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- From: jacob@ponder.csci.unt.edu (Tom Jacob)
- Subject: Paris Restaurant Review (Long)
- Message-ID: <1993Jan26.210939.29346@mercury.unt.edu>
- Sender: usenet@mercury.unt.edu (UNT USENet Adminstrator)
- Organization: University of North Texas
- Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 21:09:39 GMT
- Lines: 572
-
- This is part 1 of a report of a recent trip to Paris. It discusses restaurants
- only, and is being posted to rec.food.restaurants and to rec.travel. Part 2,
- which discusses other aspects of the trip and which will appear in a few days, will be posted to rec.travel only.
-
- PART 1: PARIS RESTAURANTS
-
- Around the beginning of November, I posted a message asking readers which Paris
- restaurant they considered the best. As I expected, the consensus was that
- Jamin/Robuchon has the finest kitchen and that Taillevent is the best for the
- all around grand dining experience. Surprisingly, almost no one mentioned
- Lucas-Carton. Has Alain Senderens' star finally burned out?
-
- Unfortunately, a couple of weeks after my posting, my dentist (muttering
- something about wanting to take his wife to the Hotel del Coronado) informed
- me that I needed $850 of dental work. We reluctantly scaled back our plans,
- cancelling our reservation at Jamin (sigh). Determined to eat at least one
- meal in a multi-star place, we finally settled on lunch at L'Arpege, whose
- owner-chef came very highly recommended and which has a 290 F lunch menu. I
- called the Tuesday we left for Paris, reserving for the next Tuesday.
-
- On several previous trips to Paris, we had not hand much of a dining plan,
- depending on following our noses supplemented by a little spur of the moment
- perusal of the Michelin Guide or Gault-Millau. This time our trip had a theme:
- we decided to eat most of our full meals at "little brother" restaurants, i.e.
- the less expensive second restaurants associated with some of the big name
- places. We also decided that for main meals, we would try places that were new
- to us, and that for smaller meals, we would follow our nose.
-
- Consequently, as far as I remember we went to none of the places recommended by
- netters except for some wine bars. Many were places where we had been before,
- and others just didn't get fitted in. We are, nonetheless, extremely grateful
- for the advice. We certainly have a large database of places to try next year.
-
- We were in Paris from January 6 through January 13. Reviews of restaurants
- where we ate are given below. Places we would like to have tried, in addition
- to the little brothers Le Bistro d'a Cote and the Rotisserie du Beaujolais,
- include the two-star Amphycles, Apicius and Jacques Cagna, as well as Pile ou
- Face, Le Maraicher and La Tour de Montlhery. Another spot we intended to try
- and didn't get to was the little fast food place Oh!Poivrier! on the quai des
- Grands-Augustins (and elsewhere). It looked good and had decent prices for its
- cold plates and sandwiches.
-
- A couple of general observations: The no smoking ordinance seems to have had
- minimal effect. I think that smoking is generally less in Paris than, say, ten
- years ago, but can't attribute any of the decrease to the new ordinance,
- which most places seem to be implementing half-heartedly if at all. Also,
- everywhere we went we were served a little bar of Valrhona chocolate with our
- coffee. In the past we have often gotten chocolates at the more upscale places,
- but this time we got them everywhere, even the most unpretentious bars. I wish
- that I had the Valrhona concession for Paris.
-
- A couple of notes on style: After much deliberation, I have omitted all
- accents. I don't know the French ASCII conventions and didn't like what I
- tried. The TeX style also seemed to clutter the text too much. I hope that
- the French readers will supply the accents and that the non-French readers
- won't know the difference! I have also quoted all prices in francs. The
- exchange rate was around 5.45 francs to the US dollar while we were there.
-
- About reservations: As noted above, we reserved for dinner at L'Arpege a week
- in advance. I think that in the busier seasons you probably would need to
- call a little earlier to be sure of getting in. For the other places where
- we had a full meal, we made same day reservations, calling about 10 am for
- the lunch reservation at Bistro de l'Etoile, and around 18:00 for evening
- reservations (at 20:00 or 20:30 -- horribly early in Paris, they eat later
- and later every year). We had no trouble getting a reservation at any place
- we called, although all of them essentially filled up by 21:00. Do you need
- to make a reservation? In the off season, maybe not always, but I think it's
- a good idea.
