Frenchie, or....

[n.o.lover]

Will be in Paris 3 nights this April. Can you please help me narrow down my last dinner. First jet lagged dinner (Wednesday) will probably be at Au Dernier Metro. I just got a reservation for our last night (Friday) at LRSH.

I was really determined to eat at Frenchie on Thursday night, but am pretty much ready to abandon ship. Too much work, too many mixed reviews.

So, am looking for input. We are thinking of Josephine Chez Dumonet (1st choice, but might be a bit out of my travelling companion's price range), Chez Denise, Le Bistro Paul Bert. Any advice based on my two other choices would be greatly appreciated.

[hychka]

As Yogi Berra said, "Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded."

[n.o.lover]

Thank you all for your help, and understanding. The 100 plus unanswered phone calls to Frenchie just got to be too frustrating. Souphie, I agree, it is a shame that Frenchie makes it so difficult.

Alas, I met with my friends this weekend and they jumped on Chez Dumonet for our second night. We're all really excited to try the morilles farcie, the tartare, the duck confit and a whole host of other incredible sounding dishes!

Our first day we are planning lunch at Cafe Constant, one that my friends chose from my list of several possibilities. Sounds like a great place to have a casual lunch.

Again, thanks so much for all of the great information on this board, we can't wait to eat our way through Paris!

[Delucacheesemonger]

When you go to Josephine Chez Dumonnet, make sure somebody gets the cold foie gras to start, it is large and quite memorable, easily shared and perfect.

[n.o.lover]

Awesome, thank you for the tip, it is something that my hubby almost always orders. I think that I need to find more friends to bring to Chez Dumonet, so many things on the menu look wonderful.

[souphie]

But skip the morels, they're not interesting. Neither is the gigot.

Also: I don't see how you can go to Joséphine on the second night of a weekend, given how it's open mon-fri. Well, your weekend has to start on a thursday or earlier.

[Nancy S.]

The way I read it, they start dining in Paris on a Wednesday, so Chez Dumonet would fall on Thursday as their "second" night.

[n.o.lover]

We arrive Wednesday, so dinner will be Thursday at Josephine. Wow, I'm surprised to hear that the morels are not exciting. Thank you for the tip!

[Delucacheesemonger]

l concur, but the boeuf bourgignon is awesome.

[souphie]

I concur more.

[PhilD]

Is this correct? "....Frenchie.......too many mixed reviews." I have definitely read one maybe a few, but the overwhelming number of reviews and comments are positive.

At its price point.It is a cheap restaurant that delivers very good modern French influenced food, and does that very well. Does it match the hype? Probably not, but that doesn't take away from the quality delivered at that price, one of the few places I went too two days running I was so impressed with depth of flavours in the first meal.

[n.o.lover]

This is the thread that made me rethink my determination, particulary Souphie's comments.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/732649

[Parigi]

"mixed reviews" made me think that someone ehad eaten there and then reported not liking it. That is not what the hounds are saying in that thread, not even our lapidaire Soup.

[PhilD]

My thoughts exactly - isn't DCM one of the few less than positive reviews?

I always dismiss him because he only likes L'Ami Louis and Bernard Antony's aged Compte ;-)

[n.o.lover]

Oh I so love this board. So perhaps I need to keep calling, it is just so frustrating to hear a message that says to call between 3 and 5 p.m., and then to read CH reviews that say to call when they are about to serve dinner. I am in the food business, I feel so bad to call when I know the pressure that they are facing getting ready for service.

[PhilD]

Also remember they changed their hours, no lunch service and two sittings for dinner 7:00 or 9:30. This may open up more spots in the short term. I don't think the kitchen answers the phone, so if you call before the FOH team (one person) is in the restaurant no one will answer, and obviously when service starts they can't answer either.

[n.o.lover]

Precisely the problem. Maybe I'll just keep trying. In any event, if not Frenchie, back to my first question, where should we go?

[Delucacheesemonger]

Comte not compte, sorry no accents on my keyboard. Ha!

[mangeur]

Not just Soup and DCM. I'll rear my ugly head again. We enjoyed several rather good meals shortly after Frenchie opened. We put up with totally inept service, thinking that they would either add personnel or that the sole waitperson would become more multi-tasking. Neither they nor he did. Our third meal was quite ordinary and not particularly well sourced. We took a friend with us for our fourth meal and apologized throughout the meal for its mediocrity. I canceled two future reservations.

I will confess that I really don't judge a restaurant by its price point. I'm rather an absolutist: a meal is either good or it is not. It is not a bargain if it does not please.

So add us to those who nay-say. In our opinion, Frenchie is certainly not worth the hype and certainly not the reservation hassle.

[souphie]

My point was that I don't think it is fair for restaurants to make it so difficult for you to get a table, and that no restaurant is good enough to justify this. Then again, there are those New Yorkers who will only to go to a restaurant if there is a long line and it's a hard reservation to get.