Itineraires; an even better revisit*

June 3^rd, I said:

It’s even better than Temps au Temps. Why? I dunno.
6.2 Itineraires, 5, rue de Pontoise in the 5th, 01.46.33.60.11, closed Sundays and Mondays, has been written up by all the big boys and I’d been delaying going until I could with the RFC. Today was the day. I had really liked Sylvain Sendra’s cooking at Temps au Temps and equally admired Sarah’s sang froid in the front room. But could they go successfully from 20 covers on the Rue Paul Bert to 2.5 times that in the 5th. The short answer is yes. One enters and it’s quite different; new, big, airy, welcoming – Sarah and two other wait-folk; blackboards all over with the 3 course 34 € (29 for 2) menu containing 4/5/4 plus daily specials in all three categories. The RFC ordered the hure Lyonnais which he liked and I thought was standard, but my green asparagus with a foie gras vinaigrette and dried tuna belly (like smoked duck breast slices) was outasight. He then had a magret de canard with sliced beets that again I thought were gold standard but my confited beef cheek(s) with pureed potatoes were/was incredible; the sauce intense and different from the norm. Then he had a round of picodon cheese that was straight from the frig but good; while I had a deconstructed lemon tart with sorbet that was as good as it gets. The bill after a lot of wine, one glass of which was “offered,” no bottled water and one coffee was 105 €.
Go? You bet; this is this spring’s l’Epigramme, Afaria, Spring, etc., eg the bright shining star of the season.

The three harshest critics I know came back with me today and loved it.  Even the bread.

 

For firsts we had the tomato gazpacho, sardine rillettes with a [sic] cornichon sorbet and a rabbit nem roll with mousseron mushrooms and cilantro; all inventive, slightly but not too busy or deconstructed and delicious.

 

Then we had the joue de boeuf with mashies, that were mashed and whipped with something akin to egg whites posited Madame the expert cook; a huge souris of lamb with a coco-bean puree; rabbit with celery puree with vanilla; cod with clams and Japanese citrus (combawa) all also super.

 

Finally I had a chocolate wonder with peanuts in the air; others the strawberries and rhubarb and what was called citron tart revisted – which surely was – this was truly deconstructed but very well deconstructed.

 

Our bill for 4, with 4 coffees, 2 bottles of wine and no bottled water was 168 €.

 

*Our revisit was June 24^th, fully paid and we reserved again for next week.

Comments

[Alexander]

Went on your recommendation (among others) with high hopes last night and was disappointed. The starters were excellent but went downhill from there. The service was eratic (three different servers stopped to ask if we'd ordered and then suddenly we were abandoned after the first course), the mains (quail with celery purée and a mango/vanilla sauce was a failure - bird overcooked and overwhelmed by the sweetness of the sauce), Peanut Chocolate dessert was wonderful. Two espressos were weak and tepid. Fun place to go for dinner but certainly not worthy of the praise its had so far.

X

[JohnTalbott]

Sorry to hear that.
We've done so well twice we're returning Thursday. I'll be on the lookout for glitches.