ICI is a French country restaurant in Brooklyn and I mean real Brooklyn, Spike Lee like Brooklyn. You know French cuisine is served at this place the minute you come in. The décor and the atmosphere scream France.

The restaurant is located at the ground level of a brownstone, which adds a lot of character and style. A fireplace, decorative ceilings and original woodwork make the place cozy and elegant at the same time. The clean old school and minimalistic décor definitely reminds French country home, which is what the owner tried to achieve. The venue can sit 30 people in the main dining room; there is also backyard and a room on the second floor for private events.

There is a regular a la carte menu, good wine list but no bread being served before dinner which I was a little disappointed about as I expected fresh warm baguette. We started the dinner with appetizers, then main and we split one desert, which I guess for us was unusually short dinner.

Arugula & maple salad – it consisted of arugula salad with blue cheese, maple dressing, candied spiced pecans and pear puree. This was way too sweet for a salad and for an appetizer. If not blue cheese this could be a dessert. It was definitely not an appetizer you want to start your dinner with. The idea of arugula salad with pecans seems to be very good, but the dressing was too sweet and pear puree is unnecessary and I think it could be replaced with a savory component that could transform this appetizer completely. Blue cheese really rescued the dish from a complete disaster.

Sea Scallops – this was much better start to a dinner, the scallops were soft, fresh and cooked perfectly. Baby fennel and celery salad added refreshing touch to this already light dish. The presentation was beautiful.

Golden Tilefish – this was good white piece of fish meat with carrots plated on green garlic saffron cream. Tasty, well-executed fish dish but there was nothing to it that would indicate it was French dish.

Beef Short-Ribs – this was heavy but very good dish, baby ribs cooked in an iron skillet with lentils topped with green salsa verde. Tasty, French flavors were found in this meat entrée.

Lacinato Kale – this was side dish that I really wanted to try. It was served with parsley and numet, very yummy and I am sure that even vegetable haters would enjoy it; however, it was too tough, either the leaves of kale were too old and maybe baby kale would be a better choice or they should be grilled a little bit longer.

Yogurt Pana Cotta – this was amazing light dessert, huckleberry compote was sweet, yogurt component was completely transformed into fluffy, light, non-yogurt like texture. Toasted oats added some crunch and wilde flower honey was just a hint of sweetness you need in a dessert.

If you do not get a dessert but you like coffee you need to order their “Kings County” Mocha. It is served in a large cup with whipped cream and shot of chocolate bourbon. This coffee can be a dessert on its own. I highly recommend it.

This week’s winner dish is the Yogurt Pana Cotta, only because out of everything we tried that night this was the best-executed dish. All other dishes were either missing something or were just good, but not amazing.

Although, I would like to see some improvement in almost every dish we actually enjoyed the meal and the restaurant itself. It is very cute and elegant venue, the service was very attentive and I cannot complain about any of that. Unfortunately the food did not meet our expectations, it was average or simply good dinner at beautiful location. I think there is a potential that has not been explored yet.

Cuisine: French Country

Avg price per person: $45-60

Attire: Casual

Overall Rating: 3 plates