw. He liked it but thought it was just OK. The question is how can these guys get enough people in here to make it? They have good food but a very strange location. Next time I will give the BBQ a try. I wish both of these restaurants the best and look forward to going back to both. As always thanks for reading and have a great day.