Quiche That's Been Left Out in the Rain Too Long

Quiche Du Jour – Bouchon Bakery
Bouchon Bakery

If one ends up at Bouchon Bakery at the Time Warner Center, do yourself a favor and order the grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup.  Don’t even look at the menu – there is no need.  The grilled cheese is undeniably the best thing on it.  In fact, it is just about the best grilled cheese sandwich (with the perfect cup of tomato soup “dip”) that you will ever find.

Best Thing You'll Ever Eat

Vodka knows all of this about Bouchon Bakery, having dreamt about their grilled cheese sandwiches for days after past meals there. However, being on a mission, she dutifully orders the quiche du jour at her most recent jaunt to the place.  The Quiche Lorraine was featured by Donatella Arpaia as a Best Thing I Ever Ate GUILTY PLEASURE.  Today’s quiche is made with leeks and blue cheese – not the Lorraine version (though let’s be honest – I don’t really know what the Lorraine version is), but refusing to come back for the one day that the quiche Lorraine may grace the menu, I order to quiche du jour.

And I instantly regret my decision.

Second Only to Scarpetta as Best Bread Basket and Butter Ever

Feasting upon the bread basket and butter (sprinkled with sea salt – delectable), I silently curse the Best Thing I Ever Ate tour and the hindrance it places on my food choosing.  Especially when my friend’s grilled cheese and tomato soup arrives, and it is everything I had promised.

The quiche, in contrast, is not all that Donatella described.

First of all, call me crazy, but I don’t consider quiche a “guilty pleasure.”  McDonald’s is a guilty pleasure.  A Crumbs cupcake.  A 16-ounce margarita.

Not a quiche.

Where's My Happy Meal?

This particular quiche does not taste bad, particularly because I am one for blue cheese.  But the texture is downright soupy – soft and vaguely flan-like, it is off-putting and manages to make me fear food poisoning (uncooked eggs and the like).  The crust tastes like a Pillsbury crescent roll, but the ratio to the cheese “filling” seems rather off-balance.

Additionally, the salad (more like leafy greens) that comes with the quiche is bland at best, and way too acidic at worst.

The quiche is not good.

Undercooked Quiche, Limp Greens

However, the grilled cheese and tomato soup, along with the bread basket and butter, is always so phenomenal at Bouchon Bakery that I’m going to call the quiche debacle a fluke.

And I will never order anything but the grilled cheese at Bouchon Bakery again.

The Remnants of the Quiche Massacre

Bouchon Bakery’s Quiche Du Jour: 2 stars