John Talbott's Paris

Les Jalles in the 2nd without Delphine Alcover & Magalie Marian; "Quite lovely, John....actually....I'm coming back."

6.3 Les Jalles, 14, rue des Capucines in the 2nd, 01.42.61.66.71, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays (Metro: Opera or Madeleine) has been revived by a new team, who inherited it from Delphine Alcover and Magalie Marian; so let's get the problems out in front right away - you won't get their fabulous welcome, their attentive service and their spot-on attention to detail; like the Bistro Volney, things are different.  "But are they worse, John" you say?  Not necessarily.  The front looks the same, the carte and menus are intriguing and the chef, despite taking a smoke himself, before service started, recoiled when a customer puffed huge vapor clouds out in front of the pass-through kitchen.

I swooned over the ardoise special of cromesquis with foie gras and ordered it (despite our waitperson's suggestion that I have the nicely priced (23 E) formula which came with a glass of wine and pork with orange sauce) and Madame went directly to a steak tartare which she swooned over as I stole some of her wonderful fries.  I finished with scallops that had a thick sweet (as in balsamic maybe) wine sauce with sun-dried tomatoes (I thought the scallops could have been over-cooked but since I hadn't specified that - my bad!)

Our bill, with a bottle of fine Bordeaux, no bottled water, inconsistent bread (mine had a soft crust and dried interior - hers was a crisp outside and moist interior - go figure) and two coffees, was 95 E.

Go back?  Well, I gave it away in the headline - yes.  And I'll leave you with a photo of a paper butterfly, one of hundreds in the air downtown.

XVII Sur Vin in the 17th: Bruno Turbot is back: Madame's daurade and my creme brulee were the tops; my lamb though, was a notch below.

6.6 XVII Sur Vin, 99 rue Jouffroy d'Abbans in the 17th, 01.42.27.26.16, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays (Bus: #31) opened a while back under the direction of Bruno Turbot, with whom I recall Colette and I had an excellent meal in Nice at Chantecler.  The carte and wine list are extensive and the two specials today sounded great and my friend the chef/tour leader and I plunged right in.

She chose a first and main and I went with a main and dessert.  Madame's eggs were very very tasty with the half-melted fresh cheese; then she had a divine daurade - we were, or at least she was, on a roll.  But my confited lamb, despite my KGB-type questions, was over-the-hill and over-cooked and was not helped by the accompanying macaroni with tomatoes, but who knew?  My day, though, was saved with a superb crème brulee.

The bill was 127.50 E with a bottle and three glasses of wine (we were making up for M. le Sculpteur's absence, he, home in bed with the fevered GI's), nice bread, no bottled water (which they touted) and a very nice coffee.  89.0 dB's, which another blogger commented on.

Go with Colette when she arrives back?   Hummmm.  This is a tough call.  I loved his cooking in Nice, mostly liked it today, and he runs a sharp establishment, so I'd say yes, but....

Reviews of Reviews: The week of March 7, 2016

Monday-Tuesday in A Nous Paris, Philippe Toinard reviewed and gave 3/5 dots to the previous mentioned Les Chouettes in the 3rd and Jerome Berger reviewed and gave 4/5 dots to the Maison de Saki in the 2nd.

Tuesday, Le Fooding had a review by Valentine Leÿs of Meme in Marseille.

Wednesday, in Le Figaroscope, Alice Bosio, Colette Monsat and Hugo de Saint Phalle enumerated the new and sane (aka “veggie” or “girly” [their words]) restaurants in Paris:
Wild & the moon
Nous
PH7
Season
Hobbes
Le Bichat
Bol Porridge Bar
My Free Kitchen.

And Emmanuel Rubin’s Hache Menu covered the Maison du Sake in the 2nd.

In his reviews of 5 new places this week he gave 3 hearts to Plume, 24 rue Pierre-Leroux in the 7th, 01.43.06.79.85, closed Sundays and Mondays, which while 50 E a la carte, has menus for 21 and 25 E containing such items as root vegetable soup, cod and roast apples.  All the other restaurants merited 1 heart; they were Bahn Me Tender, Huguette, Chez Bouboule Montorgueil and McDonald’s Champs-Elysees.

Also Wednesday, Heidi Ellison in Paris Update reviewed Elmer in the 3rd.

This week in L’Express Styles, Charles Patin O'Coohoon reviewed the previously mentioned Mamagato and Francoi-Regis Gaudry covered the previously mentioned Gentiane in the 6th.

Finally, in the jdd, Aurelie Chaigneau gave 7/10 to the Vietnamese Miss Banh-Mi in the 2nd, 6.5 to Classico Argentino in the 12th and revisited and awarded 7 to L’Etabli, ex-Garde Robe des Batignolles, in the 17th.  In addition in the version femina, Julie Gerbet reviewed Jones, previously Bones in the 11th.

A La Renaissance in the 11th: "Nothing special, surprising or spectacular, John"; on the other hand, as my Mother would say "nothing bad either."

