As I mentioned before the holidays, every year since I was about seven or so, my family has gone out to dinner on Christmas Eve. M and I have decided to continue this tradtion ourselves, and the past two years we've gone out to eat at LuLu, which is one of our favorite restaurants in San Francisco, and has the added benefit of being on the next block, though it's hardly fancy.

This year, however, we decided to re-institute the gourmet Christmas Eve dinner and eat at La Folie, which we've heard described as one of San Francisco's Top Five restaurants. M chose it because it has a very traditional French Christmas Eve menu: fixed price, five courses, quite expensive. It's certainly unique among San Francisco's top restaurants in that Chef Roland Passot doesn't really indulge in the modern Californian/eclectic style, but has still managed to cultivate a very warm, friendly, casual atmosphere in a very fine restaurant. The food could easily have become stuffy and overly formal, but instead it's beautifully presented, lovely precisely because it's traditional, and quite delicious.

After our "coupes de champagne," dinner began with a rather large amuse bouche of Scrambled Eggs with Truffles, served in an individual egg cup, each dish intensely flavored with the musky headiness of black truffles and containing the texture of tiny tapioca.

At this point, we decided to order a half-bottle of white wine for the first two courses and a full bottle of red for our entrees. We asked the server for a white suggestion, as we were both having Lobster Bisque with Scallop Flan for the soup course, and lobster is notoriously hard to pair. He brought us a 2002 Paul Chapelle Mersault (offering to drink the rest if we didn't find it satisfactory) which was perfect with the soup, just rich enough to challenge the lobster, but not too oaky or sweet as to overpower the flavors. I have to say, I was slightly disappointed with the bisque - it was a bit to acidic for me - the lobster was marinated in lemon and, while an interesting touch, I thought it made the meat a bit tough. The flan wasn't scallops as advertised, but lobster, and it was the highlight of the course. However, I think the title of "Best Lobster Bisque Ever" still belongs to Carlos.

As it was a fixed price menu, we had only two options for each course. Looking back, we probably should have ordered one of each plate, but since La Folie is known for their foie gras, we both had to get the Seared Sonoma Foie Gras with Quince, Raisins, and Muscat de Beaume de Venise Broth for our third courses. The lobe of foie was HUGE, and from the much-beleaguered but truly excellent Sonoma Foie Gras farm. I found the preparation outstanding, if a bit sweet for my tastes. I love foie gras, but can't eat that much of it on my own, and usually prefer it in a pâté or terrine. We both agreed that this was overwhelmingly good (but that Masa's foie gras course was slightly better).

Unfortunately, for some still-unknown reason, just as they were bringing us our entrees, M started to feel extremely ill. Maybe it was something in the rich amuse bouche, or maybe it was just stress from the past few weeks of work, but he had to leave the table for a bit, and was quite unhappy for the rest of our meal, managing only a few bites of his entree and a glass of wine (shocking!). It was at this point where the service really began to shine. Our waiter waited for a few minutes, then came over to me to inquire quietly about M's absence. He understood immediately what I really meant when I said I thought he was just "very tired" and he did everything possible for the rest of the evening to make M comfortable: packed up his meal AND his dessert for him to go, brought him peppermint tea, and just was very kind in general. It was handled so beautifully, and we were very impressed.

So while M was trying to deal with feeling horrible on our favorite food night of the year, I was happily plowing through an amazing entree of Wild Black Cod on Braised Cabbage with Black Chanterelles and Bacon, Lobster Broth. This was the perfect savory successor to the foie gras, a meaty white fish with delicately seared skin, served over an elegant slaw with just the right amount of buttery sauce. M had ordered Duck "Pere Noël" with Citrus Gastrique, "Farce" of Camargue Rice and Root Vegetables which was excellent warm, and even better cold when he finally ate it, two days later, in our hotel room in Fort Lauderdale at about midnight. We decided that it was the perfect thing to order to cap off our year, given we had driven through La Camargue with my parents when we were in Provence in June.

Our wine for the main course was an excellent 2000 Rasteau from Benjamin Brunel that we chose ourselves. We love Rhône wines, and found it curious that this bottle resembled a Châteauneuf-du-Pape and stated the wine's origin as C-d-P rather than Rasteau, since it was decidedly not a C-d-P. Just another nod to our summer vacation, I suppose. Since M was under the weather, I drank almost the entire bottle by myself and was very, VERY happy by the time dessert arrived.

Dessert was a Chocolate Raspberry "Buche de Noël" with Spiced Myer Rum Eggnog which made me extremely happy, as I love the little meringue mushroom buttons that accompany a Buche de Noël. Around this point, Roland Passot, the head chef, came around to each table to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and inquire about the meal. I think I managed to squeak out something stupid in French (I'm much braver in Paris proper) and he was very sweet in return. We ended the meal, as usual, with a déca for me and a normal espresso for M, who thankfully felt much better by the time we returned home.

In all, we thought La Folie was lovely and would definitely return for a special occasion, but it wasn't the best meal I've EVER had and it was decidedly expensive. I thought they more than justified their price with the personal service, wine recommendation, and festive menu. A practically perfect start to our holiday week.