662360 Mon Oct 26 07:46:56 -0700 2009 18 49 France 0 5131317 Things and amount of restaurants are picking up thus will divide this report into two parts. This is part one. This was a period of many meals cooked with others in my apartment and with rare exception, these home cooked meals were better than their restaurant counterparts. LE PUITS SAINT JACQUES- Visited friends who live just outside Toulouse and they took me to this Michelin** nearby to their farm in a very small very old village. Were greeted warmly by the staff who knew my friends well. Ordered the mid priced luncheon menu and was astonished that this was considered a **. The amuse was a luke warm soup of mussels with a shellfish foam that topped it. While l have made it sound like a relation of billi-bi, it would have to be considered an evil cousin. It was tepid, tasteless, and miserly in portion, in retrospect a good thing; Entree was a few undercooked scallops in a bland sauce with little character. An aside this was served in dishes that were U shaped, with the sides 6-8 inches above the contents, thus making eating a bit like spelunking to get your meal. Plat was a croustidine, l believe, of pieds du porc and tasted like, again, a luke warm fried piece of fat. Dessert was berries with cream and teeny mignardaise. Sommelier was very nice and gave us an excellent southwestern wine with the meal. 220€/3 AU BON ACCUEIL- Last minute lunch, very pretty and full restaurant. Understated decor is shades of grey and off-white. Service very professional and helpful. Entrees were a house paté that came out as a slice of very very moist meats, game in nature, that was wonderful; a thick slice of salmon cured in house that was also very well done; third was a poele of cepes whose aroma filled the room, excellent as well. Plats were a filet of beef, good, roast grouse that was perfect, and a colvert that was better than perfect; all with excellent pomme puree with celeriac. Bread was Poujaran. Desserts were desserts, no wine was obtained. While all loved, felt no sense of a good time, maybe l was crabby that day. 160€:3 FRENCHIE-After all the hype was really looking forward to this, my first time there. Had an 8:30 reservation and arrived at 8:35 and was first in entire place. Small, 20-25 seats total, filled up quickly and no effort was made to flip tables. One chef, one waiter, as mentioned before on this site wine is in a distant building outside the dining room, so the pleasant non-harried waiter constantly had to make the trip to wherever and leave the restaurant for diner's wine. Entrees were an artichoke soup, hot and yet refreshing, it was nice. Other entree was a plate of mackerel with little treats and was a great plate of mackerel. Plats were a few nondescript scallops in nondescript sauce and the ubiquitous pork belly. The scallops were ok and warm and the pork was undercooked, no crispness to exterior nor interesting seasonings or sauce. It seems with a restaurant with 25 seats and serving only two plats, the plats should be hot and perfectly cooked, but what do l know. Came with a very servicable celeriac puree. Seem to get a lot of that here now, for me great, l love it. Desserts again, a tarte tatin was one l believe. Wine was a very fairly priced Dauvissat Chablis that went well with everything. OK, l went and tried it. Nice people, OK food, do not understand all the hype, see no reason to return. 120€:2 LE QUINCY-Heard this was the best cassoulet in Paris, so had to try. Walked in reservation problem, but so early, no problem, given a perfect table in front with plenty of room. As soon as coats removed the very friendly owner came greeted us and gave us an aperitif and little saucisson that were well flavored and provided a lovely welcome. Selected a Cahors from the list as my dining partner wanted red, and it was excellent, old style with great body and huge fruit, and very well priced. Told we were too early in the year for pot au feu en vessie, we had to reshuffle our choices and came up with the following. Entrees were frog's legs provençal and stuffed cabbage. The grenouille came out in the frying pan, and were unbelievably hot and may have been best ever had. No tomato in sauce, which l thought was odd, but enough garlic that l will fear werewolves no more.The 'stuffed' cabbage looked like a meat loaf and cabbage layer cake with the cabbage as the icing. It was just OK. Now the plats. Not a cassoulet for me, was not made in its own dish, thus no crunchy bits or texture variation. Made with excellent beans, and duck fat, but after a few bites was way too heavy so ate little. Confit was meagre, sausage and pork belly were very good. Other plat was a stew of oxtail with celeriac again. This was a tour de force. The oxtail had been cooked forever and perfectly and was as tender as could ever hope to be, but not cooked to much so dry. Both