4.0 A La Renaissance, 87 rue de la Roquette in the 11th, 01.43.79.83.09, open 7/7 (Metro: Voltaire) is a place everyone in the food world has written up, but I'd never been and scheduling a Sunday lunch after my friend's eye-popping (truly) surgery was a challenge.  So I listened to my inner Trump, and it said "If you can't beat'em up, join 'em".  I arrived quite a few minutes after my friends, who had already decided the starters were "so what?" and I agreed.  Oh see the wine up above?  For the second time in a week, the wine was delivered without being poured out into a glass for a taste (Oh oh -1); is this a trend? or just my bad luck? or just the JV's brought in (as Barack famously mis-said about Daesh, ISIS, ISIL, etc.?)  In any case.....

So my eye-surgery friend got the canette, which was tough but tasty but had - SPOILER ALERT - cold, I mean not lukewarm, not on the backside of Aspen Mountain cooling, but cold (that's -2); her husband had a fish pot-au-feu, with - STOMACH ALERT - coques not opened (that's -3); and I had a rabbit leg with - BLAH ALERT - hay/straw on top "For flavor Monsieur, not for eating" - Yah, that like telling a kid not to put his tongue on the frozen pump handle, or stuff beans up her nose.  So did I try the hay/straw?  Of course I did and that's -0.5.  But the carrot puree was much beloved by us all.  And it was warm.

But then we had a café gourmand with impressive pistachio crème brulee, velvety Greek Yogurt and honey and chocolate mousse which - GREAT NEWS ALERT - almost made up for the minuses, well, maybe not totally - let's say +2.

Our bill, which someone snatched away, with a bottle and glass of wine, one bottled water, alright bread and another coffee, was about 80 E a couple.

Go back?  I got thrown out of Cambridge Community College in the midst of failing Math 101B, so I'm not sure how it all adds up, but I think on the negative side of enthusiasm.  dB's with a screaming 2 year old, were 70.9.

L'Ecorcheur in the 3rd: "But it's just a butcher shop, John." "Ah, true but an exceptionally good one."

7.1 L'Ecorcheur aka La Boucherie du Vertbois (backstory: remember when this guy Cedric Naudon was going to create a "Young (culinary) Street" on and around the rue de Vertbois in the 3rd a couple of years ago.  Well, the rue itself today is pretty sad, except for Pramil, but one of its anchor places is doing very well indeed just up at 31, rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth (and yes, I just ate at the wonderful Elmer on that very street this week)).  Telephone 09.84.45.13.41 (and you'd better call and reserve, because they only have 12 seats, unless you want to wait 2 hours), closed Sundays, open for dinner only Fridays and Saturdays (Metro: Temple).  They have a wonderful variety of items on the chalkboard but my eyes went to the display case where I honed in on....

The first thing I spied was a nice looking terrine of lapin with nuts (marinated in brandy I was told), which with wonderful bread and house-made butter made a terrific starter. Then I chose a lamb chop but from the filet, cooked to perfection - blue, with semoule which I was not wild about.  I finished with a surprisingly good mousse au chocolat.  I should mention that the team of three work like a, well, team, with the guy behind the counter doing the butchering (esp the hand-chopping tartars and hamburgers); the other guy in front doing most of the order-taking and delivery and the chefesse in the open kitchen doing most of the cooking.  The way they work together seamlessly and charmingly, you'd think they'd have done it for 20 years.

 

The bill for a couple with a bottle of wine and coffees (served in these beautiful cups) would be about 70-80 E.

Go?  Don't dismiss this place as "just a butcher shop", it's got spectacular pieces of meat (indeed I'm having one tonight for dinner), wonderful service and it also looks like Banksy has visited the street.  dB's = 52.9

 

The Square Trousseau in the 12th: "Nothing special, nothing great.....what do you expect from the Costes?" "Let's talk American and French politics."

5.0 The Square Trousseau, 1 rue Antoine-Vollon (but on the Square Trousseau), 01.43.43.06.00, open 7/7, (Metro: Ledru-Rollin) is a place Colette and I and our best friends in Paris used to eat at, 20, no make that 30, years ago.....and then we stopped.  Why?  Who remembers?  This week however, a usually reliable food critic said it was the best meal he had in Paris recently.  Alright, that's enticing.  So the French friend I've known the longest and I went - she and I both looked at the menu and thought "it's pricy and the starters sound more interesting than the mains, soooooo"

 

We ordered two starters apiece: she began with a nice tartare of bar, cut thickly and I had an onion soup that was not my dreamy remembrance of those served in the days before they tore down Les Halles.  Then we both had fried calamari, with a strange batter but a wonderfully spicy sauce; and shared a tarte tatin, made really "old school, old boy" well.

Somewhere along, I looked out the window and saw myself, 10 years from now peddling a mediocre painting and taking handouts and restaurant tickets equally.

Our bill, with a bottle and 2 glasses of wine, good bread and salted butter and 2 coffees, was 121 E.  The dB level was 96.2, which is off the charts, in power mower territory.

Go?  I'm afraid not, not for the good service, old décor or tarte tatin.

L'Adjuge in the 9th: Ghost restaurant or real?

