Le Sot l'Y Laisse in the 11th is a place I so liked a few weeks ago, despite the flaws (slow service, difficulty with language, unavailability of dishes listed as available Today on the ardoise) that I made a reservation for Colette and me to come back to today.
There it was - clearly marked Aujourd'hui - and I figured I was half-way home - foie gras and pied de porc for me - easy money - and I figured Colette for the friccasse of sot l'y laisse with wild mushrooms and turbot. As I sat down, I addressed the waitress, who half-recognized me, and said "Today I see you have the pied de porc, unlike last time........." Silence. "Ah, actually, because of the holiday(s), we only have the 'menu'". Arggggh!, Groan. Soft weeping.
Colette arrives. I say "They only have the 'menu'" - she takes one look at it and I can see the wheels turning - where can we get to fast as a bailout. Me, "It was really great last time, even though they didn't have the pied de porc." She "Alright, let's go 50/50 down the 2/2/2 choices." "OK."
French waitlady comes back: says " I saw you weeping and wimpering over here for the second time in a month, it's driving the other customers away, shape up, the chef will dig up the pied de porc if it means so much to you, wimp!"
Colette has the leeks in gelatin (which I had a taste of after gloating about my dish and found them burned on the outside and blah on the inside). Lucky me, I had the essentilly sashimi-quality tuna with shaved Joel Thiebaut veggies - I'm in heaven, so much so that when the waitlady turns to me while trying to get thru the "menu" items in French with 3 Japanese lads ("the chefs of tomorrow" she tells us) I act most unFrench and UnAmerican and unMasculine - I actually offer to translate. My Japanese is pretty rusty, but I can get negotiate sashimi, biiru, pachinko and Ikebukuro and then stop short. OK, they're on their own. But they really aren't - almost half the place is occupied by Rising Sunnistes.
Meanwhile, after a considerably long wait, we're onto our mains - Colette with the cod, braised chou and rather "firm" mushroom slices and I with the lentils and pied de porc. Both OK but no world records set.
Colette's dessert was the strangest darn thing I've seen and/or tasted in Japan, France or America; it looks perfectly ghastly doesn't it? The cream around the tasteless gelatin circle was ok - but once again the gelatin gets a zero!
They had unusually good Ricard coffee and pretty good bread; our bill with a bottle and a half of wine (I told you the service was slow) was 97 E.
Go? Tough call. Maybe in 6 months if the Japanese bloggers don't ruin it; damn bloggers!
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