Chez Chouchou: Revisiting the French Connection

Guadalajara’s trendy Colonia Americana is home to an excellent but inexpensive French restaurant, which we visited again recently, some 6 months after our last review. A collaborative venture between three Mexicans and a Frenchman with contrasting but complementary backgrounds, Chez Chouchou, opened last December, serves a range of gourmet meals, fine French wines and creative and original cocktails.

“Our main goal is to bring a different concept of French cuisine. When you think of French cuisine you automatically think ‘It’s expensive,’ but you can eat here without spending a lot,” says Jonathan Patiño, one of the restaurant’s four founders.

Duck tamale with avocado sauce

Parisian Antoine Pluchet designed the interior of Chez Chouchou opting for a vintage boutique style, reinforcing the inexpensive vibe with home-made adornments and unpretentious paper place mats.

“We wanted a place where you can chill and have a good time,” Patiño says. “If you’re not that hungry you can have a glass of a good wine and if you are hungry then you can enjoy what we have to offer.”

Tuna in red wine

There is plenty to enjoy. The starters include a wonderful French onion soup, goats’ cheese empanadas, mushroom crepes, asparagus with Serrano ham and parmesan, and pear salad with spinach and caramelized nuts. Two new appetizers include a cheese plate with imported brie and camembert and duck confit panuchos (similar to what Jalisco denizens call sopes, but thinner).

It gets even better, with the main courses including salmon, duck a l’orange, ratatouille with rice, a gourmet hamburger, cheese and eggplant ravioli, chicken and mushroom casserole, and Seared Tuna steak with alioli sauce among other items.

The duck a l’orange has proven the most popular dish, Patiño says. “We make the sauce a little bit different,” he explains. “This is French-Mexican cuisine, not your common French cuisine. We add chile morita to give it that little touch of extra flavor.”

Asparagus au gratin with spanish serrano ham

We tried the fresh steamed mussels (a baker's dozen of local or Chilean mollusks) served with white wine, butter and melted brie cheese, served with perfect hand cut French fried potatoes, and had no complaints.

Another favorite for two is the Raclette, a cheese from the Alps served in an electric fondue machine and accompanied by Serrano and turkey ham, cooked potatoes and vegetables and their excellent bread. The bread, acquired from Guadalajara French bakery Ohlala, deserves mention. It is nothing like the Mexican French-style bread, you find in most corner shops. It has a firmer crust, with little air pockets throughout and goes wonderfully with the imported cheeses here.

For dessert, Patiño recommends the “perfect” profiteroles, although this writer can attest to the quality of the creme brulée flambeed with tequila. Sweet crepes are also available. Two newer options include tarta tartin, a caramelized apple tart from Normandy, and canelé, a sweet bread with lots of cinnamon and butter from Bordeaux. Both are served with vanilla ice cream. Their fine coffee is a three-way blend from Chiapas, Oaxaca and Veracruz.

Choux á la crême pâtissiere

Patiño is proud of the wine list, with bottles ranging from 240 to 590 pesos. The house Merlot, which costs 60 pesos for a glass or 210 pesos for a bottle, is excellent. As Patiño says, “usually house wines are pretty dull but this one has lots of flavor and aroma.” According to partner Raul Rivas Ramos their best (though not most expensive) wine is Pomerol, a vintage from Bordeaux's Chateau la Renaissance. It goes well with the duck, other meat entrees and cheeses. Other options include wines from France, Spain, Australia, Mexico and California.

With studies in mixology from the London Shaker bar school, Patiño has devised a range of intriguing cocktails, including the Spring Paris, a mix of white and red vermouth infused with rosemary and grapefruit and mandarin soda, and the Mango Chouchou, a blend of sparkling wine, mango extract, cucumber, cranberry and ginger. A new option here is Strawberry Chou, liquor de cassis with a French sparkling beverage called “Monin” in strawberry flavor.

“I’m very creative in what I do,” Patiño says, explaining that he aims to bring “incredible mixology” to Guadalajara, a city largely bereft of quality cocktail bars. Bottled beer from Modelo and Minerva brewery are also available.

To keep things fresh, the staff are always modifying the menu and introducing new dishes, including the daily special, served from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., including a starter, main course and coffee for 95 pesos,. The quality of the special is sure to bring customers back to explore what else is on offer.

The service when we ate there was prompt but not effusive, the music: low volume jazz and European big band and seating options included hard backed chairs and a cushioned sofa-like booth with pillows. They now offer a menu in English and a few of the servers speak some English.

This restaurant is not trying to impress you, but make you feel at home. This is not a fast food restaurant; the dishes are all prepared from scratch when you order them. All the ingredients are brought in daily and may run out. 

Prices of starters run from 49 to 120 pesos and main courses from 60 to 175 pesos. Chez Chouchou has seen an uptick in expat dinners from the U.S. consulate and lakeside visitors on day shopping trips. Their TripAdvisor rating is 6 out of 386 restaurants in Guadalajara and many of the positive comments were in French. 

Pedro Moreno 1290 in Guadalajara’s Colonia Americana. 
Open Tuesday to Saturday, 2 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday: 1 to 4 p.m. 
Telephone: (33)3825-0218. Credit cards are accepted except for American Express.
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