John Talbott's Paris

Reviews of reviews: The week of June 25th, 2018

Monday-Tuesday, in A Nous Paris, Jerome Berger gave 3/5 to the bar-restaurant-tapas place Margus, 1, rue des Prouvaires in the 1st, 09 87 10 42 03, closed Sundays and Mondays, where a lunch on a menu carte is 31 and dinner 35E for items such as a taco al charbon, haddock and pain perdu.

Tuesday in Le Fooding, Adrien Simon reviewed La Mutinerie, 123, rue Bugeaud in Lyon.

Wednesday, Heidi Ellison in Paris Update reviewed the previously mentioned Les Enfants du Marche in the 3rd.

Thursday, in L’Express Styles, Charles Patin O’Coohoon reviewed Vida, 49, rue de l'Echiquier, in the 10th, 01.48.00.08.28, closed Sundays running you 25 or 32-65E at dinner for items such as ceviche, chicken breast and fruit infusions; and Francois Regis Gaudry reviewed NESO, 6, rue Papillon, in the 9th, closed weekends, 01.48.24.04.14, serving 4 dishes for 55 and 7 for 90E such as asparagus, langoustines and creative desserts.

Sunday, in the jdd, Aurelie Chaigneau reviewed her traditional 3 places: the previously mentioned Poule au Pot (9/10); the Japanese Sanjo (7) in the 1st; and La Cantine de Meme, 11, rue Brochant in the 17th, closed Sunday night and Mondays, where for 40-45E one dines on items such as mozzarella, chicken ballottine and chocolate with rhubarb (7).

Coretta in the 17th: Everyone else is packed in ice; me miss another outstanding lunch? Faggedaboudid.

So today, everyone in Paris is staying indoors, packed in ice, drinking bottled water.  These people have never experienced Baltimore heat and humidity and I’ve never missed lunch.

Coretta remains Colette and my preferred Sunday lunch opportunity and it has A/C, fabulous seasonal food and fantastic service. Walking there, I said “ I wonder if they have gazpacho and ceviche today?”

Well, after we were seated out comes from the chef, a soothing, lip smacking, gazpacho from the Gods, the Inca not Greek ones.

 

Then Colette had gazpacho sauce with her tuna (almost ceviche) with tomatoes and other seasonal fruits and I had the intensely spicy chorizo, poulpe a la plancha with a different set of fresh things vegetarians eat.

Our mains were a lovely piece of cod with a ton of peas and bacon and (I needed a fix) their superb sweetbreads, crisp on the outside, moist on the inside, perfectly cooked by me, with a variety of leaves, legumes and such.

At this point I gave up but was most willing to share their strawberry and rhubarb dessert with Colette.

I must note the great service, especially rendered by our young female waitperson, and in spite of the 7 chefs and almost equal staff having to simultaneously serve a huge (20-30) private party upstairs, simultaneously, who made no noise, but then they were well brought up Asians, not yelling Yankees or frisky French, crusty bread as it should be served everywhere (what’s so difficult about buying good bread in Paris on a Sunday?) and ditto butter.

Our bill with a bottle of wine, a carafe d’eau, and two coffees, was 123€.