-
- Now to the restaurants.
-
- Jeremy's Sandwich Shop, 43 rue Fontaine, 9th. Wednesday lunch.
-
- Jeremy's is a funky little sandwich shop near place Blanche that appears
- to have a mostly local clientele despite its listing in Cheap Eats (one
- customer even put her lunch on the tab). If you go there, check out the
- coffee machine in the front corner: it's shaped like a seminude female
- torso, supposedly in honor of the area's working ladies.
-
- A wide variety of sandwiches and salad plates are offered, along with
- fresh fruit juices and milkshakes. I had a smoked salmon and cucumber
- sandwich and a large glass of fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. Laurie had
- a Perrier and a sandwich of rare roast beef, gruyere, lettuce and tomatoes.
- Both sandwiches were more than we could eat. The total bill was a cheap
- 92.60 F.
-
- Auberge Landaise, 23 rue Clauzel, 9th. Wednesday dinner.
-
- A country looking place -- exposed beams, whitewashed stone walls, heavy
- wooden furniture -- with two rooms expertly served by a single waiter
- with a bit of assistance from the proprietors, the Auberge Landaise
- serves up hearty Southwestern cooking.
-
- We ran across this restaurant early in the evening while strolling around
- the neighborhood of our hotel, liked its looks and decided to inquire about
- a table for dinner later. When we walked in, everyone almost panicked, but
- smiles broke out when we explained that we weren't any readier for dinner
- than they were. When we came back at 8:00, still the first customers to
- arrive, a table was all set up for us with an amuse-gueule of saucisson and
- sesame and cheese flavored puff pastry strips. By 9:30 it was filled with
- locals, many of whom seemed to be regular customers.
-
- For the first course, we both had a simple salad, the frisee Landaise, of
- curly endive, mache and trevise lettuce topped with meltingly tender
- preserved duck gizzards). For her second course, Laurie had an "elemental"
- confit de canard. (You will notice that she's given to greater fits of
- poetry than I.) I had cuisse de canard aux cepes, a duck leg served with
- meaty cepes and a dark sauce of red wine and duck stock. Both dishes were
- garnished with garlicky pommes a l'huile. Except that my duck was way too
- salty, everything was excellent. For a wine, we chose a 1988 Domaine de
- Diusse Madiran (150 F), a rich hearty wine that was just slightly tannic.
- We were surprised to get Ferrarelle for the water. Apparently the Italians
- are taking aggressive advantage of the open trade: we saw Italian water all
- over Paris all week. For dessert, we both had a mixture of citron, passion
- fruit and cassis sorbets. With our coffee, we were served a plate of
- almond tuiles and orange flavored chocolates.
-
- The restaurant has a deep but not very wide collection of vintage Armagnacs
- dating back to 1908. Most of the most recent (last 40 years or so) were
- from Michel Trepout. I had a glass of velvety Marquis de Roquebrune 1950
- (170 F the glass).
-
- Despite the one problem dish, we liked this place very much and will
- probably go back sometime. The total bill was 761 F (a more reasonable
- 591 F without the Armagnac).
-
- Lafayette Gourmet, boulevard Haussmann at rue Mogador in the Galeries Lafayette
- department store, 9th. Thursday lunch.
-
- As the name implies, Lafayette Gourmet is a gourmet food shop in the
- Galeries Lafayette department store. Several of its departments are set
- up as little islands where you can get a light meal as well as buy products
- to take home. For example, one side of the cheese island is a counter with
- seats for about eight customers. Nearby are a few of the tall table-stool
- combinations you find in fast food places. There are similar areas serving
- caviar and smoked fish (Petrossian), grilled meats and fresh fish.
-
- We chose the cheese island, sitting at the counter. The rest of the
- customers appeared to be neighborhood workers. I had a cheese plate
- consisting of a giant salad dressed with vinaigrette and covered with
- slices of tete de moine, tomme de chevre, roquefort, brie, vacherin and
- a strong cow's milk cheese with caraway seeds that I couldn't identify.
