L’Auberge Chez Francois

My husband and I have dined here quite a few times over the years. The food and service are always impeccable. We enjoyed a four course holiday luncheon with cocktails and a complimentary small glass of wine before Christmas. The cassoulet and beef bourguignon were both excellent. Some diners who have rated this restaurant very low might be intimidated by the number of utensils on the table. It’s refreshing to dine where people still dress up a little and the staff knows how to attend their customers discreetly and attentively. Not an inexpensive restaurant, but certainly a romantic spot place to treat yourself on occasion and enjoy a leisurely meal.

Came here for my birthday dinner with my boyfriend and it was good. Not mind blowing but just good. I love French cuisine and have heard and read amazing reviews about this place. It’s randomly located off of a road deep into the neighborhoods of great falls. Perfect if you want the scenery to be million dollar mansions. The place itself was cozy, comfortable and romantic. They had Christmas lights and decorations up and even carolers inside singing Christmas songs. The service was amazing. The staff made sure you had anything and everything you needed.
This is a place where you take your time, enjoy each course and just talk to one another over a nice bottle of wine. We did just that. I liked everything we ate except for the lentil soup that tasted bland and had a chemical aftertaste.
This place is crazy expensive and we expected that, but I just expected to be blown away, which I wasn’t. You pay the price of your entrée which ranges from $ 80 – 95 and get «six courses» in which you pick from a list of appetizers and desserts. I also felt that the best appetizers and desserts all had an extra charge so we just went with what was offered. The mesclun salad was really good but we’re disappointed that the other two courses included were a palate cleanser sorbet and that awful lentil soup.
The server, although efficient and polite, didn’t give very good recommendations or didn’t really know what to recommend and wasn’t confident about it. He recommended the mussels and onion soup as an appetizer and a steak dish and the trout for entrée. We start with a bottle of red wine and I ended up getting mussels and the steak dish and my boyfriend ordered the stuffed pork. The food was good, but we would’ve had just about the same quality meal at a nice French restaurant in DC with great service for a little over $ 150 instead of the $ 300 we spent here.
At least I can say I’ve tried it!

Dine here if you are a foodie and enjoy quality food. This is my special occasion restaurant, e.g. Anniversary, birthday, or any excuse to go. Give yourself ample time to dine, will be a couple hours, which goes by quick with the right company. Bön appetit!

best restaurant ever. you definitely get your money’s worth. the food just kept coming and it was all amazing. the atmosphere is very romantic and we were even put at a table away from everyone else.
highly recommend the grand marnier soufflé. also, this place is decorated beautifully around Christmas time

Did I eat at the same restaurant as everyone else? I don’t think it was mind-​blowing or even deserves exclaimation points of excitement.
This restaurant looks opened in the 50’s and the interior looks like it hasn’t been updated since, but I get it, it’s apart of the ambiance. But does the food plating need to look like it’s stuck in a timewarp? When my dinner was plated, I literally thought I was looking at a meal from 1959. Why is the decorative fruit on my plates? I don’t believe this a French thing.
If you don’t understand the menu, basically everything is pre-​fixe. Based on the pricing of the entrée, you get to select an amuse bouche, an appetizer, a salad (you can upgrade if you want, but house salad is just fine), a palette cleanser, an entrée, and dessert.
All of the food was… good, but it seemed like I could have made it. I’ve made beef cheeks like the restaurant in my crock pot… I don’t know why people are raving about it. I feel like everything we ordered was well executed, just incredibly boring. The duck was pretty standard, the salad pretty plain, the lobster and crab dish was weirdly buttery and orangey, I was hoping for a lemon citrus, not orange. The best savory dish was the foie gras, which of course was the most expensive upcharge for appetizers…
The best part was the coffee and the dessert. Unfortuantely, if you want the soufflé you must order 40 minutes ahead of time, which we did not. All of the desserts looked pretty good, but they also looked pretty standard.
I get they are trying to be «classic» but… you can update somethings… like garnishing…
In total, it’s good, but pretty boring. Service is very good. Lighting is dim. If you want to go old school, go for it.

Absolutely my favorite restaurant anywhere. Have been to many in DC, NY, Montréal, Paris, LA, San Francisco etc, and I still think «Chez Frankie» tops them all. The food, service, ambiance, and value cannot be beat.
Anyone I’ve ever taken there has been pleasantly surprised. However, I reserve going there for only for special occasions. Since I live less than a mile away, it would be too easy to go there weekly.

