Saturday, October 29, 2011

Rech Ducassification - Je vous offre un ver?

I debated with myself on whether to write up my recent lunch at the 1925 fish and seafood bistro, Rech. Normally I wouldn't be caught dead in this gastronomic dead zone (with the exception of maybe Gourmet des Ternes or Fréderic Simonin, both addresses I shunned for no good reason, other than that I'd never been to Rech). I was thinking of winter, seafood, chilled white, I was hungry, and stuck in the hinterland that surrounds the place des Ternes. Rech it was.

My lunch partner's starter of mussel and saffron soup was decent enough, but my bland autumn vegetable "cook pot" came with a side order of worm. Yes, you heard me right. The attitude of the staff was very "har har har, more protein for you". Nice. It happens I know.

When I the sommelier asked what I'd like to drink and I replied "I trust you", his reply (with no humor intended, I'm sure) was: "Tant pis pour vous". I believed him when a little later he knocked my 17€ glass of Condrieu across the table, smashing the glass in two, whisking away the pieces (sans apology). He replaced the glass and we continued on with a tasty baby squid tagliatelli with fresh cepes and parmesan, and a regrettable (especially at 38€) lobster macaroni which was overpowered by something or other I ceased to care about.

Their "famous" camembert was fine. The 40 minute wait for the bill afterwards, however, was not, as apparently the entire staff of the restaurant, except the manager had vacated the premises and forgotten us upstairs.

Note to self: file somewhere between "very disappointed" and "never again". Especially, especially at 100€ a head.

 Mussel and saffron soup
 Baby squid "tagliatelli" with cepes
Lobster macaroni

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good for you, Adrian. You came right out and said what everyone in Paris who cares about good food knows, which is that the Alain Ducasse empire is in free fall. What he did to Benoit was a catastrophe and Aux Lyonnais has been skidding, too.

Joufpoi said...

gastronomic dead zone ?????????????
Not very well informed for a concierge !!!!
- Caïus of Jean-Marc Notelé, 6 Rue d'Armaillé.
- Les Fougères of Stéphane Duchiron, 10 rue Villebois Mareuil (just on the other side of Frédéric Simonin you are naming !)
- Le Hide of Hide Kobayashi, rue du Général Lanrezac
- Chez Gabrielle, 7 rue de l'Etoile
etc, etc...

Anonymous said...

He's right. That area of town is so boring gastronomically. Just a few addresses.

Joufpoi said...

What's "a few" ?
Need more ?

@katiec said...

I'm going to leave the worm thing alone, because frankly that just freaks me out.

But isn't there a place and a time for places like Rech? Stick to what is important: a huge plateau de fruits de mer (really, if being part of the Ducasse chain is only good for one thing, it's having "first pick" of fresh, quality seafood, non?) accompanied by a chilled bottle of not-extremely-expensive white wine.

Sometimes a meal out shouldn't be more complicated than that. For those times, Rech and the like suit me just fine.

bully said...

Good for you, Adrian. You came right out and said what everyone in Paris who cares about good food knows, which is that the Alain Ducasse empire is in free fall. What he did to Benoit was a catastrophe and Aux Lyonnais has been skidding, too.

bully said...

Good for you, Adrian. You came right out and said what everyone in Paris who cares about good food knows, which is that the Alain Ducasse empire is in free fall. What he did to Benoit was a catastrophe and Aux Lyonnais has been skidding, too. china outsourcing