John Talbott's Paris

Kigawa in the 14th: 3 years on the rue du Chateau and still relatively undiscovered. Amazing.

7.8 Kigawa, 186, rue du Chateau in the 14th, 01.43.35.31.61, closed Monday lunch and Tuesdays, (Metro: Pernety) came to my attention as follows: One of my crack restaurant spotters, who lives near this place in the 14th, said to me a month ago or so "John, do you know Kigawa?  It's been here for 3 years, no one has written it up [excepting Le Point & the Michelin which lists it as a Bib, which you'll see is not exactly the case], I can't figure out why, because it's very good French-French food done by a Japanese chef." (Addendum - who is Osaka-born and trained and cheffed for 6 years at O Rebelle in the 12th).  Well, why not? 

Its fascade is the understated zen-cool type of the moment, the interior really cool and tasteful and the only hint of Japan comes from the print of "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" by Hokusai that hangs in the toilettes and the tasteful presentation of the dishes.

The "menu dejeuner" is 28 E for 3 courses (which is why Michelin calls it a Bib I'm sure) and it looked good, but I wanted the sweetbreads, which were only available a la carte for 35 E or on the "menu plaisir" for 47+8 E.

From the amuse gueule to the mignardises the meal was outstanding, with:
- a slice of queue de boeuf with an intriguing tartary sauce
- warm grain bread
- a tartare of daurade royale which was not your usual "dump some on the plate in a pile" but an artfully arranged bed of greens with the lime-infused daurade on top and carrots, radishes, baby asparagus, pickled cauliflower, green grape slices and an outstading dressing
- my piece de.... of sweetbreads perfectly cooked (that is, crisp on the outside, moist on the inside, without having been so asked), with morels and a Château Chalon sauce
- a souffle with early strawberries and a scoop of house-made vanilla ice cream and
- coffee and mignardises.

The bill.  As I said I went for the pricy menu and sweetbreads and even so,for a couple, with a bottle of wine, the bill would be 128.40 but with the 3-course "menu dejeuner" and a bottle and 2 coffees we're only talking about 90.40 E,  And I'll add that what I say the chef serving the other folks looked mighty good.

Go?  For sure.

AT Restaurant in the 5th: If you liked Sola, Kei, Aki, etc., you'll love AT.

8.0 AT Restaurant (named such for chef Atsushi Tanaka who trained with Gagnaire), 4, rue Cardinal Lemoine (next to Chez Rene) in the 5th (Metro: Cardinal Lemoine), 01.56.81..94.08 (but they're terrible about answering) is one more very minimalist place, from its signage with the AT logo, to the giant charbon chip in the window (more about that later), to the wall sculpture, to the 3 no-choice (except for allergy substitutions) "menus" - 6 (actually 8) courses at lunch for 45 E, 11 at dinner for 85 E and a wine-pairing one for 150 E.  Despite the lack of reviews since it opened 2 weeks ago (excepting Wendy Lyn's who recommended it to me last week and Yves Nespoulous of Le Fooding's) its 19 covers were filled today with one of my favorite TV personalities, 2 critic/food-writers, a boisterous table of - of all things - French folks - and one fellow but not pesky Yankee.

- So the first dish arrived, a smaller version of the charbon chip on a bed of what?; everyone in the room looks at everyone else to see how they are going to eat these grains or whatever until I ask and am told they're black and white salt crystals meant for holding the chip not for eating.  Off they go.  Then came out (I'm remembering 25%, not remembering 50% and getting 25% wrong):
- an orange moussey thing with what looked like tiny young pickled beet bits
- a slice of lukewarm veal with rhubarb to be eaten with a fascinating giant tweezer
- three lumps of cool Breton lobster with daikon and many other things
- a perfectly cooked piece of (what must have been marinated, it was so flavorful) cod with a spring onion
- really, really bland foccacia with olive oil - the only missed step - drop it chef, it's a loser
- a healthy, under-cooked strip of duck breast from Madame Somebody-or-other in Challans, with a parsnip puree and root and tiny pickled onion slices
- a dessert of raspberry, cheese, beet and sorbet
- magnificent, terrific coffee, pricy (4 E) but making up for the weak foccacia.

I was advised (correctly) that white wine would go best with the meal and the Catevela was nice but at 35 E a bottle a bit much, although 12 E a glass is not much better.  In any case, the bill for two persons taking the 45 E menus, a bottle of Catevela, 2 coffees and none of their self-filtered water, would be 133 E.

Go?  Better do it before the big boys discover it.  Just skip the 4 E self-filtered water (Chef - it's tacky if not illegal to not serve tap water when asked!)

A bonus, the Orient Express Car is parked in front of the Monde Arab just a few meters away.

