Le Petit Cafe

I can honestly say that this is my favorite restaurant in Bloomington, and the one I always go to whenever I come back to town.  The menu varies daily, and is by no means large, usually only 4 items total to pick from for a main course, and maybe an appetizer or two as well.  Always a choice of soup (homemade and can be cold or hot) or salad with homemade dressing with your entree, and they do superb deserts too.  I would call this place classic rustic french cuisine, it's completely unpretentious but yet always extremely flavorful.  I have eaten here many times and I've yet to have a mediocre meal here.  If you can get here and they're open for dinner, I say try it, and hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as I do.

I visited here about six years ago, all I remember was my first l'escargot experience.

For comparison it was a garlic covered olive with a little sand--and I loved it. We visited just a few nights ago and discovered nothing too exciting. It is simple, rustic food: c'etait comme si, comme ca.

We ordered the cabbage peanut soup, the tossed salad in oil, fish fillet and pork ribs.  Cabbage peanut soup, simplistic, that is all he said. My salad was a salad but the oil dressing was flavorful. The fish fillet, I discovered was Swaii, which if you are unaware is just about the cheapest fish on the market. It had a very light breading and was pan-fried. It came with a seafood sauce that included crawfish and lord knows what else, but it was yummy. Eating it made me feel like I was in a seafood market just off the shore. The pork ribs had a red-wine reduction, lightly salted, a little fatty--as expected. Two sides along came alongside: potatoes and grilled asparagus both were okay.

Overall this place is an okay, restaurant. We may try the buffet. The owners are nice and the service was good.

If you're looking to go to the south of France without all the jet-lag and irritating airport security, Le Petit Cafe is your best bet. A group of French speaking friends and myself have been wanting to eat at this petit restaurant for some time and finally made the short trek from Bloomington to Blooming-France. We were greeted by an elderly, but none of the stigmas that come with that adjective, man. He was extremely personable and friendly, the best kind of front staff that immediately bring us water, hot bread, and of course, butter (the entire restaurant smelled like butter, exactly how I would imagine Paula Deen's house to smell like!). The menu is seasonal slash whatever they want to cook and is scribbled down on a dry-erase board at the front of the restaurant. I cannot get over how wonderful this place smelled. I ordered a vegetarian broccoli quiche with cooked kale. So delicious! And from the spotless, licked clean plates of my friends, I'm guessing their éntrées viandes (meat centered dishes) were just as delicious. We spent about 2 hours savoring everything and finally got our bill, which was a little steep but absolutely worth it, considering plane tickets these days run in the multiple hundreds.