#* Batofar, Port de la Gare (or more descriptively, really down at Seine-side, Left Bank, alongside 6-8 other boats) in the 13th, 01.53.60.17.00 (but no reservations when they're serving outside), is open lunch and dinner except for dinner Sundays and Mondays. It reopened earlier this year with a "new team, [new chef], new spirit, methodical cleaning" and positioning between jazz joint and restaurant (said Figaroscope at the time.)
#*Usually when I go to a place, I'm calculating a rating between 0 and 10 in my mind as I move through the meal, and this time, I realized there was no one "summative" one and instead I had to break it down into components.
The location - 6-8, because if you live within access to the #14 Metro, it's a cinch (a half hour for me from the deepest 18th), otherwise it's a schlep.
The setting - 8-9, beautiful situated as it is between the other such boat/soiree/restaurants, facing the lovely Gardens of Bercy rather than ugly towers of F. Mitterand's Library with the neat Beauvoir double-swooping bridge just West.
The decor - 6-8, the outside tables which are used in summer and in good weather are more like camp picnic tables but inside the boat, the rooms are wonderfully sparking and the bathrooms, real "heads."
The menu, i.e., carte - 4-6, rather ordinary, boring sounding but not just microwaved finger food as I was led to believe by a friend who'd been here for a wine and morsels and wine and music and wine evening.
Products 4-6, fresh, well provenanced, albeit not mind-poppingly dazzling. My first was a Basque pate with a generous portion of fresh salad greens and an over-generous amount of cornichons that hit the spot.
Preparation - 5.5, simple but not inventive. My Aubrac bavette was cooked to my liking (blue) but needed more than fresh ground pepper or mustard to come alive - ah, the garlicky potatoes did the trick.
Service - 2-8, at times friendly and prompt, at others, as if on another planet. As an example, it took a long time for them to see that I'd finished the main and was reading the newspaper, whereas the creme catalane appeared promptly.
Cooking - 5, adequate but with the chef spending most time on the telephone, computer or smoking, one was not sure.
Price - 5, what one would expect. In my case 43 E, with a lovely red a la ficelle.
Had fun - 8, yes indeed.
Anything else - 4 - A chipped wine glass and sparrows on the tables (they need a few of those fake owls).
Go back? - 2-7, for a soiree with 20 friends, indeed, for an intimate dinner with Colette, faggedaboudid. On the other had, if we move to the Bercy Park, I might try the Charleston next door, which was bursting at the seams vs the 5 measly customers at the Batofar.
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