After seeing a matinee show this afternoon and running some errands, we decided to walk up to the heart of the Upper West Side and have dinner at a local French spot where we’ve previously gone for a quick drink. The restaurant is small and cozy, with just a handful of tables and a small bar. The menu is also small but with a decent-sized wine list at relatively higher price points. This is to be expected with French food in New York, but to be fair, the prices could easily be higher given that we are in New York City, and anytime you reference anything “French,” the dollar signs tend to go up.

We had a glass of wine each, shared a charcuterie platter of mixed cheeses and meats, and had two mains. After tax and tip, the bill ended up being just shy of $150. The majority of the food was quite good, and the quality of the wines were expected given that they were about $14/glass. But it made me think about all the delicious French food we had in Paris that exceeded the quality we had tonight, and it was always a fraction of the cost. It’s bothersome that you have to pay at minimum this much to eat French food in the city. It’s a big reason we rarely even eat French food unless we’re in France. Americans have this obsession with all things French and are willing to pay that much more for French food. But while I enjoy and can appreciate French food, I do not believe these prices are warranted when the same people complain about overpriced Chinese or Vietnamese food.