5.7 Beaucoup, 7, rue Froissart in the 3rd, (Metro: St-Sebastien Froisssart), 01.42.77.38.47, open 7/7, is the third joint opened by Julien Fouin and Ludovic Dardenay, who brought us Glou and Jaja which I haven't exactly swooned over, but it came recommended, my friend who has a cabinet/apartment nearby and needs to scrurry back and forth was originally going to dine with me and it was open on Mondays, the new Saturdays here.
"It was the kind of a day," Guy Noir would say, "that patrons kept their watchcaps and puffy-coats on and where the waitresses wore fluffy sweaters and bulky scarfs." And it had the kind-of an ambiance where at 12h30, 30 year olds, 85.7% of them fashionistas, some American, were having complex mixed cocktails. They have superbly priced 2 and 3-course "menus" and an otherwise interesting carte and I decided to plunge in.
Now like Johnnie Carson's Carnac I will tell you the answers before the questions:
9 Decor
9 Welcome
7 Food
7 Inventiveness
6 Other diners
5 Prix-Qualité
-1 Waiting times between courses
_________________________________
42÷7=5.7, you gotta problem with those maths?
The wine (a Costieres de Nimes) was perfect, the ceviche of swordfish with minced agrumes and apples and flowers - terrific, and the sweetbreads with shitake (1), dense sauce and pasta, quite inventive. Only the bread was horrible; the coffee, passable by Paris standards.
It took 30 minutes for the first course to arrive and 35 for the second - at which point the whirling dervish waitresses reminded me of a cross between the Avant Comptoir and Merci (the Concept Store's Restaurant) with the sound level of the mercifully closed Le Totem (6.8 without music, 7.5 dB with).
My bill, with 1/2 bottle of wine and the rest was 55 E.
Go? If you're 30, or my age and want to raise the age average a few years, need cocktails, love long waits and have a hankering for frazzled waitresses, be my guest. Udderwise, skip it.