- The cheeses were all good although a couple of them, especially the brie,
- were aged a little more than I prefer. Laurie had a roquefort lover's
- dream, the same giant salad with the vinaigrette, covered with a creamy
- roquefort dressing as well as several slices of roquefort.
-
- With a couple of glasses of Sancerre rouge, the bill came to 196 F.
-
- Gaya, 17 rue Duphot, 1st. Thursday dinner.
-
- When Jean-Claude Goumard bought Prunier, the grand old fish place that
- had finally closed after years of decline, he renamed his old restaurant,
- just down the street, Gaya and turned it into a simple fish bistro. It has
- the right look, with walls covered with blue and white Portuguese tiles
- that have been there since the '20s, banquettes and lots of old dark wood
- furnishings.
-
- Having an upscale restaurant and a bistro allow Goumard to contract for
- fishermen's entire catches, with the more expensive fish, like daurade,
- going to Goumard-Prunier and the cheaper ones, like dorade, to Gaya where
- they are simply and deliciously prepared.
-
- To start, Laurie had an outstanding soupe de poisson, while I had a bowl of
- small clams and mussels "mariniere", i.e. cooked with white wine, shallots
- and herbs. Laurie then had grilled dorade with a basil sauce while I chose
- aile de raie bouclee au chou, poached skate wing served over braised baby
- cabbage and surrounded by a fantastic chive beurre blanc. We both had pear
- sorbet (all desserts are made down the street at Goumard-Prunier) and
- coffee for dessert.
-
- During the meal, we had made friends with a boisterous group of Portuguese
- at the next table who treated us to a glass of port to end our meal. I
- rarely enjoy drinking port (I usually don't like port; it seems always to
- have a sherried taste to me, and I *hate* sherry), but this port had a
- bright clean fruity flavor that I really liked. Now if I only knew what it
- was.
-
- With a bottle of 1991 Sancerre Blanc from Domaine de Saint Pierre (195 F)
- and a half bottle of Badoit, the bill came to 704 F for a most enjoyable
- evening.
-
- Bistro de l'Etoile, 19 rue Lauriston, 16th. Friday lunch.
-
- One of three bistros of this name run by two-star chef Guy Savoy, this is
- a small place near the Arc de Triomphe crowded with tables that, at
- lunchtime, are crowded with a well-dressed business crowd. The daily
- specials, written on the mirrors that circle the room, run to traditional
- bistro fare done up smartly, with an emphasis on variety meats -- beef
- tongue, hog jowls, brains, etc.
-
- For a first course, I had salad tiede de queue de boeuf en ravigote au
- chou et a la moelle (as you can see, Savoy is not a believer in terse menu
- descriptions). This was a spicy salad of oxtail that had been braised with
- carrots, onions and other aromatics, served warm over wilted baby cabbage
- leaves and topped with a piece of marrow. An outstanding dish. Laurie had a
- simple green salad dressed with walnut oil and good red wine vinegar. For
- the second course, I had piece de veau fondante, mijotee au vin rouge,
- carottes caramelisees. This is one case where my French failed me: I
- understood all the words, but got something completely different from my
- expectation. What I expected were veal croquettes (fondante) simmered
- (mijotee) in red wine, with caramelized carrots. What I got appeared to be
- roasted veal sauced with pan juices and red wine, with noncaramelized
- carrots. It was ok, but not something I was really in the mood for. Laurie
- had rable de lapereau "marine roti" aux herbes, puree des pois casses. This
- was exactly as expected: saddle of young rabbit, marinated in herbs and
- then roasted, served with pureed peas. For dessert I had a good chocolate
- fondant with preserved clementines; Laurie had an exquisite very thin warm
- apple tarte.
-
- The service was fast and efficient, even a little brusque, befitting a busy
- lunchtime spot. As far as we could tell, we were the only foreigners. I
- would expect that at night the pace would slow down considerably and the
- clientele would be more international.
