In my pre-blog days, I used to print up a guide to restaurants in Paris I found interesting and distribute it like a samizdat to folks coming over. It had one section that consisted of where to go for one excellent dish, be it bouillabaise, a coq au vin or couscous. I thought this was pretty clever until Colette pointed out that the restaurants I was pointing people to, weren’t good for much else and what if the entire table didn’t want the most fabulous pot au feu or rice pudding in town.
And then I would go to places where I was the only person out of 5-6 reviewers, who didn’t love a place. Recently others have drooled over places like Pantruche, Jaja and Le Boudoir, whereas I have found them minimally amusing at least and very disappointing at most. This has even happened at other places when my dining partner(s) walks out very satisfied and I’m grumbling and muttering.
Sooner or later, I ask myself: “Did I order the wrong thing?” Indeed, my boss at Paris by Mouth said as much when I under-praised a recent meal at the new incarnation of Le Boudoir – saying “….maybe he ordered wrong….”
But wait a minute. Order the wrong things? That means one must know which items a chef can do and which he cannot. So, slavishly eating only what Rubin or Berger/Toinard have praised becomes normal rather than choosing something one truly wants or craves or needs, for instance, foie gras, or an entrecote or gaspacho?
I think not. For several reasons.
First, while a chef may do fish or meat better, if he’s worth his salt other products won’t get 3rd rate treatment. Second, it’s a rare table of Americans or ex-pats who all order the same thing – I’ll leave aside the elderly couples from Marne-la-Vallee who read the menu to each other and order exactly the same courses. And finally, what does it say about a place when you have to tell friends or readers for that matter, order nothing but the “x.”
Perhaps William Ledeuil, Daniel Rose and Gregory Marhand are special in seeking out interesting combinations of unordinary ingredients and cooking them with care and imagination or maybe they are so surdoué they can do anything well - but that implies that the other 2397 rated restaurants in town are substandard and I refuse to accept that.
No I think there is no such thing as ordering the wrong thing – if it’s on the menu, or even if it’s not (a green salad), it should be good. And parenthetically, let me add that the few times I’ve ordered a salade verte, the dressing has often astonished me.
Where you can’t go wrong:
Spring
6, rue Bailleul in the 1st (Metro: Louvre-Rivoli)
T: 01.45.96.05.72
Open for dinner Tuesday-Saturday, lunch Friday.
Lunches now 38, 6-course dinner menu 64 €, small plates in the Buvette at night about 6-7 €.
Frenchie
5, rue du Nil, 2nd, (Metro: Sentier)
T:01 40 39 96 19
Open now for two seatings at dinner Mondays-Friday
Menus: dinner 27 or 33 €.
Ze Kitchen Galerie
4, rue des Grands Augustins, 6th (Metro: Saint Michel)
T: 01 44 32 00 32
Closed Saturday lunch and Sundays.
Menus: 26.50-39 (lunch), 80 (dinner) and a la carte 90 €.
And then I would go to places where I was the only person out of 5-6 reviewers, who didn’t love a place. Recently others have drooled over places like Pantruche, Jaja and Le Boudoir, whereas I have found them minimally amusing at least and very disappointing at most. This has even happened at other places when my dining partner(s) walks out very satisfied and I’m grumbling and muttering.
Sooner or later, I ask myself: “Did I order the wrong thing?” Indeed, my boss at Paris by Mouth said as much when I under-praised a recent meal at the new incarnation of Le Boudoir – saying “….maybe he ordered wrong….”
But wait a minute. Order the wrong things? That means one must know which items a chef can do and which he cannot. So, slavishly eating only what Rubin or Berger/Toinard have praised becomes normal rather than choosing something one truly wants or craves or needs, for instance, foie gras, or an entrecote or gaspacho?
I think not. For several reasons.
First, while a chef may do fish or meat better, if he’s worth his salt other products won’t get 3rd rate treatment. Second, it’s a rare table of Americans or ex-pats who all order the same thing – I’ll leave aside the elderly couples from Marne-la-Vallee who read the menu to each other and order exactly the same courses. And finally, what does it say about a place when you have to tell friends or readers for that matter, order nothing but the “x.”
Perhaps William Ledeuil, Daniel Rose and Gregory Marhand are special in seeking out interesting combinations of unordinary ingredients and cooking them with care and imagination or maybe they are so surdoué they can do anything well - but that implies that the other 2397 rated restaurants in town are substandard and I refuse to accept that.
No I think there is no such thing as ordering the wrong thing – if it’s on the menu, or even if it’s not (a green salad), it should be good. And parenthetically, let me add that the few times I’ve ordered a salade verte, the dressing has often astonished me.
Where you can’t go wrong:
Spring
6, rue Bailleul in the 1st (Metro: Louvre-Rivoli)
T: 01.45.96.05.72
Open for dinner Tuesday-Saturday, lunch Friday.
Lunches now 38, 6-course dinner menu 64 €, small plates in the Buvette at night about 6-7 €.
Frenchie
5, rue du Nil, 2nd, (Metro: Sentier)
T:01 40 39 96 19
Open now for two seatings at dinner Mondays-Friday
Menus: dinner 27 or 33 €.
Ze Kitchen Galerie
4, rue des Grands Augustins, 6th (Metro: Saint Michel)
T: 01 44 32 00 32
Closed Saturday lunch and Sundays.
Menus: 26.50-39 (lunch), 80 (dinner) and a la carte 90 €.
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