Sumptuous French Fare In The Heart Of Bothell

----------------------------------------------------------------- Restaurant review

XXX 1/2 Gerard's Relais de Lyon, 17121 Bothell Way N.E., Bothell. ($$$) Dinners only ($21 to $51.50) 5 to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Closed Monday. No lunch. Full bar. Major credit cards. Nonsmoking area. Reservations: 485-7600. -----------------------------------------------------------------

The old brick house sits up on a hill, just beyond the buzz of traffic on busy Bothell Way below. A dense screen of trees hides the auto body shop to the left. More trees and a row of reaching shrubs masks the Yakima Fruit Market on the other side.

Gerard Parrat's Relais de Lyon, now in its twentieth year, is assuredly not in Lyon (where Gerard was born - and as a boy of 14 apprenticed under the fabled Paul Bocuse), but inside the firelit dining rooms it is easy to imagine you've been transported to the heart of Burgundy.

This is - and always has been - the most authentic French restaurant in the Northwest - and usually the best.

Executive Chef Parrat now spends more time in the office planning menus and in the dining rooms greeting his guests than he does standing over the glowing French hot-top gas ranges in the kitchen. For all practical purposes, his protege and associate, Christophe Degoix, is now the restaurant's working chef. If anything, the Relais (French for post house or relay station) standards have increased in imagination over the years. Degoix is a genuine talent, and as Parrat recently observed: "He IS the chef and he deserves the full credit."

Up-to-date, not froufrou

What that means is that Gerard's is now a more up-to-date French restaurant than when it began as a classical dinner house in 1976. Up to date, yes, but there are still none of the froufrou excesses of nouvelle cuisine emanating from the kitchen.

A frank disclaimer: I can sneak unrecognized into most of the area's restaurants. Gerard's is not one of them. We've known each other for years, have shared tables in France (including a memorable night with Gerard and his wife, Sharon, at Bocuse's Abbaye de Collonges overlooking Lyon in 1993). But it's been almost seven years since I reviewed the Relais, which is too long.

The easiest approach to an evening's dining (and it may take three pampered hours in unfolding) is to ask for the chef's suggestions. You may order from three fixed-price menus:

A popular six-course, reasonably priced dinner for $32.50; the Menu Decouverte, a seven-course affair at $41.50; or the sumptuous Menu Degustation for $51.50, also seven courses. With the steward's selection of three accompanying wines, the tariff rises to $84 a person.

Many choose to forego half of the courses - content with appetizer, salad and main course - by ordering a la carte; figure on about $30.

Start with the Bisque de Homard ($7), a lobster bisque so creamy-rich, so profoundly full-flavored, that a friend commented: "With an essence of lobster so true, so perfect and so sublime, who would ever want to go through the trouble of eating an actual lobster again?"

A national treat

Gerard's Saumon Fume ($7.50) has become nationally noted. Made in a Juanita smokehouse with his partner, Dominique Place, the smoked Atlantic salmon is served in restaurants across the continent - as well as in France. Bothell is closer. It's served simply: two wide slices on a plate, topped with a scoop of mousse (cream, shallots, balsamic vinegar and dill) and a scattering of capers. With a crisp French roll and a sip of white wine, it's ambrosial.

A sorbet of fresh raspberries precedes the main courses.

The roasted rack of lamb ($25), once given a mustard-garlic-Dijon treatment, has become livelier and more Provencale, coated with fresh-minced herbs and served rare with a mellow rosemary jus.

Lobster Ravioli ($7.50) was a minor disappointment; it was rather doughy and dense, and the lobster chunks within were almost tough. The key element of stuffed pasta was overshone by the light, creamy broth it was presented in.

Pan-Roasted Duck Breast ($24) was arranged over a confit of chunked duck leg and napped with an almost tart blueberry sauce that contrasted nicely with the richness of the duck.

Vegetables included a ratatouille that was the essence of summer and a square of potato gratin so grand that one feared to ask how much cream it had absorbed.

Dinner at Gerard's would be incomplete without his Souffle au Grand Marnier, which is definitive. However, on a hot summer evening, the Chocolate Mousse with fresh fruit and a coulis of red berries might be more appealing. (Copyright, 1996, John Hinterberger. All rights reserved.)

John Hinterberger, who writes the weekly restaurant review in Tempo and a Sunday food column in Pacific, visits restaurants anonymously and unannounced. He pays in full for all food, wines and services. Interviews of the restaurants' management and staff are done only after meals and services have been appraised. He does not accept invitations to evaluate restaurants.