Aux Crus de Bourgogne -- Restaurant Review

3 Rue Bachaumont
75002 Paris
tel: +33 1 42 33 48 24
Metro: Étienne Marcel (4), Sentier (3)

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 (70-80); 4-Bells = Can talk only in raised voices (75-90); BOMB = Too noisy for normal conversation (90+)

1.75 - Star......................................................€€ ......................................................... 2.5 - Bell

The restaurant is located in the heart of the Montorgueil section of Paris in the 2eme. It has transformed from a once gritty neighborhood to be become a hot trendy spot in Paris with beautiful shops, produce, cafes and dotted with a variety of different restaurants.

The interior was old school dark woods, original moldings and very French.  A nice size restaurant and cozy enough.

At first glance, they had quite an extensive menu of traditional french dishes and they seemed reasonably priced. However, the wine list was not reasonably priced. In fact, the lowest priced wine I saw was 42€. So, we ordered the Sancerre rosé, I don't mind spending 42€ for a bottle of wine, but when the wine starts to turn it's a little hard to stomach, literally. We took a taste and I initially said fine, but when we kept on tasting it started to have an off putting taste. We asked the waiter, and he told us it was fine and that's the way it's suppose to taste. Now we have to confess, a lot of us at the table are very familiar with Sancerre rosé, and this was not a good bottle.

ENTRÉES

Escargot.  I had the escargot, it was good, but nothing out of the ordinary; what I found interesting was that it was served along with a small bottle of pastis (licorice type of liquor) with a dropper and the idea was that you drop a little bit of the pastis into the escargot. Gimmicky, but it did add a nice layer of flavor, and overall I liked the dish, it was good, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Two had the "half" crab salad as an entrée/plat. The salad did not wow anyone. It was just a salad topped off with a crab in the shell. I tasted the "crab tamale or otherwise known as the mustard" and it was flavorful, but the salad itself was nothing out of the ordinary.









There were two other entrées ordered, but again nothing out of the ordinary. A carpaccio of champignions (thin slices of mushrooms), and a small green salad.


PLATS

We had the "Boeuf Bourgignon" a French classic. Overall, the dish was good, but again, nothing out of the ordinary.  The beef was cooked nice and tender and in its simplicity it was a good wholesome traditional dish.












SUMMARY

The restaurant is in a great location. A very typically, quaint Parisian neighborhood, albeit quite lively, hip and happening.  The restaurant harkened back to the days of the what you would picture an old bistro would be. Overall the food was OK, but really nothing special. Although gimmicky with the "pastis and dropper" my favorite dish was the escargot. The salad was just that. And, the boeuf bourguignon although good was nothing special. We opted not to order dessert. What was a real turn off was that the waiter would not acknowledge that our wine was bad, and considering the price of the wine was very disheartening.  Therefore, they would've gotten a better rating from us, had they changed out the bottle of wine.

Would we go back? probably not.


With 5-entrees, 3-plats, 1-bottled water, 5-coffees, and a bottle of Sancerre rosé our bill came to 214.50€ or 42.90€ each.