Chez Dewey in the 17th: Very pleasant on the palate and pocketbook.

5.0 Chez Dewey, 48, rue Dulong in the 17th, 01.42.67.21.52 (Metro: hummm, maybe Rome or Malesherbes, easier is the 31 Bus) open 7/7 but brunch on weekends is a nifty, spiffy new place in the happening 17th that looks and advertises itself as your neighborhood cantine but with fresh products.  The name Dewey is not from my childhood comics of Huey, Dewey and Louie or my current comic's - Dewey, Cheatem and Howe, but apparently an American TV series that escaped my attention and instead of the three Ducks we have Rémy, Ludmilla et Sandy running the show here.  The decor is retro-cool (old doors covering old stones and the ceiling) and post-cool (lettering on one wall).

The regular lunch menu items were not all that exciting, but they had a dozen "things du jour" and I went with three of them:
- the soupe du jour - a blend of lentils and mushrooms which was quite pleasant with the multi-grain bread (which should have been warmed)
- the peche du jour - 6 gambas which when eaten with the cheesy risotto and spicy rocket were quite pleasant, and
- the dessert du jour - a soup of strawberries and bananas, again very pleasant.

A bill for a couple taking 2 "menus" of 19 E x2=39 E + a bottle of wine, no bottled water but two coffees which come with 3 M&M's labelled Chez Dewey, would be 69 E, which is maybe why the place was packed, I mean really packed, with SRO at the counter.  Cute soap label eh?

Go?  Hummm.  Well you won't hear any pesky fellow Yankees but you won't hear the locals either d/t the awful, blaring Yankee music (82.8 dB).  They're trying though, let's see what happens.

Reviews of reviews: The week of April 21st, 2014

Monday-Tuesday in A Nous Paris, Jerome Berger awarded 3/5 dots to aforementioned Restaurant Will in the 12^th where he enjoyed the crisp vegetables, pork belly and red fruits with chantilly.

Tuesday in Le Fooding there was a review by Yves Nespoulous of the AT Restaurant, 4, rue du Cardinal Lemoine in the 5th, 01.56.81.94.08, , closed Sundays and Mondays, where another Japanese chef cooks French food on menus of 45 E (lunch) and 85 E (dinner)with items such as langoustine tartare, veal  and rosemary crumble.

Wednesday, Emmanuel Rubin reviewed his usual 5 places giving 2 lips to the previously mentioned Italian Penati Al Baretto and one lip apiece to Chez Ly in the 8th, Pizza dei Cioppi in the 11th, Cantine California in the 3rd and Le Grisbi in the 2^nd.

The Dossier this week was by Alice Bosio, Colette Monsat and Hugo de Saint Phalle and rated new restaurants in the Clichy-Batignolles area:

9/10 Coretta

8 Lucien La Chance

7 L'Envie du Jour, Chez Dewey, Le Boeuf Volant, Le Tourbillon

6.5 Lanna Cafe

6 Viola

And Emmanuel Rubin in the Hache Menu went to Steaking in the 6^th, costing 60-80 E.

Wednesday as well, Heidi Ellison in Paris Update reviewed the aforementioned Le Servan in the 11^th.

Thursday, in l’Express, Charles Patin O'Coohoon reviewed the restaurant Will in the 12th and Cagette in bordeaux, while Francois-Regis Gaudry raved about La Grenouillère in La Madelaine-sous-Montreuil, and Vincent Leu reviewed Philante (as in philanthrophy) where 10% of its profits go, 45 bis rue d’Aguesseau in Boulogne-Billancourt, 01.41.31.24.08, open for lunch on weekdays (formula 18.50 E) and dinner Thursday, Friday and Saturday (30 E a la carte) serving items such as gravlax with wasabi, Black Angus and chocolate mousse.

And Sunday in the JDD, Francois Lemaire reviewed the well known Gazetta under Chef Luigi Nastri; and Aurelie Chaigneau called Pizza Chic her restaurant for Sunday, Rroll, her discovery of the week and Unico her revisit.

 

Les Tantes Jeanne in the 18th: I'm still not sure how to rate this place.

4-5.5 (I'm still deciding) Les Tantes Jeanne, 42, rue de Veron in the 18th, (Metro: Abbesses),  01.42.51.14.21, has in it's favor that it's open for Sunday lunch, has a lotta great looking meat (the cotes de boeuf was awesome) and one gets 20% off by reserving thru La Fourchette - but, but, but...

While 2 of the 4 of us liked their eggs with truffle sauce, all four of us found the scallop tartare with caprices persanne (supposedly dried small capers marinated in lime sauce turning them somehow bright red and overpoweringly over-the-top) not to our taste - and mind you they had placed second in the "Concours des Chefs 2014" - Yikes!  Thus turned the meal.