oxtail and celeriac were fabulous. The seasonings and consistency of the jus was stand up and applaud great. We were too full for cheese dessert or coffee, so heard the wife of the patron, who minded the accounts, mumble something about Americains. Owner came over and offerred us an eau de vie of plum. He lit it, slopped it back and forth between two glasses and made a great presentation, but not my kind of liquor, so we passed. Major downside of the restaurant was the interior temperature. It was the metro on a bad day, could have eaten in bathing suits and still would have been too warm. 130/2. LOISEAU-Expect to ruffle a few feathers with this one. This is a similar story to Cotes St Jacques, another *** in Burgundy a few years ago. These two esteemed temples of food were just not fun; Loiseau was beautiful if a little ragged around the edges. After discussion of the three meals, we were started with amuses of a creamed vegetable soup, that to me was underflavored and very rich. The party who had ordered four courses did not get an amuse, so we caught up with him, his soup was like melted foié gras, lovely; Next was a entree course. The servings were grenouilles and escargots, yes l love grenouille, these were drumsticks fried and non interesting with a parsley sauce that was ok, escargot were lost, another of us got the scallop and razor clam dish, that was beautifully constructed but very uninteresting; l forget the third dish. Entrees were for me breast of colvert, good but nothing special; veal au lait kidney, this was brought out freshly roasted and looking super, hot and juicy, then taken to the kitchen for deconstruction, coming back without the fat, sliced and just warm, what a waste. The orderer then asked for the fat to be sauteed and it was brought and became the best thing eaten at this meal. The third party got a civet of sanglier, which had a watery jus and overcooked boar, very disappointing, he did not eat it at all, no one asked why or really gave a damn. Ah now for the dessert story, the person who brought us here had a talk with the waiter and they decided as both of us were due a dessert, that they would make us a St Honore and that would be the dessert from our prix fixe. As this took a long time we retired to the salon de fumeurs , two of us had cigars in this very welcoming and comfortable room, perhaps the highlight of the meal. After 30 minutes or so, we went back downstairs and had the St Honore, a bit of paté chou pastry sugared with a sugar shell and lightly sweetened whipped cream. As it was large the waiter generously offered it to the third of us with no dessert, and he graciously accepted. It was fine, well made but a dessert. We were shown the wine cellar, which from the list came, and frankly it was a light list compared to many restaurants of its calibre, l found two nice bottles in our price range that were very good, a savienneries from 1988 and a Languédoc grenache. Walked through the well tended gardens and back up for the other two to finish their cigars and went to pay the bill. Surprise, they charged us 24€ for the generously offered dessert to the third member of the group. No further comment, did not buy anything in the vastly overpriced gift shop. Well a little comment, the place was no fun, meagre portions of artfully composed boring barely warm food. The type of food that might appeal to uninterested diners who are checking places off their list, not eaters who truly love food and always look forward to a wonderful meal. From the trip to Burgundy though we visited Epoissés for Berthault cheese and in Saulieu with the restaurant was a high level fromagier from whom we all bought a ton, also a Pompon museum in Saulieu. 540/3 CHEZ DENISE-One of my favorites for decades. We got back from the very long day in Burgundy, 16 hours door to door and my house guest, a New York chef, who had eaten very little for lunch said he was still hungry and restless, thus we boarded the metro and the two of us headed for Les Halles. After seeing Chez Denise was compléte we visited the outside of St Eustache, looked at Au Pieds du Cochon and walked for an hour or so, went back to Chez Denise around midnight and there was an opening, which we took. Granted we were not that hungry and the portions there are immense, thus we just ordered just two plats, two of my favorites, civet de cerf and morué Auvergnat with a bottle of brouilly. The deer was cooked perfectly, sauced as a civet should be, thick warm and comforting; the morue, my favorite thing there, was perfect, a bunch of chunks of salt cod and potatoes in a parsley mayo type sauce. It was blistering hot; we ate our fill, shared the rest with neighboring tables as is the delightful custom, and still left half. Actually l left half, my chef friend completely demolished the deer , then finished mine as well. The meal was perfect. Only