Le Caillebotte in the 9th: Familiar Faces, Nice Food. Not Unlike My Introduction to Pantruche.

By Johntalbott


5.5 Le Caillebotte, 8, rue Hippolyte Lebas in the 9th (in the old Le Daron space, a place I gave an extraordinary -1.0 to) is the second restaurant brought to us by the Pantruche team and is somewhat stark, with plywood and a short but interesting carte and well-priced wines.

The firsts took quite a while to appear after ordering but were worth the wait; my dining partner, a beginning chef, had the poached foie gras and langoustines in a langoustine bisque (very very nice) and I had two gigantic Roumegous oysters, warmed enough to cut in 4 parts, which were intensely flavored and came with a bowl of lettuce soup.

For mains, my young friend had the scallops, which were smoky, with a mousseline of watercress and lemon butter and I had the civet of lievre, just right for the first really cold day of Fall, and a lot of very finely sourced veggies.

Rather than dessert, we chose to indulge in another glass of wine and coffee and talk.

The bill with all that, so-so bread and no bottled water was 109 E.

Go?  While not hitting all the high notes, this place is worth a revisit.