6.75 Les Crocs des Halles, rue Berger in the 1st, 01.40.28.00.00, closed Mondays (Metro: Les Halles or Louvre-Rivoli) is an offshoot of Les Crocs du VIIe (which I've never visited, but may now). It's in the old Atelier Berger, then Marguerite space (the latter quite pricy but charming because of the marguerites in the flower-boxes. In any case, it has the brutal decor of a steak-house and a huge meatcase a la Comptoir Canailles, and sitting in front of us was a generous portion of sausage with a knife in it that said "Cut, eat, enjoy."
We were greeted warmly, seated and overwhelmed by the list of offerings, all meat except for a coquillages starter and sole & chips main. Right, let's get on with it.
The French friend I've know the longest in Paris ordered the Os which instead of being served in its moelle canme in the bone-shaped brioche - clever and good. And my haddock with a big clam was as tasty a dish as one could ever want. Our wait-guy/manager made sure we understood that the wine I ordered was bio-unfiltered-natural-etc and decanted it to be sure it was softened.
For a main, she had what was called a "kronos" - beef marinated and then carpaccio'd; we both thought it was truly special and a "go back for" dish. I had a selle d'agneau that I ordered blue (black on the exterior, raw in the interior" and it was one of the finest sourced pieces of lamb in years. With these came a fine puree of Jerusalem artichoke, nice fries and a generous green salad. To end this great meal we shared a lemon cheesecake - and then were treated to two big glasses of rum based "punch", one vanilla, the other litchee (the family of one of the owners deals in rum).
Our bill with nice bread, no bottled water but two coffees, came to 120.60 E. dB level 84.9 d/t the Frank Sinatra at the start which was turned down once the customers came in.
Go? I heartily urge you to.
