Voilà! French Bistro Almost Perfect

McKinneyNews.net Staff Report
Saturday, Sept 15th 2:17pm
 
imagine a small, unpretentious restaurant nestled in the rolling hills of France. The bistro in your dream features a delightful outdoor dining area surrounded by verdant vegetation, a sprawling, freshly mowed lawn, and a tranquil, trickling fountain.

A warm breeze plays with your hair in the shade of one of the many sun umbrellas guarding your fair skin. You feel alive, glad to add this glorious day to the collage of experiences that have informed your life. You breathe in the fresh country air and order a salade nioise with a baguette (you get both for $5.49). Your companion orders a turkey sandwich on ciabatta (Italian flat bread) for $6.49. The food is delicious. The conversation is delicious. For a moment, all is right with the world.

OK. Back to reality and back to Texas (darn).

This time, imagine you’re sitting at a French bistro immediately off McDermott Dr. in Allen. Take away the rolling hills, the verdant vegetation, the lawn and the fountain. Keep the companion, the delicious food, the great conversation, the umbrellas and the sweet, warm breeze. Add a strip mall, concrete, and a noisy, highly traveled thoroughfare and (regrettably) shave off a bit of the tranquility.

Voila! · 1201 W. McDermott · Allen, TX · (972) 747-1272

©2007, McKinneyNews.net

Voilà!, a French bistro only minutes from McKinney, isn’t the perfect French dream, but it’s doing what it can to get close.
Two times this week, Chow Hound ventured to the small bistro sitting, you guessed it, right off McDermott Dr. in Allen. It was fantastic.
Let’s cut to the chase, shall we?
A French restaurant is only as good as its bread. We’re not talking Wonder or Sara Lee. No. No. No. No. We’re talking the hearty, homemade stuff the French are famous for.

On two visits to the joint, Chow Hound ordered a couple sandwiches and a couple salads – all were great.
The star of any good sandwich (and salad) show is always the bread.
Think about it. Which would you rather have? A collection of meats and vegetables and spreads trapped inside two slices of decidedly boring mass-produced, chemical-laden bread made in some factory in God-knows-where, or a sandwich featuring a crispy, yet incredibly soft homemade baguette?

©2007, McKinneyNews.net

Chow Hound would take the latter any day.
This is how Voila! works:
You go in and place your order at the counter. Voila! offers several sandwich possibilities including a chicken Caesar sandwich on ciabatta bread ($6.49), a grilled honey ham sandwich on a pain au lait bun ($6.39) , a tomato mozzarella sandwich on a mini baguette ($6.49), etc.
The sandwiches are made directly in front of your face.
For those wishing to think and eat a bit outside the bun, as it were, Voila! offers a “design your own” sandwich option. As the name implies, you get to pick from a considerable list of breads, meats, cheeses, spreads, etc.

One of CH’s sandwiches consisted of ciabatta, turkey, sundried spread, lettuce, red peppers, provolone cheese, and tomatoes. Everything was fresh and the portions were generous.

For salad lovers, Voila! offers several salads. Like the sandwiches, the salads are mixed in front of your face in a large bowl. Voila’s! “signature salads” include Caesar, chicken kebab, Mediterranean and, of course, the salade nicoise (spring mix, tuna, tomato, eggs, cucumber, Kalamata olives, green bell pepper, red onions).

Chow Hounds salade nicoise was fresh and featured a stunningly distinct and delicious homemade French vinaigrette dressing. Nice.

©2007, McKinneyNews.net

Finally, a word or two about dessert.
Voila! offers a plethora of homemade pastries. CH “sampled” (cough) the almond croissant ($2.29), a buttery and tender croissant stuffed with a flavorful almond paste, and the pain au chocolat ($1.99), a French pastry consisting of a cuboid-shaped piece of puff pastry containing two strips of chocolate.

Dessert addicts beware: BOTH WERE INSANELY DELICIOUS!!!!!!

As the beginning of this review implies, all is not perfect in the world of Voila! Unfortunately, the joint isn’t able, due to the constraints associated with its location, to impart the perfect dining (i.e., tranquil) experience – and it’s a true shame. A joint this delicious should be accompanied by the perfect atmosphere (read paragraphs one and two again).

But alas, life is about making do with what you got or get. If you don’t have the dough to make a trip to an obscure French village to live the perfect French bistro dream, do yourself a favor and make a trip to Allen. When you get there, order your food, sit outside, close your eyes (and ears) and dream.
Maybe, just maybe…

The verdict? 4.25 Milk Bones out of 5.