6.3 Les Degres de Notre Dame 10 Rue des Grands Degres in the 5th, 01.55.42.88.88, closed weekends, was a place about which an astute reader of this blog - Claire - said "Cold day, like the funky rustic auberge decor, in the mood for the Maroccan woman cook's tagine on an otherwise French cuisine menagere menu. Surprise! Japanese staff in the house and the kitchen. New menu, Japanese French cuisine. Japanese chef. Started 10 days ago. Same decor, if possible even funkier." Well, you gotta try a possibility like this, eh?
The carte is quite impressive, with 2 dishes at lunch at 19 E. Knowing my two guests, one a sommelier and the other a fancier of fine food and wine, would probably disapprove of the Chateau Martal or Talmar I would order, from, of all places, Morocco, I ordered it before anyone could object - actually, we all agreed it was quite good.
We had four of the starters, sharing them liberally: the oysters and pork cromequis, grilled scallops, red shrimp and calamari in a broth, soup with seafood and trumpets of death and sardines grilled simply with a large salad.
For mains, our dining pals again insisted that we test the entire offerings so we ordered and shared a magnificent duck with lentils, another fish soup, described as Japanese but you couldn't prove it by me, a cote de boeuf and what I call a rollatine of chicken stuffed with foie gras that one of us thought was the winner - all came with wonderful vegetables of the season.
With two bottles of wine, no bottled water or desserts, slightly doughy bread and the equivalent of 4 coffees, our bill was 121.10 E or 60.55 E a couple.
Go? Boy, in this location, at this price and with the staff (mostly Japanese) we encountered today, I would insist on it.
