L'Auberge Chez Francois

For my dear friend's 42.8th birthday, he made reservations at one of his favorite destination restaurants.  I couldn't even spell opulence before the night began, but afterwards, I knew what it tasted like.  The enjoyment of L'Auberge starts before you even get there... It's located in Great Falls... out in the woods, down these beautiful and fun-to-drive winding country roads lined with McMansions decked out last night with Christmas lights.  You just drive and drive and drive, twisting and turning until you come up to a french country house in the middle of no where.  literally.  Even though it was only a half hour drive from DC, it felt like Alice in Wonderland.  The meal started with 2 bottles of bubbles called in from California and 2 bottles of French country wine... Course 1 was a quiche that melted on my tongue.  My appetizer was a tuna tartar with endive and a bit of caviar, perfectly flavored.  My salad, I chose the special, which was a duck.  The duck was very sweet, complemented by candied pears and citrus fruits.  It might have very well been the best salad I've ever had.  With a sorbet between dishes, my entree was the veal scaloppini.  The sauce was rich.  The spaetzle perfectly cooked.  The meat coupled with the mushrooms and the sauce complemented each other perfectly.  My last course, I pre-ordered a grand marnier souffle... nobody at the table was excited to try it... but everybody agreed it was the BEST desert choice of the 6 of us... although the chocolate souffle (If I liked chocolate) was the richest, most decadent desert I've ever tasted.  My friend said the service was "off" last night... but I gotta say, if that was "off" for this restaurant, just about any DC establishment could learn something from the staff there on such an off night.  The only drawback... I really had to restrain myself from imbibing too much wine because of the location and knowing my on-call DD would have never found me in the woods.  5 stars!