Noisette Restaurant & Bakery

"I have been here eight times, so I guess this must be my favorite Denver restaurant. The space is gorgeous. There's a beautiful tile floor, a decorated ceiling with elegant chandeliers, a sweeping glass wall, and soothing colors. There's a good amount of space between the tables and a small bar next to the door (no bar seating). The next room contains the bakery and a little bit of seating for it. The staff is very polished and provides excellent, friendly, and knowledgeable service. The food is superb. The concept is "cuisine bourgeoise." Noisette takes everyday home cooking from the French countryside and elevates it to fine dining. I love this idea. The execution is flawless. We started with the foie gras. The serving was generous and came with some delicious brioche toast points plus a caramelized blood orange sauce. The liver was very smooth and flavorful. We also tried the scrambled eggs ("brouillade" sounds much fancier in French, though). I've had a number of egg dishes here, including a lovely quiche. What these guys do with eggs is unworldly. This dish is a saucer of very soft scrambled eggs with truffles and a bit of chicken stock. It is certainly the best egg dish I've ever tasted. I must mention the bread service. The menu describes this as a house-made baguette, but what you really get is a plate of micro baguettes the size of dinner rolls plus a crock of delicious brown butter (called "beurre noisette" in French, hence the name of the restaurant). Heating butter until its water content evaporates and the milk solids caramelize unleashes a unique, deep, rich flavor. A small example of the trouble the kitchen takes with each dish. I tried the cassoulet on this visit, a classic country French dish that involves throwing bits of leftovers and beans together to make a stew. I received a large crock with a huge confit duck leg, a pork collar (center cut pork shoulder), and a house-made Toulouse sausage plus lots of beans, of course. Every component was delicious, but the duck was amazing with perfectly crispy skin and extremely tender, flavorful meat. Every entrée here comes with potatoes and I'm allergic to them. They whipped up some sautéed spinach for me as a substitute. I'm not a spinach fan, but this was very tasty. I also had an issue with the almond crust on the foie gras, but without any fuss they were able to do a serving without it. Terrific service without any bother. My friend tried the duck breast with wild mushrooms, a very large portion, and his daughter had the steamed king salmon, served in a lovely pool of beurre blanc. They both enjoyed their dishes. Alas, no room for dessert on this visit. The attached bakery is not to be missed. It's open Wednesday through Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and Sunday until 2:00 p.m. They make an excellent selection of French baked goods plus those amazing quiches I mentioned. They have a new selection of lucious breakfast sandwiches, only available on Saturdays so far, plus a couple of lunch sandwiches that are available every day. Noisette is a really wonderful restaurant and bakery that is at the top of their game. Well worth a visit or five."

"We decided to hit up Noisette for restaurant week for our wedding anniversary but the normal menu looked so good that we decided to not go the restaurant menu way. We decided on the fresh baguette, the scrambled eggs, sea bream, salmon and two desserts, the chocolate mousse and the deconstructed "gateau du fromage" with pear and cider. I always feel like the Hallmark of amazing food is eating something you would have great difficulty recreating at home and to this point, Noisette hit the mark. We started off with sparkling water and the baguette which I was delighted to see come in this beautiful braid, light and crusty with elevated spin on just normal butter. The scrambled eggs were not the normal texture you would expect and both hubby and I gobbled it up like heathens. The main courses did not disappoint as well. Hubby got an amazing salmon with a citrusy sauce and a cute little bowl of pureed buttery potatoes. I got a huge portion of broiled? or grilled? Sea bream with more of a sharp mushroom vinaigrette and a cute little pot of champagne fried potatoes. We ended the night with two desserts that were definitely creative. I think hubby got the better hazelnut sorbet but paired with the fruity pear deconstructed light and airy cheese cake, it really hit the spot. I think I was very surprised by the cheesecake. I hate dense cheesecake so when the waiter explained that it's deconstructed, I jumped on it. There's a bakery attached to the restaurant and the takehome pastry that they gave was perfect one chocolate croissant and another fruit black seasane based Danish that was absolutely heavenly with coffee this morning! I think we would go back if it was a different seasonal menu and really want to try more of the baked goods now!"

