Apr 08 – Hide Veraison Rollin Veranda Grannie

[John Talbott]

April 08 – Hide, Veraison, Rollin, Veranda, Grannie, Rollin, Opus Vins, Bis-Tro Vin Sobre, Sobane, Agapé, Enishi, Cottelettes, Petite Chaise

Classic French by a cool Japanese chef.

7.0 Hide aka Koba’s Bistro, 10, rue de General Lanrezac in the 17th, 01.45.74.15.81, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays, menu 26 E for 3 courses, 29 E for 3 courses and 25 cl of wine and about 35 E a la carte. When I read Emmanuel Rubin et al’s 1 heart review in January I assumed (wrongly) that this was a Japanese place despite their statement that the cuisine was closer to Escoffier than Kobe and that 1 heart meant “no way.” But surprisingly, his colleague Francois Simon in today’s* “Dossier” of places under 30 E in Figaroscope called it the “deal of the month”; so of course I called and booked immediately – smart move John. It was quite, quite good and very, very affordable. I don’t know how Rubin et al could describe the food as classic, correct and familial and give it only 1 heart while M. Simon described the dishes as unctuous, in good shape and solid and conclude that one should add it to one’s list of “necessary places to go.” But back to the descriptor of the place – “traditional” – on the walls are hanging Willy Ronis’ photo of the kid and the baguette and George Brassens of the stairs in Montmartre – pretty French I’d say. While they have paper napkins and paper placemats (but get a demerit for no paper towels in the loo), it is a linen not a paper quality place. The service person was delightful and funny, the menu very large and varied, the bread crusty and tasty and the wine unusual (good). I ordered from the a la carte ardoise; starting with sautéed foie gras on the bed of mache perfectly dressed so the vinegar offset the natural fatty-sweet tone of the liver; then had a cote of veal undercooked as much as he could with mashed potatoes wonderfully flavored with parsley and something else I couldn’t put my finger on and forgot to ask about and an overkill side-dish of noodles and butter; and terminated with a coffee gourmand, all the rage in Paris this Spring (with Ethiopian coffee, crème brulee and salty coffee ice that was super.) My bill was 44 E but I suspect the 29 E deal would be pretty good.

Go back? I cannot wait to test it out with my gang.

*My last meal was April 16th, fully paid for.

The perfect new local bistrot.

6.8 La Veraison, 64, rue de la Croix Nivert in the 15th, 01.45.32.39.39, closed Sundays and Mondays has menus with 2 courses at 22 or 3 at 26 and the wines are also reasonably priced, starting with glasses at a coupla Euros and 50 cl for 10 €. I went on a wonderfully sunny but still chilly day* and was startled on entering to find a guy cooking at a griddle facing the street window. He said hello, greeted me while turning shrimp and the Madame escorted me to a table 10 feet from him where I watched eagerly as he cooked – everything – alone. The place really reminds me of Spring, but with an outside sign like Ribouldingue, small (28 covers), nice selection of choices and good natural wines (he comes from Louis Vins). My sautéed gambas were perfectly cooked but not really tasteworthy, the salad with dressing adding a bit. But the magret de canard a la plancha was first-rate and sliced thin and almost raw (as ordered) with unnecessary potatoes and slices of spice bread (unnecessary because the duck alone was enough and stood on its own.) Then I had a tiramisu in a glass atop speculoos (see our friend Chocolate & Zucchini’s account with one speculoo(s) stuck in – delicious. It was wonderful to watch this chef (an ex-technician) work all alone supplying 15 customers on-time food without a bit of rush-rush (he embodied all the cool-cool, zen-zen, calme-calme that President Bling-Bling said he had but lacks.) The coffee came with a great moist gateau. Oh, and after serving everyone he stuck around and chatted me up or vice-versa in a most pleasant way. No quibbles? Sure, there were too many 2-3 € supplements – just bump the prices up 2-4 € Stephane. The bill should have been 42.50 € but they were out of the wine I ordered and thus it crept up a bit.

Go back? Sure, when you’re in love, with a person or his/her food, you miss the flaws.

*My last meal was April 17th, fully paid.

Gordon Ramsay, in Paris, you’re kidding me, F*** D*** S*** C***? No, I’m not.