0 L'Adjuge in Drouot at 9, rue Drouout in the 9th is a place I'd love to go to but they don't answer the phone, return calls or indicate via La Fouchette if your reservation is confirmed; after I finally reached a live person today, he said "hold on a minute" and flipped me over to the busy signal.  I guess they don't need my business.

Les Moussaillons in the 17th: great oysters, great treatment and great prices, what else could you want?

 

7.0 Les Moussaillons, 139 rue Cardinet in the 17th, 01.53.81.65.48, closed weekends (Metro: Malesherbes), has only been open a while and already has "regulars" popping in to stand at the bar and have oysters and wine or sit at one of the 5-6 tables and enjoy something more.  I went with a fellow ex-pat food blogger, whose tastes and mine tend to coincide.  We took one look at the 19.50 E "Les Moussaillons" formula = 6 oysters, a glass of wine and two other plates (tarama, rillettes, shrimp, bulots, salmon, moules/chorizo) and tossed our metaphorical hats in the metaphorical ring.

We started out with three types of bread, including a squid ink black one, onto which we slathered the tarama and mackerel rillettes.  Then came 6 shrimp and a dozen or so bulots on which we slathered mayo.  And finally we had the bigger Bretons and the sweet Fines de claires; all with lemon or mignonette sauce.

With the seafood we had a bottle of Blue Sauvignon and with a big slice of the home-made with orange blossoms and almond home-made financiere (unpictured) a Rhone red.

Our bill, with those and no bottled water but 2 nice coffees, was 60.60 E.

Go back?  Indeed, I carried home some mussel soup which I shall have tonight.

Cellar in the 11th: Truck-stop food from the 1950's without anything resembling frou-frou modern revisions.

5.0 Cellar, 9, rue de Crussol in the 11th, 01.43.38.90.29, (Metro: Oberkampf) is across the street from a wonderful graphic art door panel and looks brand new but serves very old boy food.  It has two of the nicest guys imaginable welcome you and waiting and a very competent Thai female chef serving totally French-French food, despite the name; you'll see what I mean in a minute.

So here's how they rolled them out:
- a fricassee of escargots
- a gratin of ecrevisses
- tete de veau
- rognons de veau in a mustrard cream,
- lovely crispy potatoes, and
- one crusty chocolate (the two last crispies being the highlight of the meal).

Our bill, with one Badoit, almost a bottle of wine, 2 coffees (one offered) and decent bread, was 90 E.

Go?  As my friend the RFC says, "it's not urgent" but it is "old," if that's what you're looking for.  No Japanese mini-veggies or exotic fruits here; just your parents' road food.

Plume in the 7th: Wonderfully warm reception, cool decor, great wine list, interesting menu and carte, but......

3.0 Plume, 24, rue Pierre Leroux in the 7th, 01.43.06.79.85, closed Sundays and Mondays, (Metro: Vaneau) was a place I went by a month ago, looked at, liked its looks and went in to get a business card.  So it was with great anticipation (especially after reading the Big Boys' reviews) that I reserved for my two favorite food friends and I for today.  Across the street is a building with a cockroach over the door - whoa!, that should have told me the jinx was in.  I was a bit early and got a most warm welcome from Madame who allowed me the choice of tables.  We assembled and the carte and the "menu" looked terrific and wines from 20 E and up were interesting. But at this point, the problems began.

Because I was early and knew the wine preferences of my pals, I ordered up a white for R. and me.  It arrived, I was offered a taste and I approved.  Then upon arrival of my friends I ordered a bottle of red and they poured a huge pour, no tasting, in JJ's glass; I could see R. visibly cringe, take out his notebook (he's a blogger too) and begin to note the problems.  Oh, Oh!

We all three ordered the mushroom soup (Mistake #1), thinking it would be mushroom soup; after two sips JJ said "It's strange, like eating dirt" and I connected the dots in my culinary brain and said "they put truffles or truffle oil or truffle oil spray, in, I've never liked the taste."  "That's it" they both said "we agree"; and we soldiered on through this rough patch awaiting a brighter tomorrow.

 

 

For our mains, my two buddies had the lieu noir which R. declared "tasteless, without salt" and I agreed; and I had a tough piece of marget, overcooked, R., a chef, said it was the worst cut of duck breast anyway (I let it slip, thinking that I didn't asked for it undercooked, thus - my bad) and the hearts of artichoke's tasted like turnips to two of us.

OK, time for dessert.  We waited and waited and waited for the "cartes" and I wrote "SLOWNESS" down.  When they appeared my camera went on strike; R. had decent enough aged mimolette, JJ had decent enough pineapple, fresh cheese and line and my camera double pictured JJ's and eliminated my balls of chocolate (75% Zambian) and passion fruit (originally deemed to be mango) ice cream, which actually saved my meal at least.

Our bill, with 2 bottles of wine, no bottled water, OK bread and coffee, was 138 E for 3 or 92 E a couple.

Go?  Well, the dream catcher in the toilet put an end to my dreams about Plume; I don't know what the Big Boys found so alluring here.  Except the sound level of 70.9 dB