3.23.2011

La Régalade - Paris, France

123 rue Saint-Honoré, 75001
Tel: 01 42 21 92 40
Open Lunch and Dinner, Monday-Friday

Bi-stron-o-my (noun)
   1. the trend of combining basic bistro decor with quality cuisine.
   2. a combination of the terms "bistro", which means casual, inexpensive dining, and "gastronomy" which   means the art or science of good eating.

Bistronomy has been taking over the dining since the 90s in Europe and the US. Young chefs cook in modest bistros but incorporate their talents in haute cuisine. So we were pretty excited to try La Régalade in Paris, the Saint-Honore location, which is right smack in the middle of Paris. Founded by Yves Camdeborde in 1992 with the original location in the 14th Arrondissement, it was passed on to Bruno Doucet.

At La Régalade, we ordered from the 33€ entree-plat-dessert menu.

We received our complimentary and generous slab of terrine maison / pate (which is about the size of a whole loaf of bread) served with a large jar of cornichons and fresh bread. You can eat all you want, but then they took it away before our entrees came, which I admit, I was disappointed, but I'm glad because I would have been too full to enjoy the rest of my meal.


saumon marine par nos soins, salade de concombre et gingembre confit aux oignons nouveaux
This was a great light dish.  I wanted to savor every bite.  This dish was perfect in every way.  The buttery flavor of the salmon went well with the crunchiness of the cucumbers.  All the different textures and flavors went well together.


foie gras de canard roti mais servi froid, vinaigrette d'un jus de viande et salade d'herbes melangees 
Whenever I see foie gras on the menu, I can't help but order it.  Texturally, the foie gras was smooth but it lacked that livery foie gras flavor that I was looking for. Not a bad dish, but just didn't taste how I wanted or expected it to taste.


filet de dorade grise de Bretagne roti a la plancha, persille de calamars, jus de volaille aux olives noires et fenouil confit
I wasn't too crazy about this dish as I was with the first course of salmon.  The fish was mild in flavor and the sauce was nice.



risotto du moment au parmesan, supreme de volaille jaune des Landes roti sur la peau tout doucement
When I ordered this dish, I thought it was going to be risotto with chicken. When the dish arrived I was pleasantly surprised to see that nestled in between the piece of chicken was foie gras.  The risotto was cooked perfectly and tasted wonderful. The chicken with the foie gras complemented this dish very nicely. Unlike the foie gras appetizer, the foie in this dish tasted much more foie gras like. I really enjoyed every aspect of this dish.


Fraicheur de rhubarbe et crémeux masarpone aux fraises, émietté de sable breton
 (rhubarb compote, creamy mascarpone, gariguette strawberries, crumbled Breton shortbread)
This dessert was pretty incredible.  Creamy, not too sweet, smooth and light. Tart in all the right places. The strawberry and rhubarb really complemented each other and the mascarpone really went nicely with the tartness of the strawberry and rhubarb.


petits pots de creme a la vanille, framboises, rafraichies au coulis
This was a pot of vanilla cream with strawberry and raspberry coulis. Another simple yet delicious dessert. The tartness of the berries really paired well with the vanilla cream. The addition of what Americans call Pocky and what French call Mikado weren't necessary but enjoyable.


riz cuit au lait et a la vanille comme le falsait ma grand-mere, caramel laitier
Vanilla rice pudding with caramel sauce. I looked up the rough translation of this via Google Translate and I guess the rice pudding is in the style of his grandmother. This dessert came out in a large container that could have fed at least 3 to 4 people. I'm assuming his grandmother liked to feed a lot of people. The rice pudding itself had real vanilla bean flecks. The texture was just right with the rice being not overly mushy but just right. Drizzle on a bit of the caramel sauce and you have a comforting dessert. Not a particularly exciting dessert with intriguing flavor combinations or textures but a very hearty dessert.



Complimentary Madeleines
At the end of the 3 course meal, we were given complimentary madeleines. As if the three courses for 33€ wasn't enough food. The madeleines were buttery and moist. I wished I would have taken these home for later.

At 33€ this in my opinion was the best meal that we had while in Paris. Complimentary almost all you can eat terrine at the beginning of the meal and the madeleines at the end of the meal in addition to the fantastic ingredients and well prepared appetizer, main courses, and desserts made this a wonderful meal. I would not hesitate to recommend this restaurant to any other visitors.

2 comments:

myminimocs said...

looks & sounds absolutely amazing! even the little disappointments i'm sure were easy to get over with that yummy rice pudding dessert! it sounds like it had a true taste of simpler times!

TNT Adventures said...

La Regalade was a fantastic meal! The minor disappointments definitely were outweighed by the good things like the desserts and other dishes.