5.8 La Veranda at the Trianon Palace, 1 bvd de la Reine in Versailles, 01.30.84.55.55, open 7/7, opened to uniformly negative reviews all the way from a busted heart from Emmanuel Rubin in Figaroscope to Trish Deseine’s kids in Le Fooding saying the fish had “un arrière-goût de sang” and the “basil sorbet avait un goût bizarre.” Whoa! “Go there, not on your life,” said one of our pals when we invited him for a friendly Sunday lunch. In any case, five hearty souls ventured out of the city in a very easy-riding Alfa-Romeo provided by diner #4 (I’m numbering them as American waitfolk do, I’m told) and we arrived at this spectacular hotel palace on the edge of the Versailles gardens. We took a lot of photos, stumbled through the rain over unfinished walkways and entered a fairy land. The outré bar alone had about 15 tables where people (I assume) denied access to the inner sanctuary, were sipping, snacking and eating. We passed through a two-story bar stacked with glasses and bottles of wines, etc. facing Ramsay’s weekday show (featuring a 150 € tasting menu) and entered the much nicer veranda facing the gardens, again two stories tall. Wow! It’s good to be the King. Firsts: #1 and I had the stuffed calamar rings (coulda fooled me) with fried tentacles hidden under a salad, not bad; #2 a yummy Jerusalem and cauliflower and something else soup, #3 risotto with chorizo and parmesan (I’ll never be happy til I’m back in Modena, but this will serve well until then), and #4 a pasta with an incredible red sauce and a lobster atop that I deemed the “Best of Show.” Mains were for #1 a monkfish that was OK, #2 and 4 an unbelievable veal T-Bone – veal T-Bone, when have you seen that on a menu? – it was succulent, with a Bearnaise sauce and so-so potatoes that were sort of faux-Noirmoutier and a fine salad, #3 a piece of lamb with top-class (you won’t believe this) onions rings, and I had what I thought was the last horse in the race – a beef stew that was undistinguished but came with lardons of pancetta (very tasty) on a bed of spinach (good) and cream of celery (fabulous). The bread/rolls were warm and OK, the butter deemed nul by popular vote and the tiramisu OK. For dessert my wonderful French resulted in three of us having the moelleux that was not the usual flat round thing but a tall tower with a most marvelous crunchy exterior that we were instructed to cut the tops off; #3 had a cold but wonderfully tasty and moist crème brulee and #4 a pannacotta that was OK (but about which secretly I rejoiced they’d misheard me about). We had a Chateau Simeone Palette wine (very rare I was told, and very cher I discovered), 2 bottles of Chateldun and 5 coffees = 425 €. Oh yah, they forgot the before/with/after nummies until our assertive but most seductive #4 diner asked about (the only service gaffe if one ignores the waiters deaf ear to the difference between a café noisette and café crème.)

Should you go? Yes, at least once. Come on, sometimes the French critics are operating as if Waterloo were yesterday.

*My last meal was April 21st, fully paid for.

Another French place with a Japanese chef. What’s up?

5.7 Grannie: Chez Naolo, 27, rue Pierre Leroux in the 7th, 01.47.34.94.14, closed Saturday noon and Sundays, is yet another place Francois Simon “found” that few others have reported on. March 9th he bemoaned the fact that the restaurant was nearly empty while he felt the food was quite good, inventive and creative while building on his Bardet and other training and he worried that the guy was earning less than the SMIC and might therefore return to Japan. I have little to add to that; same thing today, my neighbor and I were the only diners and the food was way above average. Like Simon, I cannot figure out why (my neighbor posited that it’s the old key to retail sales – location, location, location. It's tucked off way behind the Hopital Necker and Bon Marche.) In any case, the food is not only good it’s a bargain; 23 for 2-courses at lunch and 3 for 30 €, wines at 15 € a carafe. They started us off with those Japanese cocktail snacks that were no different than one gets in Asian stores, but still, it was a nice touch. My neighbor ordered a terrine of rabbit and eel that I thought was an incredibly strong pairing and delicious. I had an equally good risotto with shrimp – me who scoffs at any risotto made more that 50 km from Modena. Then she had morels with other vegetables whose sauce she found strange but I thought was great. I had a rollatine of rabbit stuffed with some sort of forcemeat and pistachios, again quite tasty. It came with incredibly wonderfully-full-tasting asparagus. Neither of us ordered dessert – me because I was truly stuffed and satisfied and why push our luck? We did have coffee, but no bottled water; thus two formulas and a carafe = 66 €.

