6.9 La Cantine du Troquet Cherche-Midi, 79, rue du Cherche-Midi in the 6th, closed Saturday for lunch (Metro: St Placide), 01.43.27.70.06, is the fourth, count them, 4, such Troquet opened by Christian Etchebest in the last decade. One wonders, how can he run four places and keep the quality as high as it is? Sure, Michel Rostang started the Bistros d’a Coté movement and as far as I’m concerned, he, Savoy, Cagna and Robuchon maintained the quality in several offshoots the same way Etchebest (and Constant) now is.
Before beginning seriously, the Real Food Critic (RFC), who arrived before I and had already installed himself ordered up a bit of white wine and with it came some of Etchebest's lovely charcuterie and an amuse of a brussel sprout leaf inside which was the most wonderful sautéed scallop and herring and sauce of my life.
He ordered up a fine Chinon and had oeufs mayo which were hard, cold and without redeeming character, as opposed to my cabbage stuffed with pigs' feet and draped with the divine brown sauce - heaven!
For a main, I think he again got screwed with an alright but not super piece of beef with ordinary, for Paris, fries, while I had two chunks of lamb, undercooked as I love it, with mushrooms. Again heaven for me.
The bill?; ah the bill. Now disclosure #1; the RFC is not only well-known to the house, he's a collaborator in other medias; and #2 when I returned from the toilet, my credit card was sitting untouched on the table while the RFC was off chatting with the other food folks in the place, resulting in Disclosure #3 - I have no idea what it was or how it was paid. Now lest you think I'm influenced in my ratings by being comp'd, as I exited I judged this place 6.9 and on consulting my rating earlier this year of his #3 (Daguerre) - found it merited a 6.9 as well.
Go? Indeed, despite the dB=90, this place is yet again another Etchebest best.
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