Our friends recommended this restaurant. It's in 9eme by the Folies Bergère, great areas for cafes and places to eat. We don't normally come to this area, because it's at the complete opposite end from where we live, but it was definitely worth the trek.
The interior is very sleek with clean lines, very typically french. One thing I noticed as I entered, the kitchen staff. There seemed to be quite a number of them for such a small restaurant. Either some are apprenticing or working as sous chefs. They also have indoor grills. The restaurant is known and specializes in grilling everything, especially seafood.
We had a relatively early lunch reservation by french standards at 12:30 pm, and we were the only ones there and assumed it would continue that way since it is August and half of Paris takes the month off for vacation. But by 1 pm, it was nearly packed. Good sign for a warm August day.
Two of us ordered the prix-fixe menu, and two of us ordered a-la-carte. Note: the prix-fixe lunch had 3-courses: entrée, plat, dessert for only 25€.
ENTRÉES
I love cauliflower and we have it often. At first bite I thought this isn't really much of anything, but JJ said to dip it in the sauce, and I did and it brought it to a whole new level. The acidity of the vinaigrette sauce with the curried spiced cauliflower combination was great together. So, never trust your first taste, sometimes you need to add all the components.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take
a photo of this dish, but this was a great appetizer. So, photo of them grilling octopus I got from their website. The octopus was so soft and moist, not rubbery at all. And, the vinaigrette sauce was mild and not overpowering as they usually are. This was my favorite entrée.
PLATS
This dish looked really inviting. The pork was delicious. I was a bit concerned that the fennel would overtake the flavors, but I have to honestly say it was a good accompaniment. They toned down the strong "licorice" flavor to not be overpowering. So, the pork along with a little bit of this, and little bit of that was quite pleasant and tasty. A hit for me.
I'm not sure what the "secreto" is. Although this was a good dish, this was my least favorite as flavor goes. And, go figure, I ordered this dish. The pork was cooked perfectly and was moist, but I found the miso overpowering the eggplant. All I tasted was miso, and miso can be very salty. And, with the exception of the green onions, it was not very attractive.
Overall, it was just a good dish, but did not wow me in anyway.
Medaillon de thon germon/Artichaut/ Puree de fenouil. (Medallions of albacore tuna/Artichoke/Puree of fennel)
I have to say, this was my favorite of all the plats we had. The tuna was grilled perfectly. The outside had a nice smoky flavor and as you got into the center of the tuna, it was so moist and tender, and very rare, how I like it. The accompanying sauce was a perfect compliment. You knew the star of this dish was definitely the tuna. An A+ for this dish.
DESSERTS
Fromages/Cheeses
Not much to say about this dish, but as I always say, you can never, ever go wrong with cheese in France. I wish I could remember their names, but it was basically the selection of the day. I did like the blue cheese and the creamy aged camembert and brie.
It was a very nice selection, albeit strong cheeses, but that's what I like.
This came with the prix-fixe lunch. French cheesecakes are much, much lighter than american cheese cakes. Oftentimes they use (click on link for more info) SPECULOOS a cookie similar to graham crackers, but sweeter and richer. And the cream cheese is usually replaced with St. Moret cheese, a french version of American cream cheese. Much lighter than american cream cheese.
Although I don't really eat desserts, this I would eat. French cheesecakes are lighter, almost like a thick creamy ricotta consistency. This was a simple and good dessert.
When our wait-person said a strawberry with red pepper, we assumed it was ground red schezwan peppercorns The reason being, black pepper is sometimes sprinkled atop strawberries to bring out a stronger flavor. But it turned out it was "red bell peppers" that were grilled and made into an ice cream.
This was my favorite dessert of the day. Red bell peppers are normally sweet, but it was quite an inventive ice cream. And, to give it some texture there were speculoos and pistachio crumble at the bottom. FABULOUS DESSERT! also quite refreshing for a warm day.
S U M M A R Y
What a find indeed. The restaurant is in a great location, you can go to many of the cafe's for drinks before and after a meal. What was really shocking was that for €25 you can have a 3-course meal consisting of an entrée, plat and dessert. That is a steal in Paris, especially for this caliber of a meal.
All the dishes were good, but some stood out from the rest: the octopus, the tuna, and the red bell pepper ice cream. I have one major complaint, with all the staff they had in the kitchen, there's no excuse for not changing out our utensils between the entrée and the plats. I thought it was just us because we were the only Americans, but it turned out that they did this for everyone. Not good in my book. Hence, I dinged them a few basis points.
As for the service, it was EXCELLENT!
Other then the utensils issue, I would highly recommend this restaurant. For 1-lemonade, 1-bottle of sparkling water, 2-prix-fixe meals (included entrée, plat and dessert), 1-entrée, 2-plats, 2-desserts, and 4-glasses of wine, our bill came to €184.50 OR €46.13 each.
Would we go back, ABSOLUTELY!
No comments :
Post a Comment