Restaurant Update 4/7/03
Here are our comments on the five restaurants you put in boldface:
1. We had read a lot of good things about La Bastide d’Odeon, and would have put it on the list except that in Great Eats Paris, the author said that while at one time “you could point blindly to anything on the prix fixe menu and be pleased.., on several recent visits, I found both the food and service to be uneven, and some of the combinations stretched the imagination to the breaking point.” She concluded by saying “if you are willing to take a chance, and hope for the best, try it. I hope it is soon back on track.” Having said this, however, it certainly got good reviews in several other places, and since you had such a good experience, why don’t we try it.
2. L’Epi Dupin sounds fine, although as you have suggested, we do not need to reserve it now.
3. As to La Regalade, some of the reviews we have seen indicate that the menu is broader than it may have seemed from what you read. We agree that we should not reserve in advance for it, and we can keep it in mind as a possible place when we are there, if we learn more about it.
4. We agree on L’Os a Moelle, and we can eliminate it from the list.
5. Le Violon d’Ingres sounds fine for the splurge. Frommer’s rated it very highly and put it in its “expensive” category which is one classification under “very expensive” (the splurge level we wanted to avoid).
As to your final suggestion, we agree about making reservations at those four places. Would you feel comfortable asking Sophie about La Bastide d’Odeon’s recent reputation given Sandra Gustafson’s negative review?
You did not mention anything about Le Maupertu. It got a wonderful review in Great Paris Eats. Would you want to keep that in mind for one of the nights when we don’t have a reservation already made?
Posted by Mom+Dad on 7 April 2003