0.5 The Chalet des Iles Daumesnil on the Reuilly island in the Daumesnil lake in the Bois de Vincennes, 12th, 01.43.07.00.10, open everyday, all year, seemed the ideal place to go on a perfect day in late August.
It’s a bit of a schlep over from the Porte Dorée metro stop, but it is really beautiful, spectacularly beautiful, and makes you think you’re truly in the country, with swans, geese, boaters, bikers, runners, picnickers, etc.
The place sits on one of two islands in the lake, reachable by a bridge and despite looking uninhabited from the other shore, from the entrance looks huge with a grand lawn and chaises lounges spread all over and about 40 covers outside under umbrellas and who knows how many on the porch and inside. What a find!
Beautiful, nice menu with lots of choices and moderately priced wine by the glass, pot and bottle (4+, 12+ and 19+ € respectively). Ah, there’s something wrong with this picture, John. Yes, the food.
I ordered two items I thought were failsafe; “crispy” chicken and salad and gambas with a spicy sauce. I decided after my first bite of the mushy (hardly crispy) chicken that the spices it was cooked in were just “not to my liking” but I should withhold judgment on the dish because maybe it was just me.
But when the gambas came tough and rubbery and their sauce was equally “not to my liking,” I decided it was not just me.
One more ding; two of the waitstaff let me sit for minutes, indeed many, many minutes, with my menu clearly closed, without taking my order or calling “my” waiter; they were simply too busy conversing to tend to the ample number of customers.
Someone, Francois Simon, I think, said that by eating anonymously, one got what the average diner gets, not the 5 best crustaceans one would get if recognized – I’d wished I’d been outed.
The bill = 47 €.
Should one go? The Scots verdict: Not proven.
*Originally published in September 2007.
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