L'Office in the 9th is a place I've happily eaten at for a few years, most recently under Chef Kevin O'Donnell's cool twists on food. On reserving and entering we were (once again) welcomed warmly by major domo Charles Compagnon and talked/walked through the menu bilingually.
Our terribly evaluative/rating expert deemed his calamari, cherry tomato halves and chickpeas slightly less meritorius that his partner and mine's gaspacho with big green tomato slices, burrata and basilic and my lukewarm shredded rabbit on tagliatelle, Bristish peas and carrot strips but I found them all equally intriguing.
For seconds, our taste-savvy friend had the pork with burlotti and escarole; Colette and J. had the bar with speck on top and "smoked" tomatoes and I had a luscious looking but tough tasting duck with rice and prunes - again our exacting friend deemed his less interesting; I found them all of merit.
Finally, two of us had the tart with strawberries (unpictured), one the "cheesecake" with pistachio bits and rhubarb and myself a moelleux of chocolate with cherries inside and Stracciatella ice cream outside - outstanding!
With two bottles of Syrah from Chavany in the Northern Rhone, 2 glasses of Rose, great bread, no bottled water or coffee (water was out on the ground-level) and 5 E in supplements, our bill was174 E or 87 E a couple.
Go? If you want Kevin's cooking, go this month, if you're interested in who Campagnon brings in next, go after 28 August.