Go? I join Simon in imploring you to go so we don’t lose this fine talent because he can’t fill the place, although my dining partner chatted up the waitress and she said things were busier at night.

*My last meal was April 22nd, fully paid for.

Le Rollin - No different from a thousand others, or not?

5.5 Le Rollin, 92, av Ledru Rollin in the 11th, 01.48.06.51.92, was a place mentioned in the last paragraph of one of Francois Simon's ”Croque Notes" on Taillevent in which he contrasted it by saying how different it was - 360º (I think he meant 180º) - including the fact that the entire "menu" here was the price of two cups of coffee at Taillevent. It looks like a thousand other bistrots in Paris, why did Simon single it out so? I'll try to explain. When I arrived* my buddies were in the primo table by the window enjoying a kir and sausage very good). The ardoise is indeed very reasonable - 13 E for a plat and dessert and my one friend loved his soup amuse bouche, the red tuna and ratatouille and strawberries with ice cream. I had the "cappuccino" of mushrooms, with sautéed mushroom aside and a tart foam sauce, which I thought was great. Then the other two of us had the confit de canard and potatoes with ham chunks, the skin of the duck was not crisp but the product with a tad salt, was very good. Two of us finished with the mouelleux of chocolate which were fine but not runny enough for me. With 2 kirs, 1 liter of wine and three coffees, the bill was 89.00 Euros. At the end, at the door, our host asked our strange bunch of Romanian, French and American polyglot types who had called to reserve - "'twas I, I admitted." And how did you learn of us. "Francois Simon," said I. "Ah well, please come back at night when we have a more elaborate menu with the likes of scallops, risotto, etc."

Go back? My friends intend to soon.

* My last meal was April 18th, fully paid.

Precious, simply precious; and good food and wine too.

5.5 Opus Vins, 72, rue Vasco de Gama in the 15th, 01.42.50.14.91, closed Saturday lunch, Sundays and Monday nights has a 20 € 3-course meal at lunch and with cheese at night it runs 30€. Except for Caroline Mignot and Hostelerie magazine, this place seems to have escaped everyone and that’s a shame, because it’s really quite good. I’d read about it in/on Mignot’s blog and kept waiting for confirmation from another source but finally gave up and went.* It appears tiny (20 covers in the front room and 10 in back – much like its neighbor Le Beurre Noisette) but it manages apparently. There’s a small ardoise for food (4, 4, 4) but an enormous wine list (vide the name). I started with a pasta with a Calabresi sauce that had capers and grated cheese and what I swear she said was dried fish eggs but they were sliced as if from a roll – delicious. Then I had a sizeable grilled whole bar (good product esp for the price - 12 €), with great sautéed mushrooms which really set the fine quality of the bar off (although the crushed/diced tomatoes and broccoli added nothing). I ended with an homage to Colette – a pre-prepared ile flottante, again delicious. The bread was so-so, the coffee superb – so why just 5.5? Well, I dunno, it’s unfair I suppose, but given the nearby competition – Beurre Noisette, Autour du Mont, l’Os a Moelle, etc, it’s got to compete against them for my heart. But it goes to the top of my list for back-packing relatives; think about it – 20 for 3 courses and a glass of wine for 3.80 = 23.80 €.

Nice, good, affordable – what’s the hitch? None

* My last meal was April 21st, fully paid.

Another great “find”; how will this month end?

5.2* Le Bis-tro Vin Sobre**, the second such Vin Sobre in town, Bis-tro, get it, at 35, ave Duquesne in the 7th, open 7/7, took over the former Calmont space (some doors inside still recognize that) a while back and got rather good reviews right off the bat. I saw its awning saying wines by Bernard, which I thought was cool, but not knowing any Bernard except M. Pivot, proceeded with caution – but the awesome chalkboard of wines, which runs from 16-70 € and has the Saint-Nicolas de Bourgueil from my favorite wine couple in France – the Bretons - so, hey. The place is glowing and gleaming, full of polyglot UNESCO suit-types and serves up HUGE portions of food (the Cote de Boeuf ten feet away with frites and salad flowing off the plate put Durgin Park to shame). I started with the croustillant of jamboneau with red pepper and if I hadn’t ordered it myself I’d have thought it was a phyllo wrapped brik of shredded chicken with onions, it was so tasty. I had trouble finishing it and then I was confronted with the daily special – a cote de cochon – huge, with zucchini and sliced-thin red peppers mixed in with a thick sauce of beets – again very good. Good bread and an “’Antidote St Baume des Terres Promises” wine (any wine from the Promised Land sounds good to me) made the meal even better.

