5.5 LaDamedePic aka La Dame de Pic, 20 rue du Louvre in the 1st, 01.42.60.40.40, closed Sundays (Metro: Louvre-Rivoli) is "the" restaurant of the rentree, garnering rave reviews, so even at menus of 49-120 E I had to see for myself; silly me! The outside is cool gray - the ultimate understated fascade; the interior cooly red and white with Baccarat water glasses, her own knives and beautiful nappery; and there are perfumed-scented strips for the three pricy "menus" - vanilla, fish and flowers and sous-bois epices.
Carrying out the pretentious theme are two of her own prepared butters with wonderful split rolls; but then wines offered that actually don't break the bank (27 E); however the cheapest of the 4 forced choice menus is hardly a bargain at 49 E.
Two of us had el cheapo dejeuner - ha ha - and J. the iode & fleurs. Thus he started out with two dishes: shucked oysters in a bed of cauliflower soup and jasmine and sardines with wonderfully marinated leeks and green fluff and we had what was called a pumpkin soup but was congealed such floated on a bed of what my chef-friend called pannacotta/custard with bits of coffee grains on top - all three of us agreed it was the winner.
Then the high-roller among us had a farm chicken breast with spinach leaves and orange "flowers" and the two 47% moochers had the supions with - what? - gnocchi - well, it almost worked.
Finally the big spender had a Poire Williams and violet/licorice fluff and we slackers the myrtilles encased in a shell with a wafer of pure sugar on top and green tea stuff underneath.
With two coffees, one glass of white wine and 1.5 bottles of red, no bottled water and really ordinary mignardises our bill was a staggering 267 E. However, to be fair, if one ordered two dejeuner "menus", one bottle of wine and two coffees the bill could come to just 134 E.
So John how did you get to 5.5? Simple.
8.0 Outside
8.0 Decor
8.0 Nappery, glasses, knives
8.0 Welcome
8.0 Service
6.0 Wine price-quality ratio
4.0 Food
1.0 Noise level
1.0 Food price-quality ratio
1.0 Pretentiousness
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= 5.5 - you do the math, works for me.
Go? My friend the free-wheeler said, "Ordinary food, that's all;" so Colette will not be visiting later on.