-
- With a carafe of the house Beaujolais, a half bottle of Badoit and coffee,
- the total bill came to 448 F.
-
- L'Ecluse, 15 quai des Grands-Augustins, 5th. Friday dinner.
-
- This is a stylish wine bar a few doors down from place St-Michel. It is
- part of a chain specializing in Bordeaux wines and serving a small but
- interesting carte of items prepared fresh daily in a central "laboratory".
- Service from the three-man frontroom staff was friendly and efficient.
-
- I had a plate of good charcuterie, a watercress salad and two glasses of a
- very good 1988 Fronsac from Chateau Herve-Laroque. Back in the '70s,
- Fronsac was supposed to be the next big Bordeaux appellation. Its boomlet
- fizzled, however, and now Fronsac is hard to find in the US. A pity, since
- this can be a luscious, fruity wine with a big nose. Laurie had chicken
- breast with an herb stuffing, watercress salad and a glass of the 1990
- Chateau Hostens-Picant, a white Bordeaux from Saint-Foy-Bordeaux. This was
- a new appellation to me. The books say that these wines are usually
- semi-sweet, but this one was a typical dry white Bordeaux. For dessert I
- had a glass of a slightly thin, but tasty, 1984 Chateau Coutet; Laurie had
- the chocolate cake.
-
- With the food, four glasses of wine, a half bottle of Badoit and coffee,
- and a bill of only 320 F, we left quite satisfied.
-
- Le Repaire de Bacchus, 13 rue du Cherche-Midi, 6th. Saturday lunch.
-
- Mostly a wine shop, this tiny place across from the Poilane bakery has
- seats for about six customers. It offers a choice of a a charcuterie plate
- or a cheese plate, accompanied by Poilane bread and a glass of about six
- different wines of the week.
-
- We both ordered plates of charcuterie. With hers, Laurie had a 1991 Chateau
- Haute-Fabregues Faugeres. I had a 1985 Cuvee de la Commanderie du Bontemps
- Medoc. The Medoc was everything it should be; the Faugeres was fantastic.
- When it came time for a second glass, I switched to the Faugeres.
-
- For the excellent charcuterie and four glasses of wine, we paid 170 F.
-
- Mariage Freres, 13 rue des Grands-Augustins, 6th. Saturday afternoon.
-
- I suppose that this place just has to be experienced. A tea shop dating
- from the 19th century, it serves over 350 different teas, along with
- pastries and cold lunch items. The menu comes with a thick book called
- something like The Art of Tea, which describes in great detail how to
- choose the appropriate tea for the occasion. And if you still can't
- decide, then the oh-so-serious waiters can help you make just the right
- selection. I had a green tea mousse, with a pot of Mikado, an aromatic
- blend of Chinese teas. Laurie had a vanilla thing with raspberry sauce,
- washed down by cinnamon flavored tea. Neither pastry was worth the 40 F;
- the teas, however, were outstanding. Next time we'll skip the fancy
- pastries and have scones with our tea. The total bill for pastry and tea
- was a chere 142 F.
-
- Mariage Freres is a classy place that takes its tea very, very seriously.
- If you're a tea fanatic, it's a must stop. If you're not, it's probably
- better just to head around the corner to L'Ecluse for another glass of
- good Bordeaux.
-
- Bistro du Dome, 1 rue Delambre, 14th. Saturday night.
-
- Joyce's old Dome has turned into an upscale seafood house (with a bit of
- the old cafe up front) and spawned an informal bistro across the street
- that specializes, like Gaya, in simple preparations of the freshest fish.
-
- This is a gay place with a ceiling covered with molded glass light fixtures
- nestled among grape leaves, lots of greenery and tables filled with happy
- customers. Unlike most Parisian places, the Bistro du Dome seems to turn
- most of its tables (at least on Saturday night), packing in the customers
- early and late.