were charged for the amount of wine we drank, as is the custom and left. This meal cost one tenth of the afternoon's meal and was perfect in every way. 60€/2 CHEZ L'AMI JEAN-Saturday night and a 'hot' restaurant. My chef friend had met Stephané in NY and was greatly anticipating this meal. He was not disappointed. As only one dessert is otherwordly, l always get one prix fixe and one a la carté, thus we split a dessert.After this meal, as has happened before, the prix fixé is the way to go. Stephané comped us an entree warmed poached eggs with cepés and hollandaise that was great, the flavor of the mushrooms penetrating the eggs.Our entrees were both excellent, a plate of 'jambon' de Wagyu beef and a foié, beet, and apple dish, very rich; Plats were a pork echiné, for me and a cochon au lait with belly for him, both boiling hot, both as they should be, seasoning, finish, perfect. Served with celeriac puree and pomme puree, it was a wonderful meal then finished by the famous riz au lait that Parigi was planning to cavort nude in. Bottle of Syrah from Gailac. Stephanés two daughters, came and joined him in the kitchen for a hug or two, around 7 and 10 YO. Left full and happy 120€/2 Next installment in a few weeks. Mon Oct 26 07:46:56 -0700 2009 71113 Delucacheesemonger 1 5131421 Greatly enjoy your report. Yes I do have a thAng about the ris au lai; who doesn't? You raised a crucial point: fun. Some restaurants, although good, are not fun. Truly an original sin. Mon Oct 26 08:19:57 -0700 2009 5131317 1106797 Parigi 1 5131642 Thanks for this report DCM. Sorry to hear Frenchie did not live up to the hype. The poached eggs at CAJ sound divine. Mon Oct 26 09:29:00 -0700 2009 5131317 11773 shortstop 1 5131949 ABA: probably was because of the company, sorry! I found it a little bit soulless, but maybe it was because this was lunch and/or because of the table that was secluded from the rest of the restaurant. Everything was indeed really excellent, except desserts, though, so I think I'll go back. By the way, and if I remember correctly, the third main was not colvert but palombe (wood pigeon, as wordreference tells me?). Mon Oct 26 10:55:09 -0700 2009 5131317 223249 olivierb 2 5132033 l am going to have to start going out with morons, with intelligent people, l keep getting caught on mistakes. Yes, it was palombe Mon Oct 26 11:17:42 -0700 2009 5131949 71113 Delucacheesemonger 3 5132180 That said, it's not so common a French word, and not often seen in menus, so I guess you're totally excused. I'm better at picking other's mistakes than correcting my own anyway! Mon Oct 26 12:05:59 -0700 2009 5132033 223249 olivierb 1 5131984 To be fair about the Relais Bernard Loiseau, I'd like to emphasise that the food I had was excellent. The white bean soup, DCM, had no cream in it, only the beans and soup (and then the bacon foam and the graded jambon du morvan). It was bland and rich because that is what white beans are. The seafood thing I thought had great scallops and sauce -- though the abalone, oyster and razor clams were kind of pointless. (see: http://picasaweb.google.fr/ZeJulot/LeRelaisBernardLoiseau#5395895263261573266). The kidney I had was also very excellent, and indeed I had to fight to get all the fat and it was awesome, but the kidney itself was exceptional (see: http://picasaweb.google.fr/ZeJulot/LeRelaisBernardLoiseau#5395895299221764978). The odiously priced Saint Honoré was also, I think, exceptional -- very light, lots of textures, lots of freshness, almost no sugar, tons of vanilla. Now I would agree that it was no fun. Worse than that, there was some nastiness, methinks. The billing of the Saint Honoré is one thing, and I'm still embarassed about it as I've been a champion of this restaurant for a long time. Worse though, was the fact that the lunch deal was absolutely subpar, really felt like "you're not paying the big bucks and you're hoping to have the real food? Who do you think you are, sucker?". And even the regular menu was not as good as my ALC order. I don't think that's OK. As for ABA, olvierb, I would agree that this is not Chez Denise in terms of atmosphere, does not try to be. But we can all agree that the food are exceptional, and the service is pretty nice. The room could be less austere. Mon Oct 26 11:05:16 -0700 2009 5131317 96547 souphie 2 5132093 While l disagree with nothing you say, l need more flavor in my food, as new burgundy style wines do not work for me, neither does understated cuisine. The food had no balls, no gusto. They serve very pretty artfully designed food with subtle flavor and temperatures close to ambiant . We have disagreed on desserts before, maybe with my American upbringing, the idea of a beautiful understated dessert that is rich is totally unappealing to me, perhaps my loss, but do not understand or want it. With the exception of the kidney fat, there was nothing