Then we ordered a Iberic pork chop, magret de canard (no cooking specified), gigot of spring lamb (a point) and calf's liver (blue) and no one was really wowed - I thought my foie de veau (unpictured) was perfectly cooked but the rest were over-done and uninteresting.

Desserts: Now here's where things get weird: Madame the visiting chef from Sacramento's cafe gourmand was kinda bland, M. JJ's religieuse, which he had explained was going to be great - was not, and my souffle which I could have had with old prune but was persuaded to have with wormwood liqueur, was sans alcool.  A bummer all around.

A word about the wines - they were terrific - some Chardonnay from the Pays D'Oc for the MasterChef and a nice Corbieres for M. JJ et moi.

Our bill, after the 20% discount, and one additional coffee, was 177.68 E, thus 88.84 E a couple.

Go?  Maybe for the Cotes de Boeuf and red wine but that's it.

 

Le Tourbillon in the 17th: Boy has Cedric Tessier whirlwinded into this part of the 17th.

6.7 (I wavered between ratings, but all in the 6.0-7.5 range*) Le Tourbillon (which means whirlwind), 116, rue des Dames in the 17th, closed Sundays (Metro: Villers) 09.83.01.10.81 is a whirlwind in this very trendy/hopping part of the 17th.  The exterior is once again, zen, the interior the same but the menu is intriguing.

I was eating alone so I ordered some "bio" Cotes du Rhone which came with some lovely amuse-gueules of sardine mousses on toasted baguette pieces and a cheese "cookie."

I started with gambas tempured-style that were perfectly sourced and cooked with a "chutney" of mangos and raisins on top of spicy rocket, or maybe that's vice-versa; then quenelles de brochet in not a Nantua sauce but one of an essence of green crabs that sopped up with the OK bread or spooned was simply delicious, with a mixture of white and crisp grilled rice; and ended with an array of sorbets, the most interesting of which was, of all things, strawberry.

My bill, with nice coffee and even nicer mignardises, 50cl of wine and no bottled water comes in at 56 E but for a couple would be 101 E and with the 22 E menus, 73 E.  Noise level 64.1 playing the American Song Book but not intrusively.

Go?  I'd say so.  Yes, definitely.  Go!

* PS.  I pretend to rate only the food, not the decor, welcome, ambiance, silverware, prompt delivery of plates, niceness of the staff and chef, reasonable prices, etc., and I argue with my friend and fellow blogger R. who insists on rating the "whole experience" but it's all a bluff, all those things really do count.  And here everything was aligned in the right direction - that is - Up!

OKA aka OKɅ in the 9th: 1st the Yankees, then the Japanese, now it's the Brazilians turn.

6.0 OKA aka OKɅ, 28, rue de la Tour d'Auvergne in the 9th (wait a minute, that rings a bell, wasn't Spring born there?  Indeed, and the pesky door and crowded seating remain but the colors are now red and Raphael Rego (ex-Atelier Robuchon) has two people helping him), 01.45.23.99.13 (Bus: 85 downhill) closed Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays.  I entered a bit before my fellow blogger colleague and indulged in a glass of a very crisp lean Sancerre while reading the freebies and Le Figaro (you're never alone if you have Figaro.)  While waiting I looked at the ardoise which as my mentor HH Goldman told me, was a confusogram; how could all those ingredients appear in one meal?  "Minute Papillion" everything will be illuminated.

By illuminated I mean you should look carefully at the photos because each dish has/had all sorts of ingredients and herbs which our waitlady and the chef, speaking in French, English and I guess Portuguese, patiently explained, but I cannot for the life of me remember, but here goes:
- pieces of boudin noir in a wonderful meat wine sauce covered with a mousseline of pommes and topped with pulverized peanuts
- really great scallops with a sweet potato puree
- pork with white beans in a terrific brown sauce
- and a crumble with pineapple ice.

Our bill with two 3-course lunches (at 19 E each), plus a bottle of wine, 2 demi-bottles of San Pellegrino (at my partner's request) and one coffee winds up at 66 E.

Go?  OK, Raphael is not Daniel Rose, who could be? but he's on the trail of Eduardo Jacinto of Le Pario as a fine, interesting Brazilian chef in Paris.  Interesting guy, interesting ingredients, interesting approach to fresh products.

Le Servan in the 11th: The best prix-qualité ratio of the year 2014?

