Ober-Salé in the 11th: If I only had something like this on my block.

 

5.0 Ober-Salé, 17 rue Oberkampf in the 11th, 01.43.38.46.68, open/closed? (I forgot to ask), 2 courses at lunchtime = 16 and 3 = 19 €, crept onto the Parisian gastronomic scene with little notice 5 months ago, except for a little note and 6/10 rating in the Figaroscope Dossier a month ago – strange eh?

The chef is exBristol and it has only two choices for each course at lunch and four at dinner but judging from what we had, that’s enough. There are only 20 covers and it was only half-full at lunch but I bet in this yuppieville it’s packed at night.

My eating pal and I split every course and except for the pumpkin soup which could have used some pizzazz (a touch of Tabasco maybe) it was damn good fare.

We started with said soup and what sounded boring – an egg covered with a creme of cauliflower that was astonishingly good – probably because we expected so little.

Then we had a leg and thigh of pintade that was perfectly browned and toasty and tasty with smashed barely cooked potatoes, which even I, an avowed potato agnostic, found good as well two very nicely sautéed filets of merlan atop chopped leeks and garlic that had just enough zip.

We terminated with a lukewarm rice pudding with a topping of hot sweet sautéed pineapple bits and a nage of clementines with a barely tasteable ginger syrup.

With a wonderful Cotes de Ventoux, which was wonderful once it had "breathed" and two Illy coffees our bill was 64 €.

Go? Yes, why hasn’t any other critic?