Le 6 Paul Bert -- Restaurant Review

Address: 6 rue Paul Bert, 75011
Metro: Charonne (9) or Faidherbe-Chaligny (8)
Hours: Closed Saturday night, all-day Sunday, and Monday lunch. Lunch. Open for lunch Tuesday through Friday, and dinner Monday through Friday. Open Saturday until 8pm for epicerie food (charcuterie, sandwiches) only.  
Telephone: 01 43 79 14 32

Rating Standards: 5-Stars = Extraordinary; 4-Stars = Excellent; 3-Stars = Average; 2-Stars = Fair; 1-Star = Poor

€ = Inexpensive: 30€ and under; €€ = Moderate: 31€-49€; €€€ = Expensive: €50 -75; €€€€ = Very Expensive: more than €76 (prices based on minimum 2-courses)

1-Bell = Pleasantly quiet (less than 65 decibels); 2-Bells = Can talk easily (65-70); 3-Bells = Talking normally gets difficult (70-75); 4-Bells = Can talk only in raised voices (75-80); BOMB = Too noisy for normal conversation (80+)
  4 - Star..............................................................€€€............................................................4 - Bell

We have been to the original Paul Bert many years ago and really thought it was nothing special, I know some may think it blasphemous, but I’m being honest.  We decided, lets try his “comptoir” at 6 Rue Paul Bert. So, we went with good friends who do not live too far from the restaurant.

It’s a long restaurant, and as soon as I walked in I was overwhelmed at the noise level. It was quite packed and fortunately we got a table close to the kitchen, which surprisingly made it a a tad easier to talk and listen to our friends. I had a full view of the kitchen, and it was fun watching them prepare the food.

The concept is similar to what one of my favorite restaurants “Les Petits Plats” does. You get 3-plates and one dessert for the price of 44E.

THE DISHES:

Daurade royale juste tranchee, mignonette de Betteraves et tagettes. There were thin slices of daurade "cru" (raw) fish served with beets and marigolds. We all loved this dish, it was a great start and had a wonderful flavor of citrus and the fish was so fresh and moist.

Carpaccio de mulet, jus d'huitres, poire et marinade de légumes.  This was also thin slices of mullet "cru" with oyster juice, pear and marinated green onions.  I liked this dish, but it was a bit sour for my personal taste. In fact, the green onions were literally pickled, but a good dish none-the-less.

 

St-Jacques saisies, écrasé de panais et citron confits.  A dish of scallops,  mashed parsnips and candied lemon. The person having this dish loved it and said it was quite tasty, and the scallops were nicely seared on the outside and tender on the inside, the way it should be.

Lièvre a la royale et celeri-rave. This was a hare with a sauce of foie gras accompanied with a celery root. We all agreed this dish was awful. It not only looked nasty, it was a harsh almost inedible dish that had all the wrong textures and wrong flavor components. It basically tasted like pressed meat, with liver sauce done badly!

 

Oeuf frit, chanterelles, oignons fumes et langue d'agneau. Fried egg, chanterelles, onions and smoked lamb tongue. I loved, loved this dish. The egg was perfectly cooked inside the croquette, which was nice and crunchy and the egg was flowing beautifully as you cut into it, it was not runny at all, PERFECT. However, not everyone liked the smoked lamb tongue, but I thought it was a nice accompaniment!  The lamb tongue was sliced so thinly that you would have no idea what it was.

 

Sanglier braise, polenta crémeuse et champignons sèches. Boar braised, with creamy polenta and dried mushrooms. Wow, this dish was fantastic. Lots of flavor. The polenta was creamy, granted lots of butter, but who cares, it was delicious and the boar was tender, juicy and so flavorful!

Ris de veau, topinambours, faisselle et menthe.  Sweetbreads with artichokes, cottage cheese and mint. I thought the sweet breads were perfectly cooked.  At first bite, I thought it was atop a yoghurt, but it was actually a French cottage cheese which when whipped can mimicked the flavor of yoghurt. I absolutely loved this dish! The bit of the sourness of the natural oils in the sweetbreads was a nice counter-balance.

Encornet saisi, chou grille et ail, squid with cabbage and green onions.  I have to say the squid was perfectly cooked, it was tender and not chewy or rubbery at all. The flavors were spot on, and the green onions added much needed flavor.

DESSERTS:

The cheese plate was wonderful. Had a nice selection, in fact there was a parmagiano regiano, blue cheese, comte and a brebis (sheep cheese). What a great contrast of cheeses

Pommes pochees, sorbet rhubarbe et flouve.  Apples poached with rhubarb sorbet reminiscent of “Spring”.  The dessert was very good. It was served with slices of crispy “dried” thin apples. It was sweet, sour, flavorful, and had different textures. A very good dessert.

 

Biscuit dacquoise, crème de châtaignes et glace potimarron.  Dacquoise Biscuit served with chestnut cream and pumpkin ice cream. What a dish. Lots of contrast, lots of textures, overall it was a good dessert, very flavorful and for France, quite a large dessert.

SUMMARY:

I have to say, if you’re just going for the food then by all means go. It is an extremely noisy restaurant. I was practically screaming across the table or had to place my ear close to the talker. I could barely hear the wait-staff in French or English and had to keep asking them to repeat themselves.

All the dishes were hits for 3 of us, and JJ only had 2 out of 4 dishes he liked. Again, the hare was the only thing we didn’t like, it was inedible.  Although the wait-staff were friendly, it was quite frenetic in the restaurant, they got our orders mixed-up, made an error on our bill, oh well, I forgive them cause I thought the food was excellent.

I would definitely go back, whereas JJ would not.

What I also found interestingly unique to them, most of the dishes were plated only on half the plate? I have to assume it’s either for aesthetics or if you want to share other dishes, you have room on your plate to add from your friend’s dishes.

The bill with a bottle of Autrement le 2010 de Lamery bottle of wine and 2-glasses of wine came to 101E per couple or 50.50E each!