7.5 Le Servan, 32 rue Saint-Maur (not rue Servan, a block away, but more on that later), closed Sundays and Mondays, 01.55.28.51.82, (Metro: Pere Lachaise and then a bit of a schlep downhill) has gotten rather good press since it opened a bit ago - I suspect because it's run by two very attractive Filipino ladies, one of whom is the consort (remember, no one in France wants to marry anymore, except gays) of Bertrand Grebaut (of Septime) who has spent time in the kitchens of Arpege and Astrance (which thankfully she does not imitate).  The outside is zen-minimalist without signage, the inside likewise and the ceiling would be at home in Vivant.

The menu is simple but adequate, giving folks fish and meat alternatives (the deconstructed poitrine of pork looked mighty tempting).  I really did have a hard time deciding, especially when informed that there was a third plat - merlan.

I decided to go with the cuttlefish and grapefruit and spicy greens (rocket mainly) - and marked 7.0 on my trusty Rhodia pad; then the merlan coated with an incredible favorful concoction and acidulated purple spinach and big, fat frites which were not the usual Paris/Metro junk - noting 7.25 on my pad; then the rhubarb tart with strawberries - oh my - up to 7.5.

A bill for a couple, which I was not today, with the 23 E three-course lunch, a bottle of wine (when I ordered the ZigZag, the waitperson asked if I "knew it?" and I said "yes" which was the truth, but do some people not like Syrah or Grenache or both?) and 2 coffees (which coffee was extraordinary) would come to 77 E.  Not bad eh?

Go?  You'd better soon; today the place was jammed with the owner, one fellow blogger/tour guide, one critic, one magazine photog, some gay couples, some Bobo's and at least one fellow restaurateur.  dB level was pretty bad - 88.2 dB (that's a motorcycle).

Coda: Oh yes, why is it called Le Servan when it's one block away from the rue Servan?  My fellow blogger/tour guider, who has eaten here a dozen times says it's their way of saying this is "the place in the district" not up there (my wording.)

 

World War 1 - The Great War in photos - Then and now - on the Grille at the Luxembourg and the Galerie des Bibliothèques de la Ville de Paris in the Marais.

There are two splendid exhibitions of photographs about WWI aka the Grand War aka the War to End All Wars; the first, this at the Galerie des Bibliothèques de la Ville de Paris in the Marais, you know the place where they make it impossible for old people to go down and up the stairs, which has photos of daily life (quotidien) that reminded me of my friend and colleague Professor Ronald Rosbottom's forthcoming book "When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation, 1940-1944."

2 Wow's

The second terribly moving exhibition is on the grilles of the Luxembourg Gardens of the WWI battle sites photographed as they stand today; the horror and waste of lives is stunning.

And most moving is King George's statement below the photo of the Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery and Memorial to the Missing "We can truly say that the whole circuit of the Earth is girdled with the graves of our dead. In the course of my pilgrimage, I have many times asked myself whether there can be more potent advocates of peace upon Earth through the years to come, than this massed multitude of silent witnesses to the desolation of war."

3 Wows.

Restaurant Will in the 12th: Wow, you sure hit the sweet spot William.

7.0 Restaurant Will, 75, rue Crozatier in the 12^th, 01.53.17.02.44, closed Sundays and Monday nights (Metro: Ledru-Rollin) has been knocking the critics dead since it opened a month ago.  The chef, one William (Will) Pradeleix has been all over - Bora Bora with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Marmounia in Marrakech, the Connaught in London and most recently here at Manger, the somewhat quirky but good concept place – and the results appearing in front of you show the fruits of his travels.  The facade is so zen you almost miss the cool capital W above the door and the interior is clean, cool and has a great spidery central lamp.  The carte has a lot of offerings for a place this small and we three did a lot of back and forthing before deciding.

For first, my friends had asparagus with rhubarb and a mayo-y sauce and a carpaccio of maigre with soy and I had hamachi with grapefruit – my fellow blogger R. had to rate them in rank order but JJ and I thought they all merited a Lake Woebegone “above average” – indeed, way above average.

Then R. had the poitrine of pork with grilled artichoke hearts quartered, JJ the daikon, shellfish, etc., on top of squid ink risotto and a contrasting turmeric sauce and I had the plat du jour – beef cheeks with bok choy, shiitakis and a Thai bouillon – this time, Mr. Exact thought his was best but we were not far behind.  We demurred.

 

Finally, my friends ordered an “Eton Mess” - red berries with vacherin and fromage blanc as well as a selection of goat cheese and I held back but the chef sent out a lovely panna cotta with Thai basil and mango sorbet covered with a sugar wafer that was artistic in all ways and shapes.  A nice gesture - thanks chef!

Our bill, with the moral equivalent of 2 bottles of wine, no bottled water, a fine passion fruit mignardise and one coffee was 170.50 E for three, thus 113.66 E a couple.

Go?  I’d run if I were you.