Restaurant Review: South Coast Plaza’s Populaire rewrites the French bistro playbook

Critic Brad A. Johnson says yet another French restaurant has opened at South Coast Plaza, and it’s unlike anything else in the region.

Few things in life strike me as more absurd than putting cheese on a nice steak.

The tomahawk rib-eye at Populaire, a new French bistro at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, is a very nice steak, as well it should be. It costs $140.  

When the massive steak lands on our table, the sirens inside my head start blaring. My partner and I look at each other, then down at the steak, then at each other again. “What the heck is that?” my partner asks, pointing to white lumps and blobs dotting the steak’s surface. 

“I don’t know,” I say. I’m stunned, still trying to process what I’m looking at. “Maybe it’s some sort of French butter?” The waiter has already gone. 

I reach toward the platter and pinch a piece of that butter between my fingers and realize it’s not butter. It’s gooey. And then I notice a white bloomy rind that clings to some of those lumps. 

“It’s cheese!” I say. “Who the heck puts cheese on a steak?”

Convinced I’m going to hate it, I bring my hand to my mouth and reticently lick my fingers. “Hmm. Interesting.” The cheese is velvety and mysterious. It gives off a fragrance that is ripe and pungent but also buttery. It lingers. I run my tongue around the inside of my mouth, which now tastes of mold and funk. My stomach grumbles. My partner watches in suspense, awaiting a verdict. “Well?” he asks. 

“This is brilliant,” I hear myself say. My words surprise me. But it’s brilliant because the flavors in the cheese closely mimic the natural funk of expertly dry-aged beef. It’s practically the same scent. 

“Hold on a second,” I say, grabbing my phone to pull up the restaurant’s menu online to reread the description. I obviously hadn’t paid close enough attention before impulsively ordering the priciest thing on the list. The description is vague, just a few random words strung together, but there it is: “Saint Andre.” 

Saint-André is a French triple-cream cow’s cheese, a pungent cousin to brie, notorious for its powdery, bloomy mold. 

It’s with great urgency now that I reach my fork across the table and drag a large hunk of steak to my plate. My knife glides through the meat with surprising ease. I lean in, inhale and take a bite. My face feels flush. I can smell the triple-cream funk as I chew. I’m glad this caught me off-guard. Had I known in advance, I would have ordered something else or asked for the cheese on the side. And that would have been a mistake. 

This is an extraordinary piece of meat. But it’s not just that. It’s this cheese. As weird as it sounds, this is an exquisite combination of flavors. It also impresses me as being oh-so-French, even though I suspect it isn’t deeply rooted in tradition. 

Populaire is a modern French bistro, a partnership between Ross Pangilinan, the chef/owner of nearby Terrace by Mix Mix, and chef Nicholas Weber, who previously cooked at The Cannery in Newport Beach. The kitchen is all Weber. Or at least he’s the only one I’ve ever spotted at the stoves. 

The steak isn’t the only revelation I’ve encountered here, either. 

To begin, there is fried chicken and caviar, another unexpected pairing. The dish comes with two small nuggets of fried chicken topped with strained yogurt and quenelles of osetra. Each nugget disappears after only two or three bites. It’s the perfect tease.

Weber serves escargot inside ebelskivers, which are little spherical pancakes that resemble donut holes. Drag one of these through a sauce of buttermilk, and you’ll see what I mean about revelations. 

Or consider the lumpia that are stuffed with duck confit. These might be credited to Pangilinan since both he and the fried spring rolls can be traced to the Philippines. They are served in the style of Southeast Asia with lettuce and fresh herbs for wrapping and nuoc cham for dipping.

Although French at its core, Populaire’s menu leans heavily on Asia for ingenuity — and maybe to differentiate this place from the mall’s other, posher French restaurant, Knife Pleat. Perhaps the most non-French thing for sale is a wonderful chawanmushi, a Japanese custard. This one’s made with crab and sea urchin along with saffron dashi and yuzu kosho. It’s the sort of dish I’d expect to find at a very serious omakase place like Hana re or Omakase by Gino, or maybe a glamorous five-star hotel bar in Paris.  

Marinated fluke, meanwhile, seems to draw inspiration from Latin American. The sashimi-grade fish is served raw, like ceviche, in a milky broth that reminds me of leche de tigre. French? Peruvian? No matter. It is delicious. 

Frankly I haven’t tasted anything here that wasn’t delicious. The menu is extremely limited, which I find refreshing. Other standouts include a simple salad of peaches and finely grated sheep’s milk cheese, a beautifully seared (and just plain beautiful) duck breast served with pickled cherries and red endive, swordfish with peas and beurre blanc, a minimalist bavette steak with bordelaise and ultra-creamy mashed potatoes and for dessert a brown-sugar gateau with roasted peaches and crème fraiche. 

The restaurant serves only beer and wine, nothing harder, and I’ve never wished for anything more to complement Weber’s food. Despite the abbreviated selection, I’ve always been able to find the perfect thing to drink. 

On each of my four visits, I’ve been surprised by how bereft of customers this restaurant has been. I’m not sure why this place isn’t just madly packed. I guess it’s a reflection of foot traffic in this section of the mall, the entry hallway between the two Macys. This wing of the mall feels like a meditation zone. But there’s always been a bonus to that: Rockstar parking just outside the doors has been a breeze every time. 

I can’t imagine it will remain slow for long, especially once the word gets out about the royale with cheese. Weber makes an incredible burger with ground short rib, gooey raclette, pickled onions and “secret sauce” on a housemade potato bun. You won’t find a better cheeseburger than this anywhere else in the mall, for certain. 

 

Populaire

Rating: OOO

Where: South Coast Plaza (valet entrance between the two Macys), 3333 Bristol St., Costa Mesa

When: Lunch and dinner daily

Cost: Starters, $12-$40; mains, $24-$140; dessert, $14

Phone: 714-760-4555

Online: populaireoc.com

What the stars mean:

P = poor, unacceptable

O = average, may have some noteworthy qualities

OO = very good, above average, a neighborhood gem

OOO = outstanding, exceptional quality, a regional standout

OOOO = transcendent, world class in every detail

Ratings are based on multiple visits and reflect the reviewer’s overall reaction to food, service and ambience, taking into account a restaurant’s unique sense of place and point of view.

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