-
- In keeping with the spirit of the place, we chose simple dishes and were
- rewarded with our second memorable seafood meal of the trip. I had
- delicately fried rouget (a little too large still very good), followed by
- a whole small daurade baked with thyme. Laurie had grilled fresh sardines
- and sea scallops (with their coral -- why don't we get the coral in the
- US?) Provencal style. With the seafood we drank a bottle of 1987 Clos du
- Bourg Vouvray (96 F). For dessert Laurie had cassis and grapefruit sorbets,
- while I had a pear and prunes poached in red wine and served with a thin
- sweet sauce of red wine, pear juice, cinnamon and allspice. This was the
- most satisfying poached pear I have ever had.
-
- With coffee and a half bottle of Badoit, the bill was only 491 F.
-
- A la Grignoterie, 21 quai des Grands-Augustins, 6th. Sunday lunch.
-
- This is a simple little salad and quiche place, with a variety of salad
- plates and a selection of quiches that changes daily. Laurie had quiche
- lorraine; I had a tomato-onion-mustard quiche. A green salad comes with
- the quiche. The house wine is a decent Pays de Var.
-
- The quiches were good, and we can recommend A la Grignoterie for a quick
- lunch or dinner. In the afternoon it is a salon de the. Judging by our
- desserts, I'd try someplace else. My creme caramel was curdled and had a
- refrigerator taste. Laurie had crummy mousse of some sort.
-
- I don't seem to have written down what we paid, but I think that it was
- about 150 F for the quiches, desserts, two glasses of wine and two coffees.
-
- Cafe Drouant, 18 place Gaillon, 2nd. Sunday dinner.
-
- Paris is full of restaurants like Maxim's or Laperouse that have been
- reduced from their Belle Epoque grandeur down to expensive, tarted up
- tourist traps. We had always placed Drouant in that category until good
- reviews by Robert Noah and Catharine Reynolds stirred our interest. So,
- thinking that it would be fun to relive its between-the-wars luxury for
- a night, we decided to head there Sunday evening.
-
- Drouant is really two restaurants sharing a common kitchen. On the right
- as you enter is the very formal main restaurant, and on the left is the
- cheaper, livelier cafe. True to our little brother theme, we chose Cafe
- Drouant, aggressively Art Deco with a famous gold fish-motif ceiling,
- deco lamps mounted on mirrors and a spectacular '50s jukebox. Lots of
- leather, marble and dark paneling complete the impression of glamorous
- luxury.
-
- At dinner on weekdays and all day on Sunday, the cafe has a 230 F menu
- that includes three courses, a glass of wine and coffee. For her starter,
- Laurie had an excellent salade de foie gras a l'huile de noix ("the best
- foie gras I ever had"). I had fondant de poireau et pommes de terre au
- saumon, sort of an individual sized terrine of layers of salmon, potatoes
- and leeks bound together with a bit of mayonnaise. For our second, we both
- had Coquelet warren grillee au diable, a young rooster flattened (Laurie
- calls it "smashed chicken"), grilled and served with a peppery wine and
- vinegar sauce. For the wine, we had two glasses each of a decent 1991 Cotes
- Catalane Chardonnay from P. Puig. Dessert was chocolate cake for her, and a
- mixture of pear, raspberry and passion fruit sorbets for me.
-
- Now for the down side: Despite of the experts' enthusiasm, we can't
- recommend Cafe Drouant. The food tasted like it had been cooked by an
- anal-retentive Cordon Bleu graduate who takes the best ingredients and
- then prepares them by precisely following step-by-step a recipe he learned
- in school. The food was "perfectly" cooked but completely lacking in soul.
- The second problem area was the service. This restaurant had more service
- staff per customer than any other place we ate, including the two-star
- L'Arpege. The staff were experts at the entrance and exit bows and
- flourishes, but the rest of the time, there was a lot of bustling around
- but very little good service. For example, another table ordered a bottle
- of wine, which was placed in an out-of-reach ice bucket. Normally that
- would be ok: Drouant definitely gives the impression of being the kind of
- place where there is someone whose only job is to refill wine glasses.
