lunch at "La cantine des gourmets"

[admajoremgloriam]

Had lunch in this one-star restaurant in the 7th arrondissement about a week ago. It is located avenue de la Bourdonnais, a few meters from the Ecole Militaire, in the hotel 'Le Bourdonnais'.

To tell you about the general setting of the lunch, I went there with a friend on a Sunday, half expecting that their 'set lunch menu' would not be available on the weekends. Had it not been, we would have gone for the 80 euros tasting menu but it turned out they had a 'menu de jour' available (priced at 40 euros).

The room is very quiet, with enough space between most tables, though some, particularly in corners, tend to be a little too close to each other. The team is young, smiling and discrete. Now onto the serious stuff.

The first amuse bouche was a paste of langoustine spread on some thin oily bread. Nice if a bit unsurprising. The second amuse bouche was a served in an espresso cup with a little vermeil spoon and consisted of a cream of new potato flavoured with herbs and caviar de maquereau. Much better, showing a measured desire to surprise while intriguing the palate, left you wanting more, which I have always believed to be one of the main purposes of an amuse bouche.

Then came the starters: capuccino of wild mushrooms for me and velouté of artichokes with ravioles de foie gras for my friend. I was glad I chose the capuccino, which consisted of a layer of thick foie gras mousse, a large layer of mushroom cream (very subtle), a layer of white foam (pretty much tasteless but very interesting visually and added a great mouthfeel). A very successful starter, served in a quite large portion. The other starter however was very uninspired in comparison, nothing bad but nothing nice enough.

Main dish were 'la cannette' for me: pieces of duck roasted with dried fruits and nuts, along with figs stuffed with foie gras. Very well done, perfectly cooked and again came in a large serving.

My friend was hapy with her dish though I would not have been. It was 'lotte, served on top of a little mount of spinach. The serving was very small, and the flavour of saffron took over the whole dish.

Deserts were the low point of the meal, a pretty flavourless pear cake for me and a nice, but overly simple desert for her (raspberries, pieces of tuiles and cream). The mignardises however more than made up for this as there were a lot and all were very well executed.

As for the wine, we were offered a half bottle of some Languedoc wine that I do not recall and declined. We were then offered to sample a 'carafe' (50cl) of the house red wine, which I decided to go for, since house wine is usually such a good indication of the standing of a 'house'. It was a very nice, I believe a bordeaux, probably a cru bourgeois though I forgot to ask afterwards. The point is that it was priced at 14 euros for the carafe (when I saw that on the bill, I thought there was a mistake)!

All in all, it was I would recommend having lunch at this restaurant, considering you can eat at two with wine and on a Sunday for less than 100 euros. However, the satisfaction left by the meal may very well depend on making the right choices on the menu du jour (given orally) as there seems to be quite a few discrepancies in quality.

If anyone has tried it à la carte or has sampled the tasting menu, I would be happy to hear their ideas.

[Louisa Chu]

Just thought I should mention that a friend of mine just finished his stage at La Cantine - tough but great people - and the whole Cantine team is moving over to the two star Les Muses.

[admajoremgloriam]

I had heard that it was the team from the "Clos de Gourmets" (avenue Rapp, not far from " La Cantine" and nice but not as nice) that was taking over at the "Muses" but it must have been a mistake.

[Louisa Chu]

Definitely the Cantine team - not Clos des Gourmets. Where did you hear that?

Sorry I forgot to say so before - thanks so much for your post - it's so cool to hear all the details from a diner's perspective - having heard so much of my friend's in the kitchen.

And welcome to eGullet.

[admajoremgloriam]

Thanks, I was very happy to find out about this forum, I had despaired to find people as enthousiastic about these things as I am.

Apparently, the new chef at la Cantine is Dominique Grel, a disciple of Michel Guerard whos used to be at the "Relais de Margaux". They will be trying to maintain the star, it is probably a good time to go there again.