Review: Knife Pleat is the perfectly tailored French restaurant Orange County needs

On Black Friday of all days, I had just finished eating lunch at Knife Pleat, the 6-month-old French restaurant inside South Coast Plaza, when the lights flickered and then stayed off in the dining room.

In the shadowy open kitchen, normally a well-lighted jewel box of burnished steel counters and state-of-the-art ovens, chef Tony Esnault looked unrattled. The French-born chef spent years cooking in New York and Monte Carlo under French master Alain Ducasse; the lights going off didn’t faze him in the slightest. He calmly directed his staff, who soldiered on under the mall’s skylights, and within minutes food began to stream out of the kitchen again.

The 80-seat restaurant is tucked into the quiet space that formerly housed Marché Moderne. It’s a refined room with a nine-seat marble bar overlooking the open kitchen, herringbone wood floors softened with thick rugs, and velvet-trimmed chairs so comfortable you could nap on them. Opaque curtains soften the room’s edges, almost letting you forget you are installed in one of the region’s biggest, glossiest shopping malls.

In cooler weather, entrees include burly pappardelle fortified with hunks of shredded boar; duck breast served with roasted half-moons of yam; or a dense mushroom risotto dosed liberally with Parmesan. Slices of venison saddle are blushing pink and tender as sirloin.Cassoulet hits the same comforting notes. The bowl is brimming with sturdy Tarbais beans, topped with crunchy duck confit and lightened with the bright acid of tomato confit. It’s bone-warming stuff on a chilly day.

Lunchtime offers high-end salads, but these rarely thrill or offer good value — a $32 lobster Caesar salad is crisp and creamy but probably not as meaty as it ought to be. For the same price, the kitchen offers a three-course prix fixe lunch, a conspicuously better option. Or opt for the excellent a la cartetossed in a tangy arugula pesto or roast chicken so tender you could slice it with your credit card.

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