3.0 The Bar of the Maison de l'Amerique Latine, 217 Boulevard Saint-Germain in the 7th, closed weekends, 01.49.54.75.00, (Metro: Solferino). Okay Okay I have a good excuse for eating here today. First-off, when I ate at the regular restaurant last week, the dishes for it and the bar came out of the same kitchen - and its food was terrific - and the bar menu looked neat. Second, my friend said he was "broke". And third, I'm up for adventure.
I went with the most standard sounding "menu", samosas of chicken and spicy sauce, salad and tomatoes - in MARCH I scream, for Pete's sake! tomatoes in March - and they tasted just like March tomatoes; lamb (which to their credit was indeed lamb not mutton) that was tough and inedible and supposedly made in a tajine, with tired, really tired, couscous and no harissa; and diced pineapple in its syrup and a sliced strawberry - in MARCH I scream, for Pete's sake! strawberries in March, OK. My friend, right now between jobs, had the Argentinian entrecote, really good, with pathetic pale fries.
Our bill was weird - we got charged 2 Membership fees, just like in a Rocky Mountain whore-house, (how do I know? because I read a lot of trash), 2 E each for 2 bottled waters despite my asking for a carafe (isn't that illegal?), 4 E for a glass of white wine and 4 E for 50 cl of red (huh? who sets the prices here?) and nothing for a coffee. Total = 55.50 E for 2.
Go again? I'll go back to the main resto, but never here again. Too weird.