1, Avenue
Dutuit, 8th. 01.53.05.10.01. Metro Champs-Elysees Clemenceau.
Open : Mon 8-10pm, Tue-Fri 12h30-2pm, 8-10pm, Closed August, one week
at Christmas. Average : 150 Euros. Credit : Amex,
DC, MC, V. Weelchair access.
On
an early summer evening, when this
restaurant ought to have been its most bewitching - it's a purely
sensual pleasure to watch the light fade through the tree topsthat
surround the elegant second-floor Directoire dining room that is one of
the loveliest settings in Paris - our dinner here was a maddening
catastrophe. They had no record of our reservation., but somehow we
were the ones labelled remiss. We were finally seated at a woeful
table next to the busiest serving station in the dining-room. A
waitress managed to get us through a half-bottle mineral water before
our starters arrived, and then decided that we should have another one
with no further consultation. The menu had changed little since the
last time we came, but we remembered enjoying the langoustines, now
priced at an absurd 72 Euros for three, and hoped that "cooked and raw"
asparagus would be pleasant. The langoustines were certifiably
flavour-free and mucked up in an insipid sauce, and the asparagus would
have been all right were it not for a sauce that tasted as
if waxed kitchen paper and butter were the main ingredients. Main
courses were also a crashing disappointment : impeccably
cooked turbot was ruined by a dreary sauce that had something to do
with truffles, while dreadfully overcooked and almost tasteless sea
bass came in yet another botched sauce with rubbery bits and
pieces of shellfish. Though we didn't finish any of these dishes, none
of the staff saw fit to ask if there was a reason why half of each
plate had been left untouched. We skipped cheese and dessert, and
concluded with coffee, before being blasted by an absurd bill for a
ghastly meal. Never again.