4.1 Breizh Café, 109, Rue Vieille du Temple in the 3rd, 01.42.72.13.77, closed Sundays and Mondays is a really different kind of place than I and I daresay most French eaters have ever experienced and therefore is really unrateable.
Why? Because it does to crepes what Wolfgang Puck did with pizza; it turns them on their head; is the third branch of a Japanese outfit; and has two Japanese cooks who turn everything out effortlessly. The décor is what might charitably be called Breton-dock-ferry terminal waiting room modern, that is, strips of unfinished wood. The tables are functional and the menu huge.
There must be 20 crepe varieties divided into simple (such as one with one of three Bordier butters), complex (that start with an egg and usually have cheese, a meal/fish and something else) and the daily chalkboard specials (with provincial names like Auvergnate, Cancaloise, etc. that are also composed of a regional cheese, fish or meat and other items.)
We started off with 6 Tzarskaya oysters (apparently a favorite of the Tsar/Tzar) that were great with a “simple” crepe schmeared with smoked (correct) butter and not over-chilled (my friend and I simultaneously agreed).
Then we shared a platter of four different kinds of pig sausage/meat; quite good. Then to two fancy crepes: one with herring, warm potatoes and herring caviar; the other with egg, ham, cheese and confited onion; both again quite good. With them, of course we had two different “bio” ciders (but NB, they also have unique beers and some wine by the glass and bottle).
Dessert was another crepe with gariguette strawberries and what was called Chantilly but was firm not saucy and an ice-creamy yogurt.
Our bill = I have no idea. My buddy owed me a meal and settled up for us and was out the door while I was in the men’s so I never saw it. But Rubin says to count on 20-30 € per person without liquid.
Should one go? Well if you’re staying in the Marais, you’ll eat at a place of which there are only two others in the world and they’re in Cancale and Tokyo.
*Originally published in May 2007
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Update in March 2009 when Colette and I ate with our two 10-year old grandkids:
The Breizh Café was our choice the first day because I thought it would break them into the French resto scene easily. Unfortunately, they were really jet-lagged and sleepy, having watched movies all night on the plane, so one had just a green salad (which portion was most generous but whose dressing had no character) and the other a crepe with Valrhona chocolate, which was quite good.
Colette didn’t rave about her galette with Forme d’Ambert, pine nuts, grapes, honey and salad but I loved mine with raclette and pork poitrine and an egg.
We finished with a crepe with caramel sauce and ice cream that was yummy.
The bill with wine and coffee = 70 €.
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