January 2025

We’ve been looking forward to eating here for several months since Feenie took over the slightly renamed legend. Mourners for many years the loss of Feenie’s Lumiere, we had high expectations for this emergence of the chef from his eclipse as consultant for Cactus Club. Has haute cuisine finally returned to our otherwise bereft hometown? Well, yes, for sure. But we think the new Le Crocodile is still a work in progress.

It’s certainly now – if not the very best – one of the nicest rooms in town. And there is a comforting as opposed to chilly and formal new feel with some added curved woodwork. A bit more intimacy. Linen tables, European-style chairs, cutlery and glassware top-notch, everything redone in understated comfort and the staff are all seasoned professionals. Relaxed pretty ladies welcome us and take us straight to a table by the window. We were expecting guests but somehow they managed not to have it on their calendar so it was just the two of us which was just fine.

We shared a beef tartare entrée which was a ten centimeter circle of finely ground wagyu with a gentle Dijon-based sauce alongside. We spread this on top and it was slightly piquant, soft, and delicious.

Robin’s main was a grilled veal medallion with morel sauce. Tender with veal and mushroom flavours easily separate beside an al dente wide noodle. Mine was the beef shortrib sandwich accompanied by lightly dressed lettuce and french fries. The sandwich was fabulously succulent with the lower slice of sourdough saturated with mustard mayo and melting Swiss cheese. A warm wet towel was set beside on a little plate kindly preparing me for some messiness as I chose to eat the sandwich by hand. Feenie’s cookbook shortrib recipe is strong on fortified wine which I thought I could taste in the meat.

The fries were the only disappointment in this lunch, soft instead of crispy and not as hot as they could have been.

We washed it all down with a $120 bottle of Willamette Valley pinot noir that was very good but just a bit murky. The wine list is interesting and abbreviated for the kind of academic disquisition you usually get at this type of restaurant. Four syrah choices from the northern Rhone, one page of red Burgundy. Prices were not unreasonable.

Lunch with wine was just over $300 pre-tip. We’ve paid much more elsewhere for this kind of experience.

Rob Feenie came by our table doing the John Bishop routine of pretending to remember us. Our server was an attentive unassuming guy with a sense of humour, always quickly available and keeping an eye on us. The sommelier lady said she was working on the list and that they had storage problems, but certainly seemed knowledgeable when I mentioned red Burgundy prices which always gets people’s eyes rolling.

Of course we will go back. Le Crocodile is easily in a class with Elisa, Il Giardino, Bluewater Café; at least potentially a cut above. I’m expecting the food to get even better (the fries…) and we loved the light and friendly but fullon effective style of the place and the service. Rob Feenie is back!

Food 9.2 service 9.4 ambience 9.6 value 9.3 peace and quiet 8.6.