
DATE: Sunday, March 9, 1997                 TAG: 9703110540

SECTION: FLAVOR                  PAGE: F1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Restaurant review

SOURCE: BY M.F. ONDERDONK, RESTAURANT CRITIC 

                                            LENGTH:  110 lines

NAPOLEON'S CONQUERS CRAVING FOR CLASSIC FRENCH CUISINE

AS NAPOLEON observed, an army travels on its stomach. And now, there's a Virginia Beach restaurant named for the French leader. But if the army's going to dine there, they'll have to eat in shifts. The restaurant has only 15 tables.

As for civilians who travel in parties of more manageable size, they need merely book a reservation to enjoy dinner at Napoleon's. But weekend reservations are ``de rigueur.'' Opened just before the holidays by owner Denise Shafiee (a La Caravelle vet of many years), this eatery is proving as popular as the Emperor himself.

Billeted in what was once a cozy rancher, this is not so much a restaurant as a series of semi-private dining rooms. Paneled in knotty pine and decked out with colorful window treatments and reproductions of paintings from various salons, here is a fantasy uniting Hampton Roads with Gaul - country French decor in a beachy cottage from the '50s.

Portraits of the great Corsican militarist dominate the small foyer: One may be left regarding him for a moment or three until the buzzer's call gets answered. Beyond is the front room, perhaps the restaurant's most inviting - especially if one reserves the cozy deuce by the fireplace. The downstairs opens into three other, very pleasant, rooms: a fourth is reached by a narrow wooden staircase. Appropriately, French doors overlook a back deck, promising al fresco dining in warmer weather.

At once formal (there are flowers and candles and heavy flatware and even little crystal knife rests) and casual (ties are not required), Napoleon's setting mirrors its mission - marshaling dressed-down French fare into a moderate price zone. Lunch and dinner menus share such Gallic classics as escargots and salmon flutes, as well as several soups. Creamy bisque, wearing a whiff of shrimp flavor, comes boldly sided by a glass of cognac. The briny olive paste known as tapenade reposes in a cunning little swan-shaped holder. Pate is chunky and bland, perfumed by juniper.

Salads, too, straddle day and evening menus - vegetables in vinaigrette, roast duck, spinach. The ubiquitous Caesar strides onto the scene, Napoleon's own role model. Lighter midday entrees run to seafood creations. One such is coquilles Saint Jacques - mornay-doused scallops and mushrooms in a leaf-shaped oven dish, disappointingly fishy beneath a savory melt of cheeses. Better to turn one's loyalties to dishes like the cassoulet. Not quite the long-baked specialty of Languedoc, it's tasty nonetheless, with tomato-tinged gravy, white beans and chunks of tender beef and lamb.

Steaks feature prominently among the evening main courses. The excellent filet, perfect blood-rare as requested, comes topped by bearnaise, hand-whisked and luscious. Sides tend to be simple - a few snow peas, a curl of yellow pepper, a spade-shaped piece of carrot, pan-fried potatoes with caramelized onions and a melt of cheese.

Crisp and juicy in its own fat, roast duck comes with choice of sauces, of an extent usually associated with self-service sundae bars. ``Peach, blueberry, raspberry or orange?'' queried the waitress. ``Chef's choice,'' we begged and that turned out to be orange, and spicy and good.

A hungry infantryman might have made short work of this half-fowl, so generously portioned we could only dispatch part of it. How wistfully we watched as the waitress bore it away, upstuck leg retreating toward the scullery.

Fare is fortified by a list of specials nearly as long as the regular menu and typified by herbed lamb chops, veal Normandy (with apples and apple brandy), beef bourguignonne (``French beef stew,'' is the server's helpful translation) and coq au vin (made, we're told, with boneless breast of chicken).

The waitress was sweet and attentive throughout dinner and well supported by her co-staffers (hot bread, for example, gets faithfully replenished).

Prices are not included in the ritual of the recitation of the specials - so beware, lobster lovers. That wonderful-sounding thermidor is $39.95. More typically priced are the crab and lobster cake, chicken in sherry and salmon beurre blanc, all $17-$18. Wines likewise offer decent value, such as an $18 Caymus Liberty School cabernet, good alongside the heartier entrees. The list is intercontinental and accessibly priced, though one scans in vain for a food-friendly California pinot noir. Fortant de France wines are poured by the glass, $3.25-$4.25.

Dessert comes festooned with more verbiage. The waitress patiently recounted five minutes worth of cakes and pastries, nearly a dozen, all made in-house. Yummy and cream-filled, profiteroles come piled atop a puddle of chocolate sauce in a hard-to-manage goblet, which we suspect of doubling as a margarita glass.

In fact, earlier in the dinner we heard somebody ask the waitress for ``another margarita.'' Another margarita? Sacrebleu! Well, maybe it's America's revenge for Pernod. Nothing to start a war about, certainly. Napoleon's, we are here. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

ROY A. BAHLS

AT LEFT: Coq au vin ($18.95 dinner, $9.95 lunch) is served with

potatoes au gratin and vegetables.

Photo

ROY A. BAHLS

Napoleon's is not so much a restaurant as a series of semi-private

dining rooms.

Graphic

NAPOLEON'S

Where: 4933 Virginia Beach Blvd., Virginia Beach

Phone: 497-3400

Prices: $4-8 for soups, salads and appetizers; $7-$10 lunch