WOW!!! Just wow. My fiancé surprised me with this dinner for our 16-​month-​aversary. The road to get here had beautiful greenery with massive/​gorgeous homes surrounding you. If you’re a city girl like me, it’s safe to say that it’s «in the middle of nowhere.» We had this place bookmarked after I found it on OpenTable as one of the 10 most romantic restaurants in the DC area.
My review:
The service was IMPECCABLE! You walk in feeling like a VIP! Everyone is ready to serve you and they treat you like they’ve been waiting all year for you. Our waiter, David, was very thorough in explaining the menu to us and providing his suggestions and telling us about popular dishes. We didn’t realize how long it would take to eat here and he sped things up super quickly when we told him we had to leave in 25 minutes to catch a show. So one thing I recommend is to give yourself AT LEAST 2 hours for this dining experience because there are more than just the 4 courses that you pay for.
The complimentary garlic bread and cottage cheese + sour cream was amazing! They brought us more upon request :). Other complimentary dishes in between our courses: fennel soup, apple cider-​tasting sorbet, some sort of vanilla bean cookie with a dark chocolate truffle — all were great!
Appetizers/​Desserts I enjoyed: beef cheeks, duck breast salad, the side veggies, carrott purée (complimentary), baked alaska, and hazelnut soufflé (I’d probably stick with chocolate next time). I would probably get the lobster bisque as an appetizer if I came again.
Main dishes: I unfortunately wasn’t into my beef wellington so my fiancé had the rest of it. I didn’t really taste the truffle sauce/​mushrooms in there.
I recommend the «Paul Ernest» plate because it gives you variety (beef, lamb, lobster). The lobster was my favorite!
Admittedly this restaurant was overpriced and the food wasn’t the best I’ve tasted. If you value special treatment, amazing service or if you want impressing somebody or just want to try new dishes then you will not be disappointed!

My amazing fiancé treated me to a wonderful birthday dinner at L’Auberge this past weekend. I absolutely loved every aspect of the meal. Perfect ambiance (it’s a very classy French restaurant tucked away in a wooded part of Great Falls, VA), perfect service (our server, Sami S, did a great job!), and perfect food.
We were seated right next to the fireplace (very romantic) and had a lovely view of the patio and garden, as well as that portion of the restaurant as a whole.
The meal is a 4-​course meal for the price of the entrée (which typically ranges between $ 70 – 90). Very good deal for a good amount of food! The menu is seasonal. Here is what we ordered:
–Drinks: We both ordered cocktails — I went with the Le Cap A La Sauge (Sage Cape Cod), which was comprised of cranberry, sage, and honey. Our waiter said this was the sweetest cocktail on the menu. I loved it! :) My fiancé ordered the La Feuille d’Erable (Maple Leaf), which was comprised of Maker’s Mark bourbon, thyme, Maple syrup, and lemon. Also very good! My fiancé ordered a second cocktail — La Nuit en Jamaique (Nightfall in Jamaica) — myers dark rum, canton ginger liquer, Jamaican bitters. He also really liked this one and I thought it tasted like a Manhattan. For my second drink, I went with a glass of Merlot and loved it, even paired with all the seafood dishes I ordered.
–Appetizer for me: La Coquille de Crustaces Gourmande de L’Auberge et sa sauce remoulade aux herbes Du jardin (a seashell with shrimp, crabmeat, lobster, scallop, and salmon with an herb remoulade sauce). this was the perfect fusion of all the types of seafood I love!
–Appetizer for my fiancé: Les Moules Au Beurre d’ail Au sequer de Provence (Maine mussels with garlic herb butter). My fiancé loved this and said it was very tender and felt like it melted right in his mouth.
–Appetizer to share: Trio de saumons, l’un fume, l’autre marine a l’aneth, rillete de saumon et capres (smoked Norwegian salmon, dill marinated salmon, and salmon rillette with capers). We decided to get this extra appetizer to share in addition to our own. I’m a lover of all things smoked salmon and was in absolute heaven having this dish!
–Salad dish for me: Caesar Salad. I loved this. I’m a lover of Caesar salads generally and I loved how fresh and perfect this was. The dressing was ambrosial.
–Roquefort Cheese Salad for my fiancé. My fiancé enjoyed this one a lot as well!
–Entrée for me: Le homard du Maine a la nage, agrumes et beurre de Sauternes (poached Maine lobster, jumbo lump crabmeat, citrus, Sauternes butter sauce). This was delicious — such a generous portion of lobster! The sauce was perfect too. Just about the only thing I didn’t like about this dish was the citrus (Mandarin oranges, red oranges, and even kiwi), but those few fruit pieces were pushed to the side and did not get in the way of my enjoyment of all that succulent lobster!
–Entrée for my fiancé: Le Sauté gourmandise Papa Ernest (medallions of beef and veal, Grilled lamb tenderloin, roasted half Maine lobster tail). My fiancé loved this dish and the mixture of meats and seafood.
–Dessert for me: Gâteau Au fromage maison au coulis de framboise (homemade cheesecake with raspberry coulis)
–Dessert for my fiancé: A chocolate cake and sorbet on the side — unfortunately I don’t recall the name of this particular dish, but my fiancé enjoyed it.
I also got a birthday dessert with a lit candle for me to make a wish, which was delicious and very thoughtful!
And in addition to our courses, the chef prepared some small palate-​cleansing dishes in between, including a soup and a sorbet. Very delicious! And that complimentary bread and butter basket at the beginning was extraordinary. And we got a complimentary additional dessert at the end (2 chocolate balls and what tasted like snickerdoodle cookie and also got a delicious carrot purée to share with our entrée. Very generous!
As always, my fiancé treated me like a princess and gave me a wonderful birthday! This is the third year in a row that he’s treated me out to a French restaurant for my birthday and I love this tradition! :) I definitely recommend L’Auberge for all occasions!