- Wrong impression. Several times the wine glasses sat empty or very low
- while the staff rushed about accomplishing very little. And I had to almost
- tackle the waitress to get more bread. The third thing we didn't like was
- the attitude. The place was full of tourists (mostly Japanese) and
- definitely had a tourist trap feel about it. Despite the oily reception at
- the door, you got the impression (subtly, mind you, this is a classy place)
- that you were regarded as an uncultured foreign rube not to be taken
- seriously as a diner.
-
- If we had it to do over again, we would try the Rotisserie du Beaujolais,
- which is also open on Sunday night.
-
- With an extra glass of wine each (30 F the glass) and a half bottle of
- Badoit, the bill came to 542 F.
-
- Fauchon, place de la Madeleine, 8th. Monday lunch.
-
- After staring hungrily at Fauchon's window displays for years, we decided
- this time to try out their self-service located in the basement of the
- section of Fauchon located behind the Madeleine on rue de Seze. There are
- separate counters for drinks, pastries, cold plates and hot plates, and a
- small dining area accommodating about 50 diners. The day we were there, the
- customers seemed about one-third neighborhood workers, one-third tourists
- and one-third well-dressed older Parisian women shoppers.
-
- To get your food, you go you go from counter to counter placing your order
- and having the selected items entered on a little "credit card". When you
- have finished ordering, you take your card to a cashier, pay and receive a
- ticket for each item chosen. The tickets are then taken back to the
- counters and traded for your dishes.
-
- We both had a smoked trout plate and a bottle of Badoit. In Fauchon
- fashion the plates were very pretty, the trout decorated with cucumber
- scales and a sprig of red currants in gelee and surrounded by colorful
- diced vegetables. For dessert Laurie had a wonderfully tart and creamy
- tarte au citron, while I had to settle for a merely perfect pear-chocolate
- tarte. The bill was approximately 150 F.
-
- Rotisserie d'en Face, 2 rue Christine, 6th. Monday dinner.
-
- This is the second restaurant of two-star chef Jacques Cagna, located
- just around the corner from his eponymous grand grand place. There is
- nothing grand about the Rotisserie d'en Face, however, except the food.
- The room is rather self-consciously rustic, with brick floors, country
- style furniture with paper tablecloths, and pictures of livestock on the
- walls. Service is much like at the Bistro du Dome, informal but friendly
- and efficient.
-
- The food is fine home cooking dressed up a bit. To start, Laurie had
- snail and mushroom ravioli in a bouillabaisse broth, while I had salade
- maraichere, a winter salad of carrot, cauliflower, broccoli, lima beans,
- zucchini, cherry tomatoes and cornes (What are cornes? Do they have an
- English name?). For a second, we both had the parmentier de confit de
- lapin et son jus au thym, sort of a "pot pie" of succulent pieces of
- rabbit in a thyme flavored sauce encased in a little cylinder of mashed
- potatoes, surrounded by a wild mushroom fricassee. The bread was a
- perfectly rustic homemade five-grain bread. For a wine, the waiter
- suggested a 1991 Olga Raffault Chinon Prime Cuvee (130 F) that went
- perfectly with the rabbit. For dessert Laurie had fromage blanc with sour
- cherries and I had a pear clafoutis, both outstanding.
-
- The Rotisserie d'en Face has a three-course 175 F menu. At lunch, you can
- choose two courses for 140 F. We both had the 175 F menu. The total price,
- including the wine, coffee and a half bottle of San Pellegrino was 528 F.
-
- This restaurant seems to have a closer relationship to its more expensive
- sibling than some of the others. It is literally just right around the
- corner, and both Jacques Cagna and his sister came through while we were
- there to check things out. It is deservedly very popular, with a raucous
- crowd of people having a good time. It's open late and when we left, a
- little after 10:00, the bar was crowded with people waiting for a table.
-
- L'Arpege, 84 rue de Varenne, 7th. Tuesday lunch.
-
- We chose L'Arpege because we had decided to economize on our "fancy" meal.
- Two-star chef-owner Alain Passard has the reputation of being one of the
- most exciting cooks in town, and the restaurant offers a bargain five
- course 290 F menu at lunchtime. It seemed like the perfect combination.
-
- Once we saw the carte, however, our tight-fisted plans went out the window.
