5.2 Le Frank in the Fondation Louis Vuitton, 8, ave du Mahatma Gandhi, in the Bois de Boulogne in the 16th (Metro: Les Sablons or Foundation shuttle Bus or 244 from the Porte Maillot) 01.40.69.96.00, closed Tuesdays is situated in the absolutely stunning new Frank Gehry builing in the Bois de Bologne. We've been wanting to go to both on a nice day and today was it. The menu is pricy, the wine even pricier and the selections look tempting, but....
Our friend who lives and runs in the area ordered the pumpkin soup with chestnuts and ginger which she liked but I thought was just standard; Colette had the carpaccio of daurade with marinated carrots, caviar citron and basil citrus, again nice but it broke no ground; and I had what I thought would be a caesar salad with nice warm tender sot l'y laisse's - unh unh - four mini-towers of iceberg lettuce surrounded by a someone's idea of Russian dressing, holding up a roof of cheese tuille on which were placed several rock-hard cold "pope's noses".
Colette then had a quite tasty piece of bass cooked a la vapeur with black olives and sliced raw slivers of pea pods and our friend and I had the confited veal cheeks with a wood mushroom and tagette sauce. The wine was a very pleasant and affordable Costieres de Nimes.
We three shared what was called a Baba au Rhum but was a pre-prepared cold vanilla mousse with 6 balls of baba type dough stuck in it with whipped cream between them.
Our bill with a bottle and glass of wine, no bottled water but three coffees, was 204.50 E or 136.34 E a couple. The bread and coffee and noise level were good (50.2 dB) but the fact that the chairs are already sagging and broken in their centers is not so good.
Go? I realize Nomicos cannot do here with a tiny kitchen what he does on the avenue Bugeaud, but at 20 E more a couple, after serving several pre-prepared cold dishes, it'll be a while before I can be convinced to return. Also WARNING: for lunch one must buy a ticket of admission (9 E per person) and stand in a long line whereas for dinner one waltzes in without paying as long as you reserve in advance (no reservations at lunch and if you miss the 12 noon rush, it's another hour wait.).
