3.0 Le Vraymode, 4, rue d'Anjou in the 8th, 01. 83.96.88.70, open 7/7 in the Buddha Bar Hotel (Metro: Concorde) is a place which a chef, Rougui Dia (of Senegalese-French origin) whom I much admired at her starred restaurant above Petrossian. I ate here after she arrived last year and thought the meal adequate - no more than a 5/10 but then kept hearing good things about it and was urged to return to try the new carte. So here I was with two guys from the Pacific Rim, one of whom, born in the middle of the Pacific, declared before we even ordered that he "hated badly done Asian-type food." Oh oh. Because that's exactly what we got. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
One of us opted for the gaspacho of green vegetables and the other two had what were called spring rolls but had never see any shrimp or anything but bland vegetables as well. All of us shrugged, dipped, complained and then the boldest among us expressed a wish for hot sauce - and with some Sriracha - everything went from tasteless to tasting of Sriracha. And as we ate this swill, this swank place began to fill with guys in hoodies, sweat shirts and weird tee-shirts.
Then we ordered different main dishes, hoping our luck would change, but the duck wrapped in leeks, curry (ha) of veal and rouget filets with caviar d'aubergines were also pretty tasteless, improved only slightly by the Sriracha sauce, which we clung to for dear life.
"John, John, was there nothing to commend it?" "Yes, glad that you asked"; the bread, butter, cheese plate and wine were good.
Our bill - I'm ashamed to write it - was 215 E for 3, thus 143.32 E a couple for the worst price-quality ratio of the year.
Go? Ms. Dia has to do some pretty fancy improving before I'll even darken its door.
What's even worse is that in the outdoor courtyard the music blasting ruined the meal and even at 78.4 was horrible.
