This was my second visit to Vivant Table in as many months and we were again royally treated by Pierre Jancou, his servers and the two new Japanese chefs; was it because (1) I write nice things about him (2) I'm so likeable, handsome and winning and/or (3) He treats everyone nicely? Who knows.
In any case before ordering (I had already lasered my eyes on the escargots and sweetbreads) he came over and said he'd finally worked out the pricing, which as you can see is 29 E for 2 courses at lunch, 39 E for three; 55 E for 6 courses at dinner and 70 E for (I think he said) 8 or 9; and that I should order the sweetbreads.
But before the main acts, we were treated (everyone is, it wasn't just my table) to a wonderful cream soup of celery, mozzarella balls and capers, my new favorite wine here (a Regnie) and superb bread (Colette declared it the best in two weeks and she's counting).
Then two of us had the boudin noir with octopus from Galicia; one, the foie gras mi-cuit but served lukewarm, startling her, but she got over it, with potatoes; and two of us had the escargots with eggs and corn kernels.
For mains, the three ladies all had the Banka (Basque) trout with a giant sliced cepes which I thought was superb but Colette was not in love with; M. had what I think was the best pork chop of the decade; and I as promised had the chausson of sweetbreads with more tiny mushrooms - excellent.
Our bill - for two bottles of wine, their filtered water, 4 coffees and what I fear were two petit Calva's offered (the bill was transcribed so my disclosure is not full) - was 261 E for five persons, thus 104.44 E a couple.
