7.5 A. Noste's Tapas Bar is downstairs from Julien Duboué's elegant and super real restaurant upstairs at 6bis, rue du 4 Septembre, in the 2nd where my great pal who knows more about food and wine than anyone else on the planet, ate with me a month ago or so and I rated it a rare 8/10. As we left the place then I was impressed by his downstair's tapas place and decided to go with my pal, Colette and two other confreres from the darkest 18th. The downstairs is totally different, as Monty Python would say, with common tables (like Afaria & Dans les Landes), a real food truck parked inside and loaves of bread and wine on racks and shelves - very cool! Julien's "co-" welcomed us warmly (in perfect English) and suggested we have the Best of the Best (PS at 35 E pp) and we went for them:
Oh my goodness, what did we have, well:
- an amuse of pomegranates and foie gras
- Landaise "spring rolls"
- gambas with spicy sauce and julienned apples (Colette's go-back-and-have-for-sure)
- fried chipirons in a boot
- spicy chopped oysters and duck
- fougasse with duck breast, cheese and raisins
- chicken with a superb sauce
- raviolis of foie gras
- a huge duck breast on the bone (undercooked inside, crispy outside) with a modern BBQ sauce
- frites (the only downer in a great meal)
- chocolate caramel (surely I wrote this down wrong - help guys!)
- a millassous with jam.
With 5 amuses (offered), one (Basque) Oldarki apero, 3 bottles and a glass of wine, one (Basque) Patxaran beer, plus one house filtered gassy water, 3 coffees and 5 Raspberry Armagnac digestives (offered), our bill was 279.60 E for 5 = 102 E a couple if my math is right. And the bathrooms are terrific.
Go? Yes indeed. Upstairs or downstairs, you will not be disappointed. Plus Chowhounders rush you at the door and the dB level is only 89 dB.
