6.1. Le Petit Colbert, 8, rue Monsigny in the 2nd, 01.40.20.42.16 open 7/7, is the younger sibling (I think) of the Grand Colbert (at least the senior waiter came from there, recounted my dining partner).
It looks like a thousand other places and could be a movie set replica of the bistros we frequented in the late '60's and early '70's except on closer inspection the lamps are shiny and new as are the table settings. The menu is classic, comfort food and the critics have been widely divided. Solution: go with a top-notch chef and see who's right.
2 dishes (at lunch) are 22E and 3 are 28E and the choices on and off the "menu" are wonderfully comprehensive; including a big shellfish selection. My partner chose the terrine of ecrevisses and veggies that was nice but I thought my lentils topped with perfectly crisped bacon bits a la a salad frisee exceeded standard.
Then he had a fine pepper-steak (ordered saignant but still edible by me) and I the confit de canard, excellently prepared; the only off-notes were the potatoes that I considered so-so, but then I'm no judge.
For dessert he had the profiteroles (which I would never order, I dunno why, and which he seemed not too enthusiastic about) but my chestnut creme (brullee-type thing) was the perfect end to a perfectly simple meal. The bill with a nice bottle of wine and no coffees (for that we went to the nifty place on the rue St Roch) or bottled water was 98.50E which he picked up after I protested and rolled on the floor a bit - woosh - as Renault said in Casablanca "Another precedent gone....."
Go? You bet. As the meal ended, I realized, this is the food I really like; honest, gutsy, yah fatty, but down-to-earth stuff, not frou-frou, etherial, fluffed essences. It's in the L'Ami Louis (just a bistro, Ma'am) tradition at 1/4th the price. And, they have a room upstairs large enough to have a big private party.
John, this looks like the old Mellifere address. Do you know if Alain Atibard still has any connection here?
Posted by: Laidback | March 21, 2011 at 08:09 PM
Absolutely but my dining partner thought it was now under the houlette of the Grand. Who knows? I didn't ask.
Posted by: John Talbott | March 21, 2011 at 08:13 PM