Years ago, you could dine atop the Eiffel Tower in Paris, overlooking the grandest of views. The restaurant building eventually found its way to New Orleans, where it now houses the Culinary Institute of New Orleans.
If that sounds too far afield, you might instead try Tour Eiffel in Los Altos. The interior, with its stone fireplace and overhead timbers, may seem more Alpine than Gallic, but the French influence is there on the menu. Call it old-fashioned Asian fusion.
This small, low-key restaurant easily fills its 14 or so indoor tables, and at least some of the half-dozen sidewalk tables, during the weekday lunch rush. Businessmen, fiscally endowed “O.C.” fans, single diners and Los Altos moms freed of kids for the afternoon all rub elbows in this aprËs-ski-looking place at Third and State.
In fact, lunch hour seemed to push the wait staff slightly beyond capacity. There were several abrupt return trips to confirm my order (better than getting the wrong food, but my order had been written down originally), no water offered, and slow table bussing. Still the cooks in the back were apparently unfazed, because the food was very good.
The lunch menu offered quiches, puff pastries, crepes and — if you choose to include them — French roll sandwiches. Although appetizers are limited to types of “egg rolls,” they are indeed mighty fine. Tour Eiffel’s vegetarian egg rolls ($5.50) are frequently called “spring rolls” on other restaurant menus. They are smaller than a typical Chinese egg roll, immaculately wrapped and fried, and so savory you’d swear there was something meatier than mushroom and tofu in there. At lunch you can order a single roll ($2.15), or go for the regular order of three.
The lunch menu differs from the dinner menu by featuring more French-influenced dishes, as well as vermicelli dishes and pho. The beef and chicken vermicelli ($7.95) — clear rice noodles with large pieces of tender chicken and beef — is a disarmingly simple-looking dish that’s richly flavorful: savory, and a tiny bit sweet.
Dining at Tour Eiffel on a weeknight is a very different experience. Quaint little State Street dies a quiet death. Service is more relaxed (not to be confused with lax), and the food is still great.
The fresh salad rolls ($5.50), a.k.a. “summer rolls,” are light and fresh, and not fried like their better-known cousins, egg rolls. Prawns, clear noodles, mint and other herbs are rolled up in soft rice paper and served chilled, with a hoisin sauce. Great summer food.
The dinner menu includes clay pot dishes such as sautéed rice with chicken. This was the only food I tried that was a little greasy, but not so oily as to be off-putting. The recipe, too, was deceptively simple-looking — firm rice, green onions and a modest amount of tender chicken — yet the rich flavor had as much character as the clay pot it arrived in. At $11.95, it’s a glorified rice dish, but that’s Silicon Valley living for you.
With no pho available at dinner, I went for a chicken sweet-and-sour soup in a clay pot ($11.95). It was very sweet (using pineapple), and slightly sour, with lots of broth and not a lot of chicken. Still, I liked it. It’s the first time I’d eaten taro in a non-poi format, and was surprised at its sweetness. Along with the spongy-looking (but not spongy-tasting) sliced taro, the soup also had bean sprouts.
And what’s Vietnamese food without tamarind? So we tried the Tamarind Prawns ($12.95). Usually, what restaurants call “prawns” are a little larger, stiffer and fishier tasting than shrimp. The ones at Tour Eiffel were pretty big, but tender like shrimp. They may have been prawny in flavor, but I didn’t notice it under the heavily seasoned, slightly sweet tamarind sauce. Another good choice for dinner.
It’s interesting to note the contrast between flashy restaurants (designed by consultants creating a comprehensive style, from waiters’ dress, to the menu, to lighting and design), and restaurants run by individuals who focus more on the food than the ambience. As one of the latter, Tour Eiffel seems more French than any of the Peninsula’s Left Bank bistros. Maybe it’s not the tile floors and casual flower accents here so much as the irrelevant Alpine interior — as if the whole tidily incongruous look was shrugged off with a, “Well, let’s get back to the food now, shall we?”
Unlike dining in France, however, you won’t be dizzied by the alcohol list: two house wines ($5.25 a glass), a few beers (like Saigon, $2.95), and otherwise an emphasis on tea and non-alcoholic drinks.
There don’t seem to be lunch specials, per se, but entree prices are lower on the lunch menu than dinner menu. It’s not “cheap eats,” but not expensive either, at least not by Los Altos standards.
Tour Eiffel Vietnamese Restaurant
200 State St, Los Altos
(650) 917-1328
Hours:
Lunch: 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday
Dinner: 5 to 8 p.m. Monday-Saturday
Closed Sundays
