Birthday Dinner at Brasserie Perrier

So, Wednesday continued with the arrival of my parents and, once my work day was complete, a brief return home before venturing out to Brasserie Perrier for my birthday dinner. This more 'casual' sibling of Le Bec Fin, was chosen after days of extensive research of menus and obsessive considerations of what I was looking for in a birthday dinner. In the end it came down to this: I wanted a Salade Lyonnaise...and fancy drinks...and over the top service and food. I started with a dirty vodka martini (as I often do), my mother had a BP sidecar and my father had a martini Francais.
We nibbled on the very good bread while considering the menu.
I already knew that I wanted the Salade Lyonnaise, so it should come as no surprise that I did, in the end, order it. It was massive. And delicious. I feel in my bones that I will come back and have this salad again. The potatoes were crisp, the lardon salty and thick, the frisse spry (can frisse be spry?) and the poached egg? Oh the poached egg was a wobbly mass of yolk just waiting to spring its magic and mingle with the sherry vinaigrette and aforementioned ingredients. This salad made me very happy. Well, food can't really make you happy...but it satisfied my belly.
My father had oysters, he seemed happy with them. I forget which varieties they were, but they were from British Columbia maybe (is that possible?).
My mother had the soup of the day, I think it was squashy or pumpkiny.
Close up on the lovely. Also known as the tower of tasty.
We also shared the fois gras appetizer. It was served with, let's see if I can remember the wording (I already know I can't) a cherry brioche, some sort of brittle and a rich, rich chocolate sauce...and water cress. At first we were happy to cut slivers of the liver and pop them in our mouths directly. But after actually attempting to get a bit of each ingredient in one bite, we agreed that these people with the power to put together meals had an idea of what they were doing.

My father had the crispy Muscovy Duck with a funny little patch of confit and an orange sauce of some kind.
I went over the top stupid with my entree. Originally I had been eyeing the coq au vin...but then I kept looking at the description of the BP burger...burger+shredded short rib+truffle cheese+seared fois gras=something I would never, not in a million years, make for myself. And so, while I love me some stewed wine-y chicken, I went with the signature sandwich.
My mother had the lamb shank.
What is up with all photographs of me including crazy eyes? Well, I guess in this instance it's the 'I'm a year older and I have beef in two different forms and duck in one form all in one dish' face.
My father tried to woo my food while I tried to hold it still for my mother. It didn't work...on either count.

Oh but we didn't stop there! For 'dessert' we shared a cheese plate.

And, as I often do, I ended my meal with a glass of Courvoisier that, strangely enough, did not come in a snifter.
We had a bordeaux with our meals.
On the whole this was an amazing meal. In fact my only real complaint would be my slight dissatisfaction with our waiter. There were moments when I doubted his accent (French) and felt like he managed to be = disaffected and overly agreeable at the same time. I did a really great impression of him for my parents later in their visit, but I can't recreate it in text. If you could hear it, you would know exactly what I was talking about.

A grateful thanks to my parents for their company, love of good food and willingness to go over the top!