6.8 Odette at the Maison Albar Hotel Celine aka l'Auberge Urbaine, 23-25 rue du Pont Neuf in the 1st, 01.44.88.92.78, 7/7 (Metro: Les Halles), looks all the world like what some French designer who has never been to the US thinks a New York hotel cocktail looks like; sleek, a huge banquette and even bigger counter with stools. You enter and figure out you must be in some Trumpian alternative universe. The lunch menu is 22 E but once your eyes drift off that main dishes, granted to be split, are 44-68 E. And the wine, for instance, we had a simple Morgan, was 46 E. But let's look on the bright side of life, a la Monty Python.
After the amuse of quite nice cheese puffs, my young (he's about to retire and become an "active retiree" at age 68) friend ordered the 22 E "menu" which started with toasts and cheese, olives and I think chives and I had toasts with tartare of veal and tuna, OK but no energy here. For mains, he chose the pork and I a complicated sounding breast of duck, fried bulots and chips of some sort; the pork was OK, the bulots strangely overcooked and the duck fabulous. For dessert we both had pots of chocolate with a fresh out of the oven madeleine and coffee.
Our bill with a 10 E Chateldon and extra glass of red wine (6 E) was 121 E for us two. dB's were 65.04.
Go? I'm afraid even if SCROTUS, the so-called President of the United States, twisted my arm, I'd find an excuse to skip it.
Dear John, I agree with most of your comments, but just a small detail : the Morgon you drank is a "Côte du Py" by Jean Foillard, a wine I really appreciate. I buy it for around 22€/bottle from the cellar, it seems really fair to find it for 46€ (x2.1) in a fancy restaurant ! Cheers
Posted by: MarcelParis2014 | February 24, 2017 at 11:59 AM