7.5 Substance, 18 rue de Chaillot (cnr Rue de Bizet) in the 16th, 01.47.20.08.90, (Metro: Alma-Marceau) closed Saturday and Sunday opened quite a while back, but another cyber-writer who lets restaurants mellow before trying them, asked me to hold it for her. All well and good. We entered and immediately were off to a bad start - they seated us at a table beside a pipe which I couldn't possibly squeeze by; there was no offer of help. (Colette pulled out the heavy marble table for me.)
Then the first amuses arrived and were absolutely tasteless comte and thyme wafers - "Oh, oh. We're in for rough sailing" I thought. But then the second amuse arrived and the whole meal came alive - smoked potato on a slice of something pickled topped with trout eggs. My oh my! delicious.
For firsts, my colleague in culinary crime had the 39 E menu's perfect egg with salsifis and terrific mushrooms and I had what looked like a tiny ball of tartare of beef sitting in a big lake of jelly - well, it was, but the jellied consume perfectly offset the raw beef and the combination was stunning.
For mains, the ladies went with meat - a bavette with curled potato and mignon of pork with baby artichokes and I had another entree, encornet slices on a puree of white asparagus with black wafers - the combination had a bitter taste until you added in tiny bits of sweet strawberries, then it all balanced out.
With my friend's "menu" came another interesting combination - of tapioca, coconut strips and banana chips - interesting.....very interesting.
Our bill, with a bottle of wine, no bottled water, but 3 coffees, was 152.60 or 101.73 E a couple. dB's = 79.6 with no music.
Go back? It's a tough call; the ingredients and flavors were very inventive, but the hustle of the place ruled out a relaxed lunch. Also, it lacked something. Soul maybe?
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