Le Petit Verdot in the 6th: A Great Let-down. I Gotta Be Honest, It Did Not Blow Any of Us Away Despite the Buzz.

By Johntalbott




5.1 (there was a wide range of opinions at our table of 6 experts, ranging from 4.0 to 7.0/10 on the Talbott/Richter Scale, so I settled on my rating of 5.1 and the Devil take the hindmost), Le Petit Verdot, 75 rue du Cherche-Midi in the 6th, 01.01.42.22.38.27, closed Saturday night, Sundays and Mondays, is part of the Hide Ishizuka Empire and friends that includes Hide, Le Concert de Cuisine, H. Kitchen, Encore and Le Sot l'Y Laisse, all of which I love, so when the buzz on Chowhound became deafening and two of my most trustworthy sources from SF told me they were going back (twice in a week) I snapped to attention.

The menus are terribly reasonable but I searched for what I might like - a bavette? - come on, mackerel? - everybody's doing it, duck filet? - again?, congre eel with madere? hate Madeira - Hoo Boy.  But among us we did indeed have from top to bottom, the eel, terrine of fish and mushrooms with a divine sauce and pile of spicy Asian herbs and the "best-Japanesy-presentation-of-the-day" the mackerel, but frankly, except for the boullion with the terrine, nothing was special.

For mains, most folks had the duck which was OK or the maigre which was OK; however in their favor, the vegetables were superbly sourced, undercooked and presented.

Desserts were the three possibilities - the pear with gentian ice, the sambayon with Kirch and vanilla ice cream (boring!) and roasted figs which frankly were sub what Colette puts on the table every morning.

With four bottles of wine, no bottled water, and four coffees our bill amounted to 108.66 E a couple.

Go back?  Not with a dragging hook.