I really want to give them 4.5 stars but since Unilocal doesn’t have half stars… I’m rounding up this time (I normally round down).
*Fennel soup — compliments of the Chef that night. This was so good!!! Wish it came in a bigger serving size because I definitely wanted more. It was such a warm and flavorful start to dinner.
*Duck foie gras (appetizer) — it’s basically like pâté but extra good. Very delightful and just perfect with a glass of red.
*Caesar salad — it comes with a tiny sunny side up egg!
*Rack of Lamb — lamb is usually a heavy entrée, and I rarely ever finish any lamb dish I order. But I sure did this time. Delightful sauce and lamb cooked to perfection and just melts as you eat it.
*Alsatian feast — don’t order this! Nothing special about this dish at all. My bf said it was bland and boring. You can probably get this dish anywhere else. This is my thumbs down for this restaurant.
*Crème Brûlée — take my dessert review with a grain of salt, because I don’t like desserts. But just tastes like any other Crème brûlée I’ve had.
*Grand Marnier Soufflé — omg yes. I don’t even have a sweet tooth but this was absolutely delicious! The hot soufflé is accompanied by a Grand Marnier sauce they pour into your dessert. OMG it smells so good!
I’m coming back to try other items on their menu. Their menu is a bit overwhelming with the French and English… And barely any paragraph spacing between the entrees descriptions, so that was a bit confusing or I was just buzzed. Any who, great place and I highly recommend!

