Victor in the 9th: I So Wanted to Love This Place.

By Johntalbott


5.0 Victor, 14, rue Victor-Masse in the 9th (Metro: Pigalle), 09.84.07.60.22, closed Sundays, is one of those places you really want to love - I was greeted warmly at the door by the front room guy and chef, given a perfect table (with a view of the kitchen, offered a drink and comp'd to an apple digestif and the decibel level never went above 83.3 dB's - so why the 5.0?

My sculptor friend of almost 50 years started off with the Jerusalem artichoke soup with a touch of vanilla while his chef wife and I had the leeks with a soft egg.  The latter was jarring; the plate was cold, the leeks were cold and the egg was warm leading to a most unpleasant combo.  (Madame put in her opinion forthrightly).

Next Monsieur had a piece of angus beef that was really quite good, Madame's bar was OK, but my veal stew was really not worth writing home about.  At this point we called it quits.

Our bill, with a bottle and 2 glasses of wine, fine bread, no bottled water and one coffee - was 116.50 E for the three of us, thus 77.66 E a couple.

Go back?  Loved 'em, but not that much.