- The amuse-gueule was a chaud-froid d'oeuf a la creme. A lightly poached egg
- yolk was placed at the bottom of an egg shell and topped with a tart, light
- mixture of whipped egg white and creme fraiche. A little drop of syrup on
- top accented perfectly the savory flavors of the dish. For her entree,
- Laurie had languistines de Guilvine au caviar (220 F), a sort of carpaccio
- of langoustines that had been pounded flat, accented with a bit of cayenne,
- and surrounded by little pearls of caviar that floated in a reduction of
- fish broth and cream. I had rougets barbets a la tapenade de sardine
- (180 F), a larger, lesser type of rouget, pan grilled and served with a
- smooth, gutsy sardine tapenade. (This was also the entree on the 290 F
- menu). It was fantastic. However, I am still kicking myself for a moment
- of cheapness. I should have paid the 140 F more and gotten the carpaccio
- de St-Jacques aux truffes, wonderful thin coins of raw scallop interleaved
- with little coins of black truffle. It was a beautiful, and I am sure,
- fantastic dish. Fo our main course, we chose game and had poule faisan au
- genievre for two (440 F), a wild pheasant hen (I have a piece of shot for
- evidence), perfectly scented with juniper and roasted while we had our
- first course. The pheasant was expertly deboned at the table and just as
- expertly reassembled with the innards placed on the side. The innards
- looked awful, but once we tasted them we gobbled them up. The plates are
- ungarnished, so Laurie chose a salad of mixed wild greens and I had a plate
- of sauteed winter vegetables. For dessert, the waiter recommended the
- millefeuille vanille au whiskey, which was the most delicate millefeuille
- I have ever had. Laurie had feuilletage au chocolat, several delicate
- chocolate pastry leaves sandwiching a chocolate cream. Exquisite. With the
- coffee came the classiest act of the day: a typical little plate of goodies
- came with the coffee, tuiles, macaroons, chocolates, etc. Then, after we
- had greedily devoured all of them, the waiter brought out another plate,
- all different from the first plate! We resisted the temptation to see how
- long he could keep it up.
-
- With the pheasant, we drank a 1988 J. M. Boillot Beaune Montrevenots
- (280 F), a supple, elegant, medium-bodied Burgundy. The water was Italian
- again -- Ferrarelle.
-
- L'Arpege is fancy, having recently been decked out in the most tastefully
- expensive materials, but not stuffy. The frontroom staff are young but very
- smooth. (With one glitch: As we left, they very efficiently had our coats
- waiting for us at the door. The only problem was that I hadn't worn a
- coat.) Our reservation was for 1:00 and, except for two women chatting with
- the chef, we were the last customers to leave at 3:30. From beginning to
- end the service was attentive and gracious without ever descending to
- obsequiousness or snobbery. Even after we were the last customers left and
- most of the staff were discreetly twiddling their thumbs, the waiter was
- still trying to press "just a bit more" coffee on us. It was a great meal
- and a great dining experience.
-
- The total was 1410 F. As I mentioned, there is a 290 F five course lunch
- menu (amuse-gueule, entree, main course, cheese, dessert), as well as
- several 690 F menus available both at lunch and dinner. Except for the
- special lunch menu, there are not separate cartes for lunch and dinner.
- Whether you eat a la carte or choose one of the menus, you get your money's
- worth.
-
- Le Jardin du Fruit, 41 quai des Grands-Augustins, 6th. Tuesday dinner.
-
- Since our lunch at L'Arpege didn't end until 3:30, we didn't want much for
- dinner. In the evening we strolled around the Louvre and along the Seine,
- planning to stop somewhere like Taverne Henri IV for a light supper.
- However, we fooled around too long and places had begun to close by the
- time we were ready, so we headed down toward place St. Michel to find a
- simple place still open. On the way we ran across Le Jardin du Fruit
- which, despite its name, is mostly a creperie. It's a youthful place,
- opening and closing late and featuring a continuous program of music
- videos. To get to the toilets, you go downstairs and through an early '70s
- living room complete with shag rug, tv and large sleeping dog. The kitchen
- is also down there, and the kitchen staff, idle for the moment, were
- lounging around watching tv.
