Buvette

42 Grove St., West Village, NY

8.8

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Neighborhood
West Village

Cuisine
French

212-255-3590

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By Chris Stang
May 19, 2011

When it comes to where you should have dinner, this website has you covered like nobody else. Two years into the game and we have reviewed over 350 restaurants, all of which are categorized to help you look like a “where should we eat tonight?” expert and all around more interesting person (you’re welcome). But we have yet to focus any of our efforts on breakfast. Part of that is because we write these reviews very late at night and have little time in the mornings for much other than essential cartoons, Fruity Pebbles and pilates. But we also know that the only people who eat leisurely weekday morning meals are visiting Europeans and vaguely employed people with trust funds. That’s not exactly our crowd.

That brings us to this review of Buvette. We recently had a late dinner here and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, but were told by many that breakfast was the time to visit this small French cafe on Grove Street. I recently stopped in to dispel such a silly rumor, but was quickly put in my place by things like carrot cake spoon bread and perfect scrambled eggs that were cooked with the steam from an espresso machine. Holy sh*t was that good, and the coffee and pastries were next level as well.

This is a wonderful spot to eat in at night, and the food is honestly great at any time of day – but Buvette is at its most charming and most delicious in the morning. The restaurant looks and feels better in the daylight, and there is something unique and personal about this place that makes it special on a quiet morning. Put it on your list for dinner, but we think breakfast is worth rolling in to work late for. Or maybe you can just have a pretend job like everyone else we saw in there the other morning, kicking back and reading the paper. Jerks.

Photo Credit: Roxanne Behr/NY Mag

Food Rundown:

Spoon Bread
On our visit this was carrot bread with a sweet cream fraiche on top. So ridiculously awesome…

Steamed Eggs
Order this. We got ours with prosciutto that dude behind the bar sliced in front of us, and then piled on top of eggs…that he had just cooked with the espresso machine. Show off.

Tartine Beurre au Marmalade
Giant pieces of toast with butter and marmalade. It’s better than it probably sounds. Although I will admit that I just really like toast.

Whole Wheat Scone with Currants
A giant, delicious scone. Pretty standard, but you will like it.

Lamb Carpaccio
We had this at our dinner visit, and were thoroughly impressed. Cold slices of lamb are served with beans on some kind of goblet plate. A for taste and A+ for presentation.

Oxtail Marmalade
A nice pile of meaty oxtail on toast. We liked this, but weren’t dying to dive back in.

Beets with Horseradish
A fine beet salad that you can have with your dinner, but this didn’t blow our minds. Eat another veggie option instead.

Chocolate Mousse
An insanely good, insanely thick chocolate mousse that Buvette is quickly becoming known for. If you are here and you don’t get this, you are being downright silly.