6.5 L'Escient, 28, rue Poncelet in the 17th (Metro: Ternes), 01.09.66.92.49.13, closed Sundays at lunch and Mondays at dinner sounds like all the other Asiatically-influenced places opening in Paris these days - with a mother, father and daughter who have passed through the House of Ducasse and use ginger, lime, coriander, tarama, honey-soy sauce and daîkon.
They have 2 courses for 26 and three for 35 E and my cooking tour-leading friend and I both had the cold shrimp and pureed cauliflower wrapped in white raddish with bei (whatever that is.) It was good but no sparks flew.
Then we both had fish from the daily special chalkboard; she the bar with bak choi and mushrooms and I the crispy-skinned mullet with artichokes and bergante (whatever that is). Both were excellent product, perfectly prepared but - ah, lacking in fireworks as well.
Finally I ordered the sauteed chunks of mango, pineapple and passion fruit with a scoop of ice cream and vanilla beans and a tuile, and again, you've got it, quite good, but............
Our bill, with a bottle of wine, no bottled water and only one coffee, was 92 E.
Go? As my old friend the RFC would say 'It's not urgent."
A 6.5 mark for "L'escient" and you would say "It's not urgent", while "La classe" gets 5.9 but "Oh yes!"
I'm a bit dumbfounded.
Posted by: kirikou | January 29, 2012 at 12:32 PM
When I was in college I came upon Emerson's saying "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" and I've tried to live by that ever since. Well, it's true, I said go back to La Classe but not L'Escient. Last year I thought Agape Substance was top-rated but never went back. My ratings rate the food; my Go? reflects my gut. That's about as well as I can explain it. Try them both and tell me.
Posted by: John Talbott | January 29, 2012 at 06:49 PM
My "little mind" applauds you for trudging along with your numerical ratings; please don't allow big minds to dissuade you.
Posted by: Jim Hutchinson | January 30, 2012 at 03:10 PM