5.4 Chez Geraud, 31, rue Vital in the 16th (Metro: La Muette or Bus #32), 01.45.20.33.00, has been around forever, and I had what I judged to be a 5/10 meal there in April 2007, but I'm always looking for places to go with in the 16th with my friend from the nearby OECD, so when I read that a new team had taken over, I was eager. The chef, Gabriet Grapin, spent 10 years with Ducasse all over the world and the front-room guy, Arnaud Bachet, is equally seasoned. The place looks pretty much the same, but had many more clients than before when it was moribund, but the carte is still pricy and there's no lunch "menu."
My friend and I stared at the carte, gasped at the prices and plunged in/on. A soft egg for her on a bed of very nice crushed, stewed tomatoes and other vegetables; gnocchi with cabbage and escargots and I swear, enough truffles, truffle oil or truffle spray, to render it like a woodshed, for me. I liked her sauce, she liked my dish.
Then she had the pollock with good spinach and a nice sauce and I had the croustillant sweetbreads - but as opposed to those I've had all the last week, its surface was really not crusty and its interior really not moist but rather, it was tough - big ding there! For dessert we shared the Baba which was standard if not below.
The bill, with a bottle of Morgon, no bottled water, decent bread and two coffees, was 134 E.
Go? If you loved it before, it's slightly improved, and you'll love it, if not......