Upon entering l auberge chez Francois we were immediately greeted by several people and brought to our table in this beautiful classic room. The setting was beautiful and classic. It has this old French style feel to it!
Our server was doing an excellent job by giving us attention, checking on us every now and then, having a conversation, explaining the enormous menu and the specials that he knows by heart. He was very professional and knowledgable.
Hats off to every single person who work there. from the host to the bus boy for the attentive service and the attention they gave us through our dining experience. They deserve 5 stars. Thank you!
Now the menu: is ENORMOUS. Too many options. It takes about 15min to go through it. The special of the day were too many as well and I find this overwhelming… It should be easier rather than complicated. But agin. our server went through the menu with us and didn’t mind to repeat the specials.
You have two options. Either a la carte or prix fix. Our server highly recommended the 5 course prix fix menu. And we got convinced to go with the prix fix.
So, basically the prix fix menu is not really prix fix menu. They ask you to pick any entrée (prices ranges between $ 70-​$ 90) and then you pick the appetizer. But most of the appetizers at least the interesting and authentic French ones are priced and so they charge you for it. A la carte is priced reasonably as any fine dining restaurant. I think it’s worth to actually go with a la carte instead.
What we’ve ordered.
.
Amuse bouch: was tomato soup. It was outstanding!
*appetizers:
–Lobster bisque soup: I’m very picky when it comes to lobster soup. It could be either overwhelming or tasteless. But this one was an explosion of flavors! Must to order.
— Tuna tartar: was one of the specials $ 8.50 extra! It wasn’t the best I’ve had. It was ok.
«Note»
I didn’t finish it and I ve had about 3 people coming over asking me why!!! Is it because I didn’t like it? They were very interested to know why? And that shows the care they give to the customers and willing to take their criticism no matter what it is so they make sure the guest is happy and satisfied. I appreciated this gesture. Bravo! That’s what I call SERVICE!
— spinach salad with grilled shrimp. Another special of the day $ 8.50 extra. It was good
*my entrée was excellent! I have enjoyed every bite of it. And thats what I will be ordering next time. Its a beef tenderloin with this yummy sauce reduction with a decent side of colorful and flavorful vegetables. That’s exactly how I like plate!
Dessert:
Let me start with my favorite dessert. Chocolate soufflé. Oh god! It was excellent. It’s even better than the one I’ve had in Paris. It’s a must to order!
Plz if you come here order a soufflé!
Bread pudding was outstanding.
This place it’s worth to give it a try! You would not be disappointed! I assure you that! :)

Oh, my. I felt like royalty. Lunch on Saturday was.
42 dollars for a 4 course meal. Didn’t eat again until sunday. First course .w I don’t eat much red meat, I tried the way u beef cheeks. They came in a doll sized la creusecrusette casserole dish. Amazingly soft and delicious.. . Then the waiter brought an espresso cup of tomato soup fresh from the garden just outside the window.. . Then an heirloom tomato salad… then the main course of lobster salad. For dessert I had the grand Marnier soufflé.
Old fashioned but quite a treat for a special occasion. No complaints except my pants were too tight.. Back to salads on monday.

Came here for my husbands birthday celebration on Saturday and we had an incredible meal! We had an 8:30 PM reservation at the Brasserie and were seated immediately. Took the waiter a few minutes to greet our table but he was so nice and provided great service after that so can’t even dock anything for that.
They start with a bread basket which is less than impressive but then they provide a hot garlic bread which is great. We also started with Oysters, Escargot and Braised Beef Cheek. All three were amazing. Oysters were nice and fresh with a great mignonette sauce. The Beef Cheeks were so flavorful and tender. And the Escargot was served in its shell (the way it’s supposed to!) in a delicious pesto type of broth. For dinner I had the Mussels and my husband ordered the Braised Short Ribs. The Mussels were served in a classic white wine broth and came with Pommes Frites (basically shoestring fries) that were hot, crispy and perfectly seasoned. The Short Ribs were again, flavorful and tender. We also ordered a side of Spaetzel which was delicious. For dessert we ordered the Dark Chocolate Tart with ice cream which I basically inhaled.
Cannot wait to come back here again!

This place is one of our most favorite restaurant and quickly became our tradition to come here to celebrate our anniversary every year since 2011. This place has cozy cute and very romantic ambience. Perfect for a special date night. Service is friendly and always attentive.
Every visit we try to order different appetizers to entrées but we always get their soufflés for dessert. (Note: if you want the soufflé, make sure you order in advance. It takes awhile.) They have chocolate, hazelnut, raspberry and grand marnier. We have tried all and my favorite is hazelnut. The sweet nutty flavor is just perfect for me. You can always try their chocolate if you’re a chocolate fanatic.
I always start out with a soup and salad (my favorite: duck salad, not always on the menu but you can ask). My husband always gets something different but usually an appetizer like pâté/​cold cut meats and Caesar salad.
While you wait for your food to come out, they give you breads, butter and cheese. So delicious!
They start you off with their mini cup of soup, the luge.
Then your soup and/​or appetizer, then salad and then your entrée.
Right before they serve you your entrée, they give you lemon sorbet to cleanse/​refresh your palate a bit.
This time I got the rack of lamb again. Medium rare. Cooked perfectly, warm red center. Very tender. Melt in your mouth good! Very well seasoned. And with side of well balanced cooked veggies.
My husband got the Papa Ernest… beef, veal, lamb and Maine lobster with the side of cooked veggies as well. The meats were all seasoned well, very flavorful and cooked perfect and tender.
It is always satisfying here!