-
- The crepes were pretty good. Laurie had a ham and blue cheese one; I had
- lardons, potatoes and cheese. We shared a tasty poire and cinnamon crepe
- for dessert. No coffee -- the machine was broken. With a half carafe of
- 1991 Haut Poitou rouge (only a couple of levels above plonk but drinkable
- enough) and a half bottle of Badoit, we paid 167 F.
-
- Juveniles, 47 rue de Richelieu, 1st. Wednesday lunch.
-
- A wine bar that fit our theme, Juveniles is the less serious sibling of
- Willi's, specializing in tapas and Spanish and less "serious" French wines.
- We made a delicious lunch of a 50 cl carafe of the 1991 Domaine des
- Entrefaux Crozes-Hermitage (60 F), eggplant tapenade, Spanish tortilla,
- good jambon cru from Auvergne and gratineed potatoes. Dessert was a big
- bar of Valrhona chocolate and a coffee. The bill came to 210 F.
-
- La Luna, 69 rue du Rocher, 8th. Wednesday dinner.
-
- Good reviews in the Oct-Nov 1992 Gault-Millau magazine and Jan 1993
- Gourmet led us to this little seafood restaurant on a side street between
- the Parc Monceau and Gare St-Lazare. Burled wood paneling and a dusky red
- wall covering gave the room an informally elegant feel. Service was
- friendly and efficient.
-
- Although owner is Norman, the place had the feel of the south, and the
- menu reflected that southernness. For her first course, Laurie had mussels
- in a saffron cream sauce. I wanted the sauteed razor clams, but they were
- out, so I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to have once more my
- favorite fish, the little rougets de roche, this time fried and accompanied
- by a tapenade made from bitter oil-cured olives and herbs. For the main
- course Laurie had filets from a larger rouget (too large to be rouget de
- roche, perhaps they were grondin), grilled over wood and served with the
- tapenade. I had "andalusian" bouillabaisse, large chunks of fish and strips
- of pimiento in a spicy tomatoey fish broth. The wine list was a little
- pricy, and we chose a flowery, dry 1991 Sancerre de Bue from Gerard Morin
- (180 F). It was good, although a light red might have been better with the
- bouillabaisse. For dessert I decided on soupe d'agrumes au Sauternes.
- I understood all the words -- citrus fruit soup with Sauternes -- but
- unlike at Bistro de l'Etoile, I had no idea what I was getting. It turned
- out to consist of fresh grapefruit and orange sections arranged in a
- shallow bowl around candied orange peel, with about a quarter cup of
- Sauternes poured over it. It was just the right thing to follow the
- bouillabaisse. Laurie had nougat glace vodka au miel, kind of a nougat ice
- cream with a vodka-honey sauce. The coffee was a good Brazilian Santos.
-
- With coffee, a half bottle of Badoit and a large glass of Marquis de
- Roquebrune Armagnac VVS for me, the total came to 773 F (713 F without
- the Armagnac).
-
- Which places were our favorites? Leaving out L'Arpege, which is in a category
- all to itself, and Cafe Drouant, which is in a completely different category
- all to itself, we would have to say Gaya and the Rotisserie d'en Face. The
- cooking was uniformly excellent at all three seafood places, but we enjoyed
- the evening at Gaya very much. Of course, for the price there is a lot to be
- said in favor of the Bistro du Dome. I don't mean to slight La Luna. There is
- absolutely nothing wrong with the cooking, service or atmosphere. Perhaps, it
- was just the mood we were in or some other intangible, but we just preferred
- Gaya. Of the other three places, the cooking at Rotisserie d'en Face and Bistro
- de l'Etoile was significantly better that the cooking at Auberge Landaise and
- both were cheaper. I would like to try the Bistro de l'Etoile at night to get a
- fair comparison. But we liked the cooking at Rotisserie d'en Face a little
- better and the atmosphere a lot better, so that's our place of choice.
-
- Tom Jacob
- Department of Computer Science
- University of North Texas
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