Le Comptoir Marguery in the 13th: a sad shadow of its Mothership.

2.0 Le Comptoir Marguery, is listed at 9, Bvd de Port Royal in the 13^th but for the cognoscenti is next door to the Mothership at #9, about which we’ll speak later.

I’ve always liked Au Petit Marguery, since Paga the Flanneur “found” this 1920 bistro in the late 1960’s and Colette’s and my recent meals after the Brothers Cousin departed were revelatory in showing that the current administration upheld their tradition, ambiance and prices.  I have written that it is the “Perfect French Restaurant” and rated it consistently significantly over average.

So it was with some heightened expectation that we went today to their next-door off-shoot.  The ardoise was appealing and the prices were right (20 E for 2 dishes, 26 E for three).

Immediately the one waitguy appeared with a board with olives (good), bread (pretty good) and butter (ditto).  We ordered.

 

  

Colette had a very tasty Andalusian gazpacho with petoncles which were tasteless – strange. And I had girolles sautéed a la bordelaise (no red wine evident to me but very very good).

 
 

Then she had sturgeon with a tapenade topping which was just OK with tasty, cubed artichoke hearts and so-so sautéed zucchini slices and I had a lump (since this is a “family” blog, I’ll not give a more scatological description) of what was to have been 7-hour lamb shoulder but was a very poor cousin of the 7-hour lamb made by my friend, the French spy, at the RT Secret Hidden Table in the suburbs a week ago.  I finished neither it nor the tagliatelles it came in on.

To conclude we shared an alright chocolate moelleux with a pallid, watery, runny Chantilly sauce.

 

Our bill was 69 E.

Go?  Not until the owner(s) of the superior Au Petit Marguery takes this annex seriously and instead of having an over-the-hill chef reheating, microwaving and plating pre-prepared stuff in a 3x3 box and making a bundle off subpar stuff, links this afterthought with the kitchen of the main resto.

Comments

[Sam Slott]

John,

I think you were much too hard on Le Comptoir du Petit Marguery. I went after reading about it on Alex Lobrano's website, and we had a very pleasant meal.

Regards, Sam Slott

[Sad Love Quotes]

Yum. These shots look delicious.