16 rue Feydeau (2)
Tel: 01-45-08-00-08
AMBIANCE/DÉCOR
An enigma which should have worked better as a complete package than it did.
Complex, modern food from a small menu (five choices per category). Imaginative. Exquisitely plated. A large, two-level space with spaciously placed tables for 35, including a salon for drinks or coffee.
Very expensive a la carte prices. Deliberate pacing makes for a long evening, sapped of joy. You must bring your own.
The space and food make this an attractive possibility, but with too few guests (albeit on a Tuesday) leaving each room half full. (They would have been better to fill one.) Ironically, all of the energy of the well designed, quite elegant 19th Century space was in the kitchen in the hands and mind of the owner/chef. Once it left the pass, it became somewhat drained of excitement. I kept looking at my watch.
FOOD
Easier to describe than to fully capture. Minced sweetbreads in an egg-shaped fried crust paired with a beautifully soft-boiled egg, roast scallops, lobster served two ways, raw and with tails warmed in poured-over broth.
For plats, turbot served in smoke-filled bell jar, Spanish-sourced pork chop with multiple intricate accompaniments, chicken breast with crayfish sauce, sweetbreads. Complex desserts which impact on the eye better than they excited the mouth.
SERVICE
Somber. Knowledgeable, formal servers without the real skill to do formal and without the personality to animate the overly serious atmosphere of the experience.
PRICE
Shockingly high relative to this Diary. A la carte entrees 25€ ±, plats 39-59€, desserts 13€. Range of wines. Less expensive formula lunch.
(1x) (2014)