As you might have noticed, it’s been a while I haven’t written a post. In fact so long, that I have started feeling guilty about that. But what made me really to log in to my Typepad account (where I see there are some nice changes in the interface by the way) is the two overrated restaurants I’ve been recently in Paris.
The restaurant that received its start in a surprisingly short time after the opening is created by Enrico Bernardo, who once was “the best sommelier” of the world. The idea is that you choose the wine first and then the sommelier suggests the dishes that fit the wine.
The wine was excellent, what, unfortunately, I couldn’t say about the food. Salad with tiger shrimps for the entrĂ©e and cote de boeuf for the main dish was good but something one could eat in any high-end brasserie. I love wine, but I don’t think that restaurants should be given stars only on the merits of good wine.
The other place is the famous Chateaubriand Bistrot (129 avenue Parmentier, 75011, tel.01 43 57 45 95) where I wanted to go since a long time ago basically because everybody has been praising it so much. Well, I went there for lunch his week and would rather forget what I am there.
Everything is “cool” in this place, the chef who walks around the bar and pretends that he doesn’t notice anybody, the “bobo” crowd and the menu printed on an A4 format piece of paper. My first dish was “bouillabaisse” that had such a strong taste of fish (was it made of raw sardines??) that I had to force myself to eat still hoping that the next dish would confirm the chef’s ingenuity. My entrecote has destroyed these illusions. The meat was ok, but just ok, nor the meat quality, neither its preparation were worth the praises. To go back to Il Vino D’Enrico Bernardo, if the cote de boeuf there was as good as in a high-end brasserie, the entrecote at Le Chateaubriand was something I could grill at my home… Don’t think I will ever come back there…
P.S. Ristorante Cracco is coming next- much more positive experience 🙂