Go? To another hellova meal, no and’s, if’s or but’s about it if I lived/worked nearby - you bet!

*A word about my ratings:

folks, including my precious wife, Colette, ask why I rave about a place and give it what she thinks is a mediocre mark – say a 5.x. Well I:

- think a five is just fine.

- have the scale in my head and however fickle, try to stick to it, and

- am a hard grader, just ask my residents or authors or friends.

** What is the origin of a seeming oxymoron – Vin Sobres? Well, the website of the Village of Vinsobres says it “….probably originates from the Latin words "vin sobris" or "vin sobrio" meaning "wine and work" and indeed it is completely devoted to the making of wine.”

*** My last meal was April 23rd and fully paid (I was recognized, spoken English to but not comp’d.)

3 Hearts for Korean with a 16.50 € 5-course "menu."

5.0 Sobane, 5, rue de la Tour d'Auvergne in the 9th, open 7/7, serving a 5-course lunch menu for 16.50 and wines starting at 19 € - got 3 hearts from Emmanuel Rubin last week - so it didn't take much to convince me to break my "no ethnic food in Paris" position. Plus, Rubin said they had a bulots salad and tripe soup and chocolate eclair - hunh? I got there* a tad before my eating partner and loved the simple, washed brown exterior and interior and golden chop sticks and spoon. We both ordered the lunch menu that consisted of (1) salad greens with caramelized zucchini, onions and red pepper as well as nuts and cold pear, apple and ginger dressing, (2) a brochette with two crispy fried chicken nuggets and two raviolis with sauce, (3) very generous portions of sliced sashimi-type salmon and some other fish, (4) different beef dishes (hers = sautéed, mine = stewed, both fine) with 4 accompaniments incl one kimchi and (5) a tiramisu and raspberry ice dessert. Our bill with one bottle of wine, no bottled water and two coffees (albeit her café noisette was double my serré ) was 54 €.

Not three hearts in my book, but it was in hers and for a 7/7 it gets the price-quality of the year award.

* Last meal April 19th, fully paid for.

A whiff of Arpege, the resto not the perfume.

4.8 L'Agapé, 51, rue Jouffroy-d'Abbans in the 17th, 01.42.27.20.18, closed Sundays and Mondays, lunch menu at 39 euros, dinner 77 euros and “carte blanche” menu = 110 euros, and finally a la carte is about 70 euros. When Colette and I had cruised it a month ago, the plates listed on the lunch menu in the window (no longer so displayed) just didn’t appeal to us, but since then, all my friends and eGullet colleagues as well as food critics have gone and all, without exception, have loved it. As I’ve noted elsewhere, it is run by two l’Arpege refugees, Laurent Lapaire, ex-director in the front and Bertrand Grebaut at the piano. The produce comes from folks such as Alain Passard’s veggie source, Annie Bertin; meats from Hugo Desnoyer, etc. I truly entered with an open mind; my last three meals at l’Arpege were fine, full of talent, albeit too much salt, but fine. From the start, my friend sensed pressure. (Backstory: I had been warned by an eGullet loyal that in discussing me and the Society with the staff, they noted that I had reserved for today*, so maybe they were just trying hard.) We too had the 39 € lunch menu which has a fixed 1st, choice of fixed fish or meat, and choice of fixed cheese or fixed dessert. The veloutées served as an amuse bouche and 1st course were light and consisted of – let me see here in my notes – ah yes, fennel and orange, then parsley root. Both were light, or did I say that already?, airy and, is there another synonym for light – ah yes, ethereal. Then we shared a lamb cooked properly rare and a wild merlan cooked properly as well. The product was indeed excellent but halfway along, my friend said – “I don’t get what the fuss was all about, do you? It’s good product, nicely prepared but has no outstanding character.” No, I said, but there’s dessert. We again shared it: a cheese plate (fixed) Brilliant-Savarin, Tomme de Savoie and a Portuguese cheese I didn’t hear clearly and a blood orange ice on a bed of fresh chilled carrot. Our wine was recommended by the member of the staff my companion sensed pressure from, who went on and on about it, but was deemed by my wine-knowledgeable friend to be, once again, (you’ve got it) “light.” It was also, despite being young and unfiltered and un-needing aeration, decanted into a trophy glass decanter, which simply seemed pretentious and about which object the sommelier went on about at more length than necessary. In fact, in retrospect, my guest declared that the whole lunch seemed to be mainly about “show” rather than substance. We had no bottled water, pre or post dinner drinks or coffee; the bill was 105 €.

