McNulty on the Casual Lunch, 'Dramatically Upscale' Dinner at Canal Street Bistro

Last summer, chef Guillermo Peters, who gained fame dishing out high end Mexican food at Taqueros in Kenner and, more recently, Taqueros/Coyoacan on St Charles Avenue, started cooking at Eco Café in Mid City. With his arrival, the restaurant rebranded as Canal Street Bistro, leading Gambit critic Ian McNulty to file on the new version of the eatery.

While "[b]reakfast and lunch are where Canal Street Bistro wears its old Eco Cafe colors," dinner is something more "dramatically upscale":

Dinner brings scallops seared to a buttery edge, their sweet flesh draped with roasted poblano sauce. Peters' reliable showstopper is a chipotle-stuffed filet mignon topped with sharp, smoky tomato sauce and mounted on an open-faced quesadilla. The menu is scaled down slightly from Taqueros/Coyoacan, both in choices and prices, though diners can end a meal with a visit from the tequila cart. This wheeled luxury is always parked in the dining room, even in the mornings when fresh juices provide a more virtuous start to the day.

But he wasn't the only one reviewing Canal Street Bistro this week. In their regular-ish "Short Order Reviews" feature, Blackened Out's Rene Louapre files on that same restaurant, as well as the new Magazine Street French bistro, C'est La Vie. Of the former, Louapre writes, "All the food screamed out for a well-placed shot of acidity or salt or both." That translates to a "par" rating. He was less impressed with C'est La Vie, however, giving it a bogey: "The entire transaction was a battle between the boring and overly flamboyant. Service was indifferent, but I am not. The bill couldn't come fast enough."

· Review: Canal Street Bistro [Gambit]
· Short Order Reviews [Blackened Out]