6.5-7.? Le Bistro Brute, 36 rue de Berri in the 8th, 01.42.25.02.76, (Metro: St Philippe du Roule), has been on my famous "list" for a while and when a fellow blogger suggested it, I leapt. It's smaller than the photos suggest, 20 covers upstairs, a dozen down. The "menu" is 2-2-2 and right off we were warned that the scallops were not available, apparently due to pollution but the haddock and ham would be doubled in recompense. Sounded cool to me. After mulling over the choices we decided to have all 6 of the 2-2-2 and share 50-50.
After an amuse bouche of soup of butternut squash with a spicy aftertaste zip to it, we had the cucumber soup with chevre and pickled coriander seeds that my notes say was "bleh," and incredibly wonderful rounds of ham with haddock and cauliflower.
Here's where things went South. The fish of the day was cod, but you've got to pep up this fish and the sauce, red cabbage, artichokes and carrots didn't do the trick. The duck was a bit better, but tough as leather, although the mushrooms and salsify helped a bit.
So now we get to the root of the problem: the "Jack be little" mini-pumpkin with grapefruit, kiwi and watercress ice was throwing away good ingredients to achieve what? Complexity, Innovation, Creativity? Didn't work. But the chocolate (almost an ice cream bar), clementines and coffee ice cream was the hit of the meal. Worth the chauffeur prive.
Our bill, with a bottle and glass of wine, good bread and terrific Ethiopian Wallaga coffees was 109 E. dB's were a horrible 77.5.
Go? Well, it's in the 8th, and the chefs and front staff are really trying, perhaps the chefs too much. Id like to hear what others think before answering. Maybe.
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