John Talbott's Paris

Radio Eat in the 16th: A very pleasant surprise; try it before or after performances at Radio France’s superb auditorium.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.2 Radio Eat, 116 ave du President Kennedy in the 16th, 01.47.20.00.29, open 7/7 is in the Radio France building on the 2nd (American) floor.  It’s a spectacular setting, overlooking the Seine and the Eiffel Tower, with really neat furnishings and superb service.  I went with my dear former cohost on the now moribund food website that shall not be named,who works nearby and I always struggle to find places in the 16th that we both can get to easily.  There is both a carte with everything from fancy cocktails to burgers and a daily 3 dish 29 E “menu.”  We sort of mixed and matched and did very well indeed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My co-diner chose the day’s entree of roasted root vegetables with a great spicy yogurt sauce while I had tempura of shrimp served with chop sticks, very tasty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then she had lieu noir and I a 24-hour jarret of veal with the tastiest/crustiest skin of the year, and the meat wasn’t half bad either. Now everyone knows I’m not a mashed potato man but with a ton if butter, a la Robuchon, and Radio Eat's sauce, it was fantastic. No butter shortage here, more fake news.

Finally, we shared a chocolate mousse with what?  She said orange, I said quince.  Nope, kumquat - delicious.

Our bill, with no bottled water, but a fine Bordeaux, great Poujaran bread and over the top coffee, was 99.10€.  Db = 82.6

Go?  If you can find an excuse to go to a concert here (my last one was the Emerson String Quartet) this is THE place to eat.

Wow, pow, zow, zang, Sang in the 11th: "This is the best meal I've ever had (with you)."

Ok, so this was the 3rd time I tried to get into Pierre Sang Boyer’s 3rd restaurant called Signature and 3 must be a charm. Our terribly friendly waiter asked my bilingual Swiss-American friend and I what language we wanted the forced menu in and we said “French.” “Ok” he says “we’re not really open yet, so you’ll excuse us if we’re still trying out some dishes.” Trying out, are you kidding?, everything was perfection exemplified.

8.0 Pierre Sang Signature, aka Studio, 8 rue de Gambey in the 11th, 09.67.31.96.80, closed Mondays and Tuedays, 12 seats,(Metro: hummm, Oberkampf?) was rumored to be opening after the rentree and a friend of mine from the 11th, indeed known as onzieme, gave me periodic reports on its state of renovation. I reserved on their website a onth ago, but when I showed up, they were just serving takeout sandwiches but happily seated us at the Atelier next door. So last week I asked my Geneva/Paris based friend to make sure we were reserved in #3 not 1 or 2.

 

Ok, so this is one of those occasions where because of my failing memory, the complexity of the dishes each with at least 5 ingredients and the overwhelming supreme quality of the meal, I’ll resort to giving you some eye candy followed by pathetic attempts to remember what each was.

A carpaccio/sashimi of sea bass with fish eggs, soja, marinated beef chunks and wasabi,
Perfectly cooked scallops with sauces, 
Wagyu beef, incredibly tender with carrots and other veggies and sauces,
A pear cream with pepper and nuts,
A cheese flavored, chocolate, speculos latte (that’s what my doctor writing says),
Incredible brownies.

With a bottle of fine Corsican wine (there is a huge wall of bottles to choose from), outstanding bread and butter, good coffee but no bottled water, dB level 88.1, our bill was 146.00€.

Go? My oh my yes, but as always, reserve, they only have 12 seats.

 

 

Yoshinori in the 6th: No soul, nothing wrong with the food but I was overcharged.

 

 

 

 

 

6.0 Yoshinori, 18, rue Gregoire de Tours in the 6th, 09.84.19.76.05, closed Saturday nights and Sundays, (Metro: Mabillon) opened a bit ago with Chef Yoshinori Morié, ex-Auberge du 15, Petit Verdot at the piano.  The outside is pure Zen, the inside cool Zen and the food French Zen.  I arrived a few seconds before my pal, just in from NY to a really stunning setting and everyone in this 14 cover ground floor was speaking Japanese, save my friend and I; clearly the word has gotten out.

 

We struggled over what to order but my invitee settled on a first of marinated cepes with quinoa and salicornes that she thought was soul-less and I thought was ”oh, well....”

Then she had two yuge pieces of perfectly cooked bavette from M. Desnoyer which she deemed was twice as much as she could eat and I thought was perfect but more than I could also eat.  I had the sweetbreads with veggies which were perfectly cooked but why charge a 10€ supplement for what my Mom served during WWII because it was “trash, offal?”

To finish I had the black chocolate with sarrasin grains and ice cream, quite nice.

So John, what was the problem?  Well, to start, my friend centered on the fact that there was “no soul on the plate,” plus despite the presence of a staff of 5, the food took forever to come out, and too boot, we were overcharged 10€ - ok I didn’t pick up the upcharging until I got home, but it’s not worth going back and using my limited Japanese to recover the 10€?

Our bill with a bottle of Montplasir, was 124€ which should have been 114€?

Go?  Hummm, well I’m not going back even to get my 10€ back.  If the staff is this sloppy and the chef so Zen, who needs that?  Too bad.