Le Relais de l'Entrecote in the 6th

 

5.0 Steak frites anyone?

Le Relais de l’Entrecote, recently opened a 4th such (not to be confused with the Relais de Venise l’entrecote or l’Entrecote; do we have a little Original Ray’s Pizza syndrome here?) at 101, blvd de Montparnasse in the 6th, 01.46.33.82.82, open 7/7, makes no bones about what they serve.

The wait person appears and says “How do you want ‘em?” Not “Here’s the menu” or “Would you like to know how it works here? Nope - “How do you want ‘em?” So my favorite single downstairs neighbor looked confused, then enlightened, and said “a point” and I “bleu” and they were just that.

We had nice salads with walnuts and great dressing first and some lousy bread but very reasonable wine. Then the entrecotes which were just the right size and had the famous “secret” sauce, whose secrecy has certainly been bandied about more than Obama’s love of basketball, served with a ton of “match” potatoes.

And just as I was commenting on how great it was to be back in the land of reasonable portion sizes, the waitress arrives with seconds of both (a la Zurich) – a nice but unnecessary touch.

For dessert she had what was called a semifredo but was an ice cream paradise with Grand Marnier and toasted almond slices and I had 5, count them, 5 cheeses and ample slices too, that were perfectly affinated, which I thought was incredible for a joint that must be tourist central at night. Finally the coffee was terrific and as serré as I’ve had North of Milan. Our bill = 82.35 € (a contrefilet menu is 24.50).

Go? Context may not be everything but on a day when I got dripped on, on an airplane, “lost” my passport for an hour and had my phone cut off, it counted as just pure pleasure.

Comments

[julotlespinceaux]

And how is it different from le Relais de Venise l'Entrecôte and l'Entrecôte. I must say I was fooled -- they look remarkably identical to me.

[johntalbott]

Well, without getting into fights about copyright or intellectual property or who's idea was it first, I'd say that's the point. Imitation is a good form of flattery and if you've got a formula that pulls in the customers, why fight?

[johntalbott]

sorry, whose not who's