* Last meal April 25th, fully paid for.

Go? As my friend said “I don’t get what the fuss was all about?”

A non-sushi exclusively Japanese place in Montmartre.

4.6 Enishi, 67, rue Labat in the 18th, 01 42 57 32 14, closed Wednesdays, is another place “discovered” by Caroline Mignot of, of course, “La Table a Decouvert.” It is within walking range of my apartment, so it constitutes a perfect “last night before the airplane/after the joint is clean” place. It was/is a wonderful warm (70º) evening, and I was seated looking out the window at the scene of couples passing hand-in-hand, many multi-ethnic, some male same-sex, no females same-sex, but all entranced in the late, sunny, early summer evening. (If one needs proof of this part of Montmartre’s “happening” status it is the new high-end Tunisian bakery and fresh and frozen VN-Thai-Japanese- Chinese-etc food emporium on the Rue Ramey.) The restos tables and chairs are stark black modern, only one woman appears to speak passable French (but hey, my Japanese, even after two months, is lessful.) I am in a position to watch the difference between folks coming in here vs the Tokyo across the street; bottom line, they were lining up here and not going in the other. The place has sushi, sashimi, tempura, etc., but I chose my old fave, the tonkatsu. It came with two “amuse bouches”, a salad with tasty cucumbers, tomatoes (yes) and seaweed, plus many herbs and Western lettuces; and a dish of pickled turnip (?) and green beans. Then came a cup of custard with fish stuff that was sublime. Finally they brought the tonkatsu with its sauce and an astonishingly good potato salad but there were several differences from its Japanese and American incarnations – the crust was crisp and almost like that of the 1970’s era KFC and the sauce was less thick but equally tasty. In addition, given the high price of rice today, the bowl presented was most generous. The soup was presented with the main – as it is in Japan not the States. The clientele initially was all Japanese or Japanese/French but later turned more French. With a glass of very reasonably priced wine (starting at 12 € a bottle) and the “menu” one easily got out for 30 €.

Go? If in the 18th, with its days open, for sure

*My last meal was April 25th, fully paid for.

OK; they’re trying.

4.5 Les Cotelettes, 4, impasse Guemenee in the 4th, 01.42.72.08.45, closed Saturday lunch, Sundays and Mondays, serves a 15 € lunch formula (a la carte is 35-50 €). It’s a place recently taken over by the Benard group (Les Zingots + Que du Bon) and while I’ve had off and on experiences with them, I had heard good things from the RFC so one chilly April day* I went. The joint was jumping, all French despite its location in tourist heaven, Marais-division and it had an ultra modern kitchen with two young chefs working like the dickens but never hurrying. I started with what was described as crunchy queue de boeuf – it was a bit too fatty for me although it was offset somewhat by the dressing on the accompanying salad. Then I had an absolutely perfect large piece of veal liver, maybe not Chez Les Anges circa 1970 quality but not far from it, with fine accompanying vegetables. With wine and coffee but no dessert my bill was 53.50 € (I declined the “menu” because the oeufs mayo, veggie soup, potato and sausage starters; fish cassolette and sausage mains; and rice pudding and faisselle didn’t turn me on).

Go? I’m not sure; maybe it needs more seasoning.

*My last meal was April 15th, fully paid for.

Had to eat around the Maison de Verre in the 7th.

