1.0 La Maison Becquey, 34 quai de la Marne in the 19th, 01.45.26.97.79 (Metro: humm, Bus #60), open 7/7 from 8 AM - midnight (now that tells you something eh?) was a new opening I read about somewhere that sounded interesting. Well, it is; it's on the Canal de l'Ourcq between Stalingrad and La Villette and it has all the makings of an ideal harbor in this bustling city - bikers, runners, skateboarders, etc; inside the restaurant are acres of wine bottles, a big station clock and about two dozen baskets of precut baguettes (whoa, won't those dry out in two hours?). The menu and carte are not terribly exciting; in fact the listing of a Texas bagel signals that all is not well here.
Only one of us ordered a first - a tartare of black radishes and beets - Ok.
And then we waited
And waited
And waited
70 minutes: signaling to the wait-staff that we could see the chickens on the spits inside the lovely open kitchen, so what was so difficult about bringing one down and serving it?
Yet still we waited.
Luckily, my friends had just gotten back from their summer visit to California/Nevada and we had a lot of catching up to do and two bottles of wine to go through.
On the other hand it took forever - 70 minutes, in fact.
So our main dishes arrived: To give credit where....., JJ's beer cooked bar was nice and moist and warm; but R's spicy chicken was neither spicy nor moist - it was over-cooked and tasteless - my chicken stuffed with mushrooms and cream was difficult to dissect and while the farci was good, it was cold - the saving grace were the fries - not brown and crisp - but yellow and fatty - marvelous - it gave me a whole new view of how fat enhances meals.
Dessert; are you kidding? And wait another hour. And put up with the noise - 79.5 dB, that is the sound of a garbage disposal.
Our bill with 2 coffees offered to make up for the 70 minute wait, artisanal bread and no bottled water, was 91.20 E for 3; thus 60.80 E a couple.
Go back? Who are you, the KGB?
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