What to expect from Vancouver's 18-year-old French bistro after its recent refresh

We’ve never gotten an influx of questions quite like when we shared that Les Faux Bourgeois would be going through a refresh after the Gaia House team (the same folks behind Selene Aegean Bistro, AMA, and Nammos Estiatorio) announced it would be adding it to its family of restaurants.

Friends, family, and coworkers bombarded us with questions. Would their favourites stay on the menu? Did they redo the whole interior? What about the prices? What changed?! We walked in on Wednesday night during the official re-opening of the space with all of your questions in mind.

To immediately put you at ease, there’s not a whole lot different. Well, if you’re a customer, that is. During our visit, we spoke with Executive Chef for Gaia House, Brent Thornton, and Les Faux Bourgeois’s chef de cuisine, David Cassese, about the changes to the much-loved restaurant.

“What we’ve kept the same is the overall direction. Les Faux will also be a French bistro aiming to be accessible to the Fraser Hood and Mount Pleasant areas,” said Thornton. “What’s changed is our dedication to excellence.”

He shared that the bones of the restaurant have largely stayed the same, but instead, the attention to detail has gone up significantly, from the type and quality of ingredients to the attention to service and its cocktail program. Additionally, the kitchen has undergone some much-needed upgrades.

That’s all to say, everything we loved about Les Faux has been turned up a notch. On the food side of things, that looks like sourcing more local products whenever possible.

“Every dish now, every product, everything is just from the B.C. area or as close as we can get. Every farm that we’re working with and partnering with, it’s just trying to get that freshness to every plate,” explained Cassese. He also added that they’re utilizing techniques to lower food waste and become a more sustainable restaurant, something very important to the Gaia House team as a whole. 

However, that’s not to say that there haven’t been any changes on the menu, as the team shared they have tightened things up.

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“Seasonality is obviously super important for us, so the things we’ve taken off, for example, the French onion soup and the Coq au Vin, these are like hearty winter dishes that we don’t see having a place with the rest of [the current] menu,” said Thornton. 

But before you make any rage-induced phone calls or emails to the restaurant, you should know that these dishes do have the potential to come back, just during the appropriate season. That includes the aforementioned French onion soup, which is officially confirmed to return in the winter.

“We’re not trying to piss people off in the neighborhood. If it’s a classic French dish, it will return. They will be back. We’re just keeping things light for the summer,” added Thornton.

And yes, some menu items have seen a price increase (namely, the steak frites are now $38), but we recognize price increases are necessary in today’s restaurant climate, and nothing felt outrageously overpriced.

So what’s worth ordering off this new, tighter menu? Plenty. Delicious French classics abound in a way that feels true to the original Les Faux Bourgeois.

Namely, the Canard Au Bordelaise is an easy recommendation. Duck breast is doused tableside in a slow bordelaise sauce with bone marrow chunks throughout. It’s also served with a páve, the layered potato that has taken restaurants by storm in recent years. But how Les Faux Bourgeois makes theirs stand out is that it includes pressed duck leg confit as one of the layers.

When it comes to shareable, snacky bits, the Oeuf Mayonnaise topped with trout roe, white anchovy, and chervil was another favourite bite at the table. If you’re at all apprehensive about the combo of anchovy and egg, this is the restaurant to take the leap and give it a chance.

Offerings from the raw bar are also worth ordering, with our table being presented with an assortment of crab legs, oysters, and clams

But perhaps the most exciting of all was the Beignet au Pommes. This rustic dessert — served in a dish that looks straight out of someone’s grandmother’s kitchen — is coated in a sortilège glaze and showered with sprinkles of white aged cheddar. This is the kind of sweet treat that will have you polishing off the plate regardless of how full you are.

While it’s easy to get distracted by all the wonderful food, we want to take a quick detour over to the cocktail program. When thinking of a French bistro, wine might be the first drink that comes to mind. Les Faux Bourgeois continues to house a collection of delightful French wines, but we implore you to take a chance on these cocktail creations designed by Gaia House’s beverage director, Dylan Riches.

For something light and citrusy, the Lemon Tart was so wonderful. Tanqueray gin, vanilla, grapefruit, preserved lemon, and sour calamansi are clarified with pie-crust milk to form this not-too-sweet dessert-inspired cocktail. It’s impressive how Riches managed to get that subtle, pie-crust flavour into the drink.

There’s also something inherently sexy about a dirty martini, and the one over at Les Faux Bourgeous absolutely runs with that feeling. Dubbed the Kinky Martini, Riches explained to us that this drink was “so dirty it needed its own name.”

But just like the space and food, the cocktail program maintains that natural, unpretentious feel. Drinks are presented as they are meant to be enjoyed, in chilled glasses with intentional garnishes. In a world of flashy, Instagrammable meals, there’s something refreshing about Les Faux Bourgeois’ simple approach to its food and drink offerings.

If you’re a longtime fan of Les Faux Bourgeois, it’s safe to say that you’ll still find the same restaurant you fell in love with 18 years ago. But if you’ve never visited, take this as your sign to enjoy some delicious, homey French fare.

Les Faux Bourgeois

Address: 663 E. 15th Ave., Vancouver

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