Gordon Ramsay, in Paris, you’re kidding me, F*** D*** S*** C***? No, I’m not.

5.8 La Veranda at the Trianon Palace, 1 bvd de la Reine in Versailles, 01.30.84.55.55, open 7/7, opened to uniformly negative reviews all the way from a busted heart from Emmanuel Rubin in Figaroscope to Trish Deseine’s kids in Le Fooding saying the fish had “un arrière-goût de sang” and the “basil sorbet avait un goût bizarre.”

Whoa! “Go there, not on your life,” said one of our pals when we invited him for a friendly Sunday lunch. In any case, five hearty souls ventured out of the city in a very easy-riding Alfa-Romeo provided by diner #4 (I’m numbering them as American waitfolk do, I’m told) and we arrived at this spectacular hotel palace on the edge of the Versailles gardens.

We took a lot of photos, stumbled through the rain over unfinished walkways and entered a fairy land.

The outré bar alone had about 15 tables where people (I assume) denied access to the inner sanctuary, were sipping, snacking and eating.

We passed through a two-story bar stacked with glasses and bottles of wines, etc. facing Ramsay’s weekday show (featuring a 150 € tasting menu) and entered the much nicer veranda facing the gardens, again two stories tall. Wow! It’s good to be the King.

Firsts: #1 and I had the stuffed calamar rings (coulda fooled me) with fried tentacles hidden under a salad, not bad; #2 a yummy Jerusalem and cauliflower and something else soup, #3 risotto with chorizo and parmesan (I’ll never be happy til I’m back in Modena, but this will serve well until then), and #4 a pasta with an incredible red sauce and a lobster atop that I deemed the “Best of Show.”

Mains were for #1 a monkfish that was OK, #2 and 4 an unbelievable veal T-Bone – veal T-Bone, when have you seen that on a menu? – it was succulent, with a Bearnaise sauce and so-so potatoes that were sort of faux-Noirmoutier and a fine salad, #3 a piece of lamb with top-class (you won’t believe this) onions rings, and I had what I thought was the last horse in the race – a beef stew that was undistinguished but came with lardons of pancetta (very tasty) on a bed of spinach (good) and cream of celery (fabulous).

The bread/rolls were warm and OK, the butter deemed nul by popular vote and the tiramisu OK. For dessert my wonderful French resulted in three of us having the moelleux that was not the usual flat round thing but a tall tower with a most marvelous crunchy exterior that we were instructed to cut the tops off; #3 had a cold but wonderfully tasty and moist crème brulee and #4 a pannacotta that was OK (but about which secretly I rejoiced they’d misheard me about).

We had a Chateau Simeone Palette wine (very rare I was told, and very cher I discovered), 2 bottles of Chateldun and 5 coffees = 425 €. Oh yah, they forgot the before/with/after nummies until our assertive but most seductive #4 diner asked about (the only service gaffe if one ignores the waiters deaf ear to the difference between a café noisette and café crème.)

Should you go? Yes, at least once. Come on, sometimes the French critics are operating as if Waterloo were yesterday.

Comments

[Jeff]

I have never had monkfish, I can't get past how ugly that fish is.

[John Talbott]

I love the taste although others such as Colette do not.