Beau Monde Creperie

This authentic French creperie is located just a block from the lively South Street shops and bars in Philadelphia, and offers both elegant indoor and outdoor dining.

Beau Monde’s crepe menu is divided into two categories: savory and sweet. For either type, you can either order from a list of house recommendation crepes, or you can get creative and build your own crepe from a bevy of filling options. The savory crepes, which generally run for about $12-14, are served in a thin buckwheat pancake and can include fillings such as cheese or sauce and meats such as ham, chicken breast, andouille sausage, or fish, and vegetables such as tomatoes, mushrooms, or roasted leeks. The sweet crepes, usually from about $8-10, are made with wheat flour and also feature numerous options, such as flavored butter, chocolate, fresh fruit, ice cream, or custard.

Jeff’s Take:
For my savory crepe, I went with the coq au vin—a classic French dish that’s slow cooked with chicken, red wine, baby onions, mushrooms, carrots, and pancetta. Generally, coq au vin is great with some crusty French bread, but the idea of wrapping it up in a crepe intrigued me. While the coq au vin is included on the build-your-own menu, I ordered the version from the house recommendations section, which included swiss cheese and herbed butter. Beau Monde’s crepe-style coq au vin had a lot of the delicious, rich flavors that make this dish so good, and the swiss cheese added a nice bite to it. The presentation was especially impressive, as the neatly folded, crispy square crepe gave no hint of the sauce that would spill out as soon as I cut it. The one shortfall here was the chicken. Coq au vin is so much better when bone-in chicken is used, since the dark meat goes great with the robust flavors, and the meat stays juicier. Unfortunately Beau Monde used cubes of boneless chicken breast for this dish. The substitution makes practical sense for this purpose, since bone-in chicken can’t be served in a crepe. But the chefs at Beau Monde could simply de-bone the chicken before serving, and it would make up for this dish’s one flaw.

For my sweet crepe, I built my own, with fresh seasonal berries (raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries), milk chocolate, and vanilla custard sauce. While the berries and chocolate were delicious, the custard sauce was a mistake, as it was a little too thin and lacking in enough vanilla flavor.

While not perfect, these are very good, authentic crepes, and Beau Monde is always a fun and reasonably priced restaurant with great atmosphere.

Mike's Take:
For my entree I went with the house recommended Chicken, Cheddar and Broccolli crepe. I have to agree with a lot of what Jeff has already said about the presentation, atmosphere, and food of Beau Monde. The presentation of the crepes is very impressive. Each crepe is neatly served as a clean little pillow of deliciousness. I was also very happy with both the interior and outdoor patio at Beau Monde which very accurately captures the feel of the Brasseries of France and Paris. Let's get back to the food. Beau Monde had everything going for it prior to my sampling of the chicken in my crepe. Don't get me wrong, the crepe was very delicious and the creamy cheese sauce was a delectable highlight, but as I chewed the chicken I was a little miffed. The sauces of the savory crepe really help disguise the rubbery diced chicken used in the crepe...I had to verify my suspicions by eating the plain piece of chicken (Beau Monde places your prime ingredients in the middle of the crepe to identify the dishes) on top of my crepe. So ultimately I was very let down by the quality and freshness of the slaughter.

For my dessert crepe, I went with a daily special of peaches and cream cheese. The dessert crepe didn't disappoint in any way, shape or form. The peaches were incredibly fresh and the cream cheese/sauce blend kept the crepe from being uber sweet. The dessert crepe definitely delivered.

All in all, Beau Monde is a very authentic French creperie. As with most creperies, the dessert is better than the meal. I am definitely curious to see if the meat of other crepes is of a superior quality to the chicken. Despite the lack of quality meats, Beau Monde oozes quality, presentation, atmosphere and service.

6^th and Bainbridge Sts.
Philadelphia, PA 19147
(215) 592-0656
http://creperie-beaumonde.com/