Five stars all the way. Phenomenal service. Food is amazing! Don’t stress over what to order because everything is absolutely delicious!
When you step inside you’re transported into a quaint warm cottage. You’ll find fancier, more modern restaurants in the city but you won’t find a better dining experience.

Very good. For Northern Virginia, L’Auberge Chez Francois is as good as it gets. This is the place where you come for anniversaries, birthdays, graduations and other life/​family celebrations. This is NOT where you come for sexy date nights.
The décor/​ambiance is old school. It really does feel like you are dining in someone’s old cottage in the country. I made the mistake of wearing four-​inch heels and walking through the gravel parking lot — horrible idea.
The food is quite good. I started with some escargot, followed by the house salad and duck. Not the best duck I’ve ever had, but still very good. Grand Marnier soufflé was definitely a treat.
Service was exceptional.

L’Auberge Chez Francois is an institution and definitely a must try in the Northern Virginia area. The town of Obernai is the main source of inspiration in both the décor and cuisine. The menu reflects a heavy emphasis on traditional French-​German fare with a particular attention to rich, decadent flavors and hearty sauces. L’ACF does not shy away from it’s traditional roots and walking through the threshold you are instantly transported to a different time and place.
We chose L’ACF as a celebratory dinner for my francophone best friend’s birthday and she was not disappointed. She mentioned being impressed with both the service and the food.
Highlights of our meal were the:
–Fennel Soup
–Boudin Blanc
–Charcuterie plate (the Rillette especially was out of this world!!!)
–La cassolette de joues de boeuf braisées (braised Wagyu beef cheeks)
–Chateaubriand de L’Auberge (absolutely stunning presentation)
–beef Wellington
I must admit, L’ACF is not a place I could fathom becoming a frequent diner, but it was a lovely setting to enjoy a special meal.

My boyfriend and I came here to celebrate our anniversary and we both had a lovely time. Originally opened in the heart of DC in 1954, late owner François Haeringer relocated the restaurant from downtown DC to Great Falls Village in 1976 and despite critics harshly telling him that no one would make the long, winding trek out here, it’s been continuously considered one of the best French restaurants in the area. This rustic Alsatian cottage feels like worlds away from one of the busiest cities in the States, as if you’ve been transported to provincial France. The food and charm of this 60-​year old restaurant is what brings people back.
The main dining rooms offer a six-​course prix fixe dinner menu for the price of the entrée, ranging from $ 73 – 85. The prixe fixe menu offers:
+ Amuse Bouche [Split pea soup]
+ Appetizer [Le bisque de homard, lobster bisque]
+ Salad [La salade de canard gourmande, grilled duck breast on mesclun with an orange vinaigrette]
+ Homemade sorbet as a palate cleanser
+ Main course [le homard du Maine à la nage, agrumes et beurre de Sauternes, poached Maine lobster, jumbo lump crabmeat, ctirus, in a Sauternes butter sauce]
+ Dessert [Grand Marnier and hazelnut soufflés]
+ Coffee or tea
+ Mignardises (chocolate truffles and tuiles)
There’s an extensive list of appetizers and entrées to choose from. At the time, I wanted something not too heavy given my lobster entrée but looking back, I should have ordered an actual appetizer and not a soup. Perhaps the bouillabaisse, braised Wagyu beef cheeks, snails, or fresh frog legs. They have several menu options that tack on an additional charge and so, while the house salad was included in the prix fixe menu price, the special duck breast salad was an extra $ 14. However, I thought the duck was very well done even though I’m not a big fan of mesclun salad (too citrusy for me). Also, I think that sprinkling pepper when brought to the table should only be done on the salad itself and not the duck, but I understand that it’s hard to do that unless I was separating it out myself. The lobster was fantastic. It was perfectly cooked and surprisingly not as buttery as I would have imagined.
I don’t know what we were thinking but my boyfriend and I both ordered soufflés. We love soufflés and can’t seem to find enough French restaurants in the area that make a good soufflé. We were not disappointed by L’Auberge Chez François. Even though I was stuffed to the brim, I still couldn’t help myself from devouring their soufflé. I thought the hazelnut was much better than the Grand Marnier, but both were good in their own way.
Wonderful experience. I thought it was a great place to celebrate our anniversary, although I still consider Bistro L’Hermitage to be the best so far especially given the price difference and food quality between the two. Still, for a restaurant only 40 minutes from the city and nestled in the million dollar Great Falls estates, the chefs make fantastic French food and stick to what they do best and what the patrons love.
Downstairs from L’Auberge Chez François is the newer Jacques’ Brasserie. This brasserie is much more informal but still serves many of the restaurant’s best hits on an à la carte menu. Also, the restaurant has an outdoor patio area and a quaint garden, perfect for the warmer weather.

