Atao in the 17th is a oyster/shellfish/fish place in the new Bobo-happening/hotspot on the Right Bank, a few blocks from the huge development which was supposed to be Delanoye's shining city on the hill, the Olympic 2012 Village, stolen from us by Perfidious Albion's dastardly Prime Minister who undermined our effort by actually lobbying the Olympic committee himself - I mean, this is shocking, he actually chatted them up. How unfair! So as a consolation prize, it will be bigger than "the City," housing at least 3,400 apartments, 140,0000 m2 of office space for the new Palais de Justice de Paris and the Direction régionale de la Police Judiciaire as well as (it is rumored but denied) by the new French "Pentagon". Too bad Bigarrade didn't hold on a bit longer, but no matter, Atao is here. BTW, Atao is named for the Breton word for eternity not Atao-san, the Japanese chef, and it's the ideal place for a Sunday lunch.
For starters, the ladies both had the langoustines with salad - nickel; M. le chef had a carpaccio of daurade which he, an exacting critic, found very good; while I had sauteed squid which were crispy and delicious.
For mains, Madame the chefesse had the bulots and a plateful of steamed veggies from Alain Passard; Monsieur the chef had the pot au feu of coquillages; Colette had a bass ceviche and I the laquered mackerel, nicely smoked like the Japanese do eel. All were happy campers.
The rest of us were too satiated for dessert but our intrepid chef-pal soldiered on with a baked apple.
Our bill, with two bottles of wine, one of water, two coffees and very fine bread, was 187 E, thus 93.50 with a serving of bulots and 1/4 bottle of wine left-over for supper.
"Two bottles of wine" . . . 187 euros . . . would it not have been useful for we (faithful readers) to know how much of the bill those two bottles (not otherwise described) accounted for? (forgive the preposition ending)
Posted by: Bud Carlos | March 27, 2012 at 06:56 AM