4.2 A La Petite Chaise, 36, rue de Grenelle in the 7th, 01.42.22.13.35, open 7/7. My architectural historian friend and I had a 2 PM rendezvous at the Maison de Verre and so both of inquired about and I walked around places in the immediately vicinity. Oddly enough, Paris’s oldest (1680) restaurant was in none of the guides except Zagat which implied that it served French comfort food to annoying American tourists. Well, comfort food it may be, but there was no English being spoken, indeed the downstairs room was full of French geezers, so we fit right in. We both had the 3-course, 32 € menu (the 23 € one gives one 2 courses, 1 glass of wine and coffee). He started with grated celery that was not over-mayo’d with two types of ham; I had a salad nicely dressed with 4 leeks and proscuitto – both good product and production. Then he had the salmon unilaterale which came with a ton of vegetables and I had the joue de boeuf in an intense dark black sauce with potatoes that wasn’t the best I’ve ever had but neither was it the worst. Finally both of us had the special dessert of the day a banana entremet with dark chocolate sauce that was very good. Our bill (with 2 coffees included, plus ½ bottle of Bordeaux but no bottled water) was 78 €.

*My last meal was April 24th, fully paid for.

Go? If in the same circumstance, yes!.

Edited May 1, 2008 by John Talbott (log)

[John Talbott]

A few months ago, I ate at Hide in the 17th and loved the place.

Well, I took my gang, or they took me as the case may be and it suffered the "sophomore slump," which I've written about before here and I ate crow instead of food.

As first courses I had (again) the foie gras and it was superb, on a bed of fine al dente green beans and Atar had cod on a bed of mache, equally good. But then.....

I had over-the-hill, muttony lamb with good for nothing "Boston" beans and smashed potatoes which were OK, but the whole thing I barely touched; Atar had sole with pleurottes which if one were starving on a desert isle would pass, but Colette's chicken didn't survive scrutiny even with added salt and Elan's trio of fish was just passable.

Finally, Colette tried her standard by which all restaurants are measured, a floating island and I didn't hear any Meg Ryan sounds. Coffee and bread and wine were OK; the bill 109.50 E for 4, but as my father used to say:

Yah gets what yah pays for.

*My last meal was June 20th, fully paid for.

[pierre45]

A few months ago, I ate at Hide in the 17th and loved the place. 

Well, I took my gang, or they took me as the case may be and it suffered the "sophomore slump," which I've written about before here and I ate crow instead of food.

As first courses I had (again) the foie gras and it was superb, on a bed of fine al dente green beans and Atar had cod on a bed of mache, equally good.  But then.....

I had over-the-hill, muttony lamb with good for nothing "Boston" beans and smashed potatoes which were OK, but the whole thing I barely touched; Atar had sole with pleurottes which if one were starving on a desert isle would pass, but Colette's chicken didn't survive scrutiny even with added salt and Elan's trio of fish was just passable.

Finally, Colette tried her standard by which all restaurants are measured, a floating island and I didn't hear any Meg Ryan sounds.  Coffee and bread and wine were OK; the bill 109.50 E for 4, but as my father used to say:

Yah gets what yah pays for.

*My last meal was June 20th, fully paid for.

←

I can't beleive what I am reading.What a transformation.When I ate there last april I thought Hide was the best bargain in Paris.Tradional food with a twist.

WOnderful reasonable wines.

Come on John.What's your explanation?Did you speak with the chef?

[John Talbott]

Come on John. What's your explanation? Did you speak with the chef?

How to respond?

I said hello to the chef on entering but not later.

We had a new English-speaking (I suspect USA) waitress and she was quite charming and interested.

I dunno Pierre.

Maybe success - the place was packed;

maybe I was wrong the first time;

maybe this is the way places go;

maybe, maybe, maybe.

[pierre45]

Come on John. What's your explanation? Did you speak with the chef?

How to respond?

I said hello to the chef on entering but not later.

We had a new English-speaking (I suspect USA) waitress and she was quite charming and interested.

I dunno Pierre.

Maybe success - the place was packed;

maybe I was wrong the first time;

maybe this is the way places go;

maybe, maybe, maybe.

←

I think as you said its the success factor.Like you, I was impressed when I went there in April.Perhaps he is not successful with every dish.I,e the foie gras was excellent at both of your visits.