In the event you didn’t hear the news, Le Jardin in Fountain Valley, the extraordinary and very affordable French-Vietnamese restaurant, suffered extensive fire damage last week and will be closed indefinitely until it can be rebuilt.
The fire apparently began in a waterlogged transformer atop a neighboring building.
In the meantime, scores of habitues like myself will sorely miss the sophisticated Saigon-style caf & #233;. It was truly like being in another world. It was where I’d eat the grilled prawn salad adorned with mango, shredded cabbage and carrot at lunch and filet mignon with wild mushrooms and ginger, a lamb shank baked slowly in the manner of a French cassoulet, or braised oysters or sea bass wrapped in a crispy rice crepe at dinner.
Hopefully the reconstruction, which owner/architect Dong Nguyen says he’ll begin as soon as possible, won’t keep us waiting too long.