"I really wanted to love Noisette. It’s been on my to-try list for awhile, not only because I love French food, but also because I have loved their dishes at all the festivals and events they’ve served food at. But Noisette was… fine. Not great, but not bad. The decor is cute. A little pink for me, but fine. My husband probably wouldn’t walk in here by himself. The service is great and the chef-owners are super nice, which makes this tough. One thing I don’t like is that there’s no bar seating. My husband and I often like to walk into restaurants during happy hour and sit at the bar and chat with the bartenders. Sometimes I dine by myself (like I did here) — and then the lack of bar seating is even more uncomfortable. Only 5 cocktails on the menu — 3 of them gin based. I usually expect a little more from a cocktail menu at an upscale restaurant these days. The biggest thing for me was that the food was… fine. I admit, my opinion is definitely tinged by the lack of gluten-free alternatives. It’s always an issue with French restaurants: the apps all come with a baguette or a brioche or on a crepe or inside a pastry. Most places in Denver have done a bit better accommodating the huge number of gluten-intolerant people here (even if it’s just getting some gluten-free bread from another Colorado bakery). The gluten-free crackers they brought for the foie gras were NOT good — but I was not impressed by the $33 hard chunk of foie gras with super-tart sauce either (and I usually love foie gras) — but maybe it was the crackers. I should have gotten something else, but I think the endives were the only gluten-free option. The lobster main dish was really good — a whole lobster for $75 is ok pricing I think. I have had good lobster many places, though… so not sure I’d come back for this one? Total for just myself: 2 glasses of sparkling, foie gras app, lobster main, French-style cheesecake and espresso martini — $178."

"We decided to have a date night here after hearing about it from friends and reading about its recent Michelin mention. We made reservations beforehand and specifically asked to sit at a private table if one was available, as we don’t care for the shared bench-style or communal seating. When we arrived, we were ushered to a shared bench despite multiple open two-top tables, which was immediately off putting. We decided to order some cocktails and appetizers to start our meal, but they were sold out of bread. What sort of legit French restaurant sells out of bread for dinner? The cocktails were tasty, but too skimpy to be worth the price. The lobster vol au vent was stellar but had very little lobster in it for the relatively high price tag. For mains, we ordered the skate wing, which was unimpressive, and the pork chop, which was stellar. Unfortunately, the “confit” potatoes they’re both served with were quite poorly prepared. They tasted more like barely boiled potatoes and the lack of salt and flavor was so bad we really couldn’t believe they were being served. Our server was great - friendly and attentive. However, for the price, one would expect better food than we had this night. One would also expect that the request for a private table would be honored when the restaurant wasn’t that busy and had several open private tables. We probably won’t be back."

"This review is for brunch. First of all, I would like to say that we got perfect service from our server, Steven. He was spot on at all times during our visit, and had a great personality to match his efficiency. Cross your fingers you get him. As far as drink, they had a $5 Pilsner which made me happy. They have PLENTY of champagne and wine to choose from, but not really any made from scratch cocktails. I definitely recommend having the duck liver mousse as an app. Very tasty. The fries were decent, the garlic aioli we got them to dip in was amazing. They have a very fresh tasting salad. The dressing was stellar. For entrees, we got the galette pork sausage and a cheese omelette. Both were solid, but not mind blowing. I felt like the pork sausage was great, but a little overpriced at $24. As far as the omelette, since we were at a French place, I think we expected a little more in taste from from the cheese given the simplistic delivery of the dish. Shawn, the manager, was very nice to us after I complimented Steven's service and visited the table. If we went again for brunch, I think we would do apps and drinks in the restaurant, and maybe grab our main course at the bakery that is attached. We will definitely check out dinner at some point, as the place has a nice, elegant vibe. Great atmosphere for a date night. Definitely recommend and see you there..."