Le Relais Du Parc in the 16th: No Soul Food Here.

5.0 Le Relais du Parc, 55-57 Ave Raymond Poincare in the 16th, 01.44.05.66.40, open for lunch and dinner weekdays and snack-food and brunch on weekends, (Metro: Victor Hugo) is a place I put on my special list to eat at with my wonderful ex-co-host at the website that cannot be mentioned since she works and lives nearby, and (whew) I heard that they had a new chef Stéphane Duchiron, whom I half-liked at Les Fougeres although I'd commented then that he had provided no "Wow moments" there - well, guess what?

We both ordered the 35 E 3-course  "menu", which with 20% off via La Fourchette, was a bargain.  My camera went on strike during our firsts which is probably just as well because Madame's gyosas of vegetables were bland and my chopped new potatoes with smoked halibut were just a cut above tastewise.

For mains she had nice slices of daurade but I had two big chunks of veal viennoise which were just that, big chunks with a lot of uninteresting vegetables, except for the girolles.  We should have stopped there, but no.....

She had the biscuit with almonds and apricots and I had the cherries with ice cream.  Again, nothing disastrous but nothing special.

Our bill with a bottle and glass of Chai Bordeaux (hey wait a minutes, isn't Chai green tea?), no bottled water, 2 coffees and the highlight of the meal, divine little almond cakes, was 94.40 E for us both.

Go?  At the end of the meal we settled on the description of the food, that it was not bad, but simply had no soul.  It's a beautiful setting, with a gorgeous outdoor courtyard dining area where it must be great when it's not pouring like it was today, and the dB level even in a room filled with pesky fellow Yankees - was only 81.2 dB.