l would eat again. l felt the atmosphere was such that we were tolerated not catered to. Mon Oct 26 11:36:02 -0700 2009 5131984 71113 Delucacheesemonger 3 5133674 Agreed -- I'm looking forward to go back... to Lameloise and Meneau now. But I wanted to be fair in memory of Bernard. Mon Oct 26 22:51:08 -0700 2009 5132093 96547 souphie 4 5133745 I think also we are no longer used to eating all the butter- and cream- and wine-based sauces. On the other hand, for a regional cuisine like the cuisine sud-ouest, which has never really "starred" sauces but instead starred terroir before the word was even "in", it does not suffer from the cuisine vogue. In a way it is so out it is always in. -- What am I saying? However, I have always liked a Burgundian red for my fish dishes, justement bcause it is light. Can't say anything about the testicular deficiency issue since I suffer from same… Tue Oct 27 01:44:54 -0700 2009 5133674 1106797 Parigi 4 5134154 sounds as though perhaps Bernard's soul has departed the place, leaving a gaping hole in both food and service quality. That's sad. I have such great memories of our lunch there, and how much fun we had with Chef Loiseau. Tue Oct 27 07:37:34 -0700 2009 5133674 52499 ChefJune 4 5134686 What's the current situation at Meneau? Last I heard, the accountants were running everything. Tue Oct 27 10:26:44 -0700 2009 5133674 190827 rswatkins 5 5134709 We need to check -- but I'm sure the chef is running the kitchen, and my friends who are neighbours think the place is better than ever. Tue Oct 27 10:31:53 -0700 2009 5134686 96547 souphie 6 5135146 Yum! Good news. Tue Oct 27 12:40:27 -0700 2009 5134709 52499 ChefJune 1 5138318 I like the comments; no nastiness as on some sites. Frenchie as I've pointed out, is perhaps over-stretched, and it's time to move on, poor Loiseau's empire is in ruins, why would one go?, Boboss at Le Quincy is a sweetie-pie. Glad you had fun. John Talbott http://johntalbottsparis.typepad.com/john_talbotts_paris/ Wed Oct 28 14:28:34 -0700 2009 5131317 1088206 John Talbott 2 5140706 I don't see why you say Loiseau's empire is in ruin. His actual restaurants are not talked about or reviewed, but they never were. Show me an actual review of La Côte d'Or from anytime. Tante Louise has one of the best foods in town, simple, honest and high quality. While our experience in Saulieu was not enjoyable for us, Bertron is without question the best chef in Burgundy. Their business is doing better than ever. And the house is incredibly gorgeous, even if the modern touches in the main dining room and lounge are spectacularly ugly. Thu Oct 29 11:36:31 -0700 2009 5138318 96547 souphie 3 5140816 "Show me an actual review of La Côte d'Or". Ah Soup, come on by my flat sometime and I'll show you 10; look at today's GM: 4 toques and a long description - if I had the time, I'd go to the NYT and Gourmet and dig up the original stuff that prompted me to go twice on his way to the stars; I agree the site is impressive and the jogging great. I think all the Tante's in Paris were terrific, but the business (according to the business press, which is my source of info not knowing their accountants) is not in great shape. Soup, you said: "not enjoyable for us" and "spectacularly ugly"; that's not exactly a great endorsement. But I love you, John Thu Oct 29 12:12:06 -0700 2009 5140706 1088206 John Talbott 4 5142160 Those are two different questions -- if the fact that we can find it ugly and not enjoyable was a cause for restaurants to be in ruins, then the number of top restaurants that would be in ruins would be impressive -- I could give you names of sick puppies, like Bush Sr did the other day. I was not talking about papers about Le Côte d'Or -- they have been innumerous. I was talking about actual food reviews, and GM or Pudlo certainly don't count as such. Their ratings, that said, responds to your question about why anyone would go. I love you too. Fri Oct 30 00:04:09 -0700 2009 5140816 96547 souphie 1 5138500 Comments on Frenchie are interesting. We ate at lunchtime and it seemed quite relaxed with very good food, although I say that in context; it was after all a €22 three course menu, and therefore judged as a €22 meal. How much is the food component of dinner? I ate two lunches there, the second the following day. My second lunch was not as good, even though I ordered the same main. The chef had, had to adjust the dish as he had run out of some of the components which for me compromised the dish, and he should probably not served it. However, he probably felt it was a better option than only a single choice, and I was forewarned. John's comment maybe be true, it could be too stretched for the format, and thus maybe a more relaxed lunch is better than the dinner service? DCM maybe give it a second chance for a quick (cheap) lunch? Wed Oct 28 15:33:36 -0700 2009 5131317 64584 PhilD