8.0 Le Regalade St Honore, 123, Rue St Honore in the 1st (Metro: Louvre-Rivoli), 01.42.21.92.40, closed weekends, opened Monday night and is already full to bursting before a single review has appeared in the print media - just Meg Zimbeck's blog review and note on Chowhound and word of mouth. Amazing!
I went today after 12 hours of frantically calling the tele number I had and finally connected. Welcomed so-so, but M. Doucet said something to the waitress about M. Talbott and I figured I had been outed, so what? In addition, one customer kept looking at me saying to himself either "I know that face, from where?" or "that's one ugly old dude." Who cares?
Just like at the Jean-Moulin mother-ship, they brought out the massive terrine with bread and cornichons - very comforting- felt like home - but I do have two suggestions when he/they read this, try to get someone to provide the classic Regalade bread and give us plates on which to prevent drips and drops from the cornichons' liquid.
Now I had a chance to scope the clientele. It seemed that almost everyone was already known to the house, the 6 hefty suits who Mafia-kissed each other looked straight from the Godfather and while I didn't hear the word omerta, it was there - are these their investors? But the rest of the crowd was very diverse - gay, lesbian, pregger ladies, FON (Friends of Nicolas), corporate types, save-the-planet-types, perfect teeth and those in need of implants, French Canadians, well you name it. 30 covers but not crowded like the mother house.
A word about the decor - two women I know, didn't like the beige wall paint, one feeling that it was not warm and inviting enough - me being a sensitiveless guy-guy who never notices my wife's haircuts or my kids' new clothes or grand-kids' missing teeth - thought it was just fine, albeit still smelly.
I started with the cassolette of morels in a dark killer cream sauce with tiny crispy, crunchy micro-croutons, gone to heaven. Meg said she couldn't finish hers - silly girl.
Then I had what Meg did as a main too - the poitrine of pork which had an incredible crisp outside and tender inside (which when asked by the waitperson whether it was cooked to my liking - I replied "perfection") on a bed of lentils and sauce. Now I didn't finish all the fatty part, feeling that unlike Meg, I didn't want to spend my afternoon running it off.
I wound up choosing a rhubarb and red berry dessert - which sounded healthy, except between the two was an enormous layer of whipped cream.
My bill? Now I'm going to do some fancy dancing. The "menu" is 33 E, which is a terrific value, but there are supplements (in my case 6 E for the morels) and a 3.50 coffee and homemade madeleine, so if you avoid them and bottled water, with wine one can still exit near the magic 50 Euro number pp.
Go? My famous Dad, whose family owned a farm in Iowa, used to say his tastes were just those of a simple Iowan farmboy - well, me too. This is simple/complex, farm/city chow. If you can get in.
We went last night with My (our) Friend Flicka and were bowled over; I found the decor to be soothing and a huge improvement over the Alesia institution and the service much more pleasant. The food was just top de top; the 4 of us all ordered something different and there wasn't a throwback in the 12 servings. I made reservations to go again for lunch on the 20th.
Posted by: Laidback | May 05, 2010 at 12:23 PM
What's with the hype. Just finished having dinner with 4-people there tonight. We had heard that the 14eme restaurant had very mixed reviews, so I wanted to try the one in the 1eme. They hurried us so fast with the terrine, that we barely got it on our bread before it was whisked away, since our entrees were ready. The bread turned out to be stale anyway, and the ones that followed were rubbery? What's up with that? Only saving grace was the porc de potrine, but our friends told us that in the 14eme it was served over greens, here it was served with lentils, way too heavy for such a rich meat. I'd rather go to Chez Denise close by for more "authentic" atmosphere and better quality food. Where they get you is with the wine prices, so it's really not a good deal.
Posted by: Rod | June 24, 2010 at 12:30 AM
I'd really like to go... I live in Australia and are going to Paris soon.
But how do i make a reservation? Thefork.com only lets me make booking at the original restaurant but this one is so much more centralised!
Posted by: viv in sydney | September 29, 2010 at 09:01 AM
Telephone 01.42.21.92.40.
Posted by: John Talbott | September 29, 2010 at 09:22 AM