Let me start off by telling you that our waitress explained the menu wrong to us… lol. She told us that by ordering an entrée, it included an appetizer, salad, entrée and dessert… So naturally, we chose one of each. She failed to mention some appetizers were more expensive, and well, salads just weren’t included… I don’t know where that came from. Only when the bill came out did we realize that.
Moving onto the food. We kind of split everything, not sure if that is proper etiquette at a nice french restaurant, but whatever. If I’m paying all this money, the least they can do is let me slide and eat everything. We started off with the escargot, mussels, and salmon trio. All solid starters, but the mussels were a clear favorite. We were also given a cream of green pea (I think that’s what it was) soup to sip on– it was rather tasty.
I proceeded with the duck salad. They are very generous with the duck portion. It contained fruit, and a sweet dressing. I was also able to try the roquefort salad. I really enjoyed it, but if you don’t like blue cheese, don’t order that one.
In between our salad and entrée, they provided us with passion fruit sorbet to clear the palate. It was so good that I was contemplating ordering that for my dessert, hahah.
I went with the lamb chops for dinner. It was cooked exactly how I like it, medium-​rare, however there was a bread crumb crust on it that I didn’t particularly like (the texture was mushy but I also didn’t like the taste). The best entrée on the table was the meat platter. The lamb and beef on there were delicious. The bouillabaisse was also delightful, but small in comparison to other restaurants.
For dessert we split the plum tart, sorbet/​ice cream, and … I’m not sure what the other one was. Something with caramel flowing down. The plum tart won the award for best dessert although the raspberry sorbet was good too (didn’t care for the other flavors).
The service here was very professional. From the man taking our jacket all the way to the managers greeting us, everyone was very polite and friendly. Our server was sweet, and pretty attentive. This restaurant is not cheap– the ambiance, service, and décor is factored into the hefty price tag, lol.

Went here with my wine friend. We brought our own wine and paid the corkage fee. The sommelier and my friend gabbed on and on about wine– it was so interesting. They both knew a lot. The sommelier was especially knowledgeable about local wines and availability.
We sat in the back room and it had a fireplace. There were only two other tables and I much more preferred that to the main dining room.
I got the smoked salmon, Caesar salad, bone in veal (special), and baked Alaska. My meal was excellent. Every. Single Course. And the extras they slipped in were good. I want to go back. Right now…

If you haven’t been to lauberge yet, you gotta go! A cozy country french restaurant nestled between the big houses in Great Falls, it’s perfect for special occasions.
This restaurant is really great because it consistently delivers fantastic food and excellent service. Diners typically tend toward to skew older. All men are wearing jackets (most in ties) and almost everyone is celebrating a birthday or anniversary.
The wine list is quite extensive and the sommelier was really great in helping us find a great margaux bourdeau to begin the night with.
The menu is a seven (or six) course meal. You get to choose out of about 20 main courses, and 12 – 14 appetizers. The escargot was great and the fois gras was just a step behind City Zen’s. The bread is also fatteningly awesome. Generously spread with melted butter and the perfect amount of garlic makes for a sinfully good carb start. When we went, we had the creamy pea bisque for our amuse bouche. Smooth and rich, it perfectly whetted the appetite for more! I got the seafood dish which was basically a plate with a whole lobster and bunch of crab in a creamy butter citrus sauce. Uhh… yum! I had crème brûlée for dessert but was struggling at this point because I was stuffed!
We had Mark from Minnesota as our waiter and he was really nice! He was very friendly and helped guide us through our meal with wonderful timing. He was neither snooty nor aloof but a warm and friendly guy!
Can’t wait to return to L’Auberge!