Background: A dear couple who live in the neighborhood told me they'd walked by this really cool new restaurant and we should eat there. Doesn't take much arm-twisting to get me on board.
7.8 eels, 27, rue d'Hauteville in the 10th, 01.42.28.80.20, closed Sundays and Mondays, (Metro: Chateau d'Eau). It is indeed cool, located in an ancient couscous joint, and everyone seemed not only quite pleasant but as if they knew me and they certainly looked familiar to me. But from where? It soon became clear, KGB and before that Fernandi. A look at the carte also made it clear that this was serious food, every dish had four ingredients.
Dangerously, all three of us ordered the same thing to start - sliced warm pieces of eel, but hey, its their signature dish, how could one not?, with a hint of licorice and a sauce vierge. To say this was astonishing would be insulting, it was way beyond that. For our mains two of us had crevettes, not rubbery, or wet or raw, but perfect, with all sorts of carrots, grapefruit slices and a saffron bisque and our other diner had lamb two ways, a piece of very properly undercooked quasi and some confited shoulder, with smoked caviar d'aubergines and a cumin sauce. And some Italian black truffles thrown in. Pretty damn good, both. For dessert we all had the roasted mirabelles, quetsches and Reine Claude's, with a sweet clover cream, also outstanding.
With a bottle and glass of wine, their filtered water and two coffees, plus 10€ for the truffles, our bill was 220.50€ for 3, or 147€ a couple.
Go? I cannot tell a lie, even though I'd like to tell you to go elsewhere, but this is the revelation of the reentree. One complaint: the DB's were high and talking difficult due to lack of sound-dampening. Hats off, though, to chef Ferrand and front-man Felix Le Loucram.
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