Last full day in Paris (we'll be trekking to Nice tomorrow morning pretty much all day and head back up on Saturday in time for one last hotel check-in and dinner). Our last full day turned out to be a lazy Sunday, consisting of (finally) a later start to the day, lunch at Le Comtpoir du Relais and a disappointing visit to the Soucre Cour Basilica on Monmartre. Many of the shops were closed today (Sunday) and rather than try to sniff out some shopping opportunities, we felt it best to spend the evening in our panda cave and detox from the week's mighty consumption.
Thus, today, all I really am interested in sharing is our Le Comptoir lunch experience. To freshen your memory, I'm providing a link to the third part of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations 100th episode in Paris. The show features Le Comptoir starting at 0:53, a restaurant Bourdain calls "the hardest reservation in Paris" and a place that Eric Ripert refers to as "the perfect bistro". Of all the recommendations made during the episode, this was by far, the one place I had to dine at before the end of our trip. True to the show, dinner reservations, when the constantly changing prix fixe menu is available, are nearly impossible. The restaurant holds several reservations for guests of the adjacent hotel (owned by the chef) and non-hotel guests have been famously known to make reservations six months in advance. Let me add to the legend; I've heard it takes in upwards of 16 months to get a dinner reservation. My goodness!
Fortunately, there a la carte lunch menu doesn't require reservations, and we made it a point to arrive early to make sure we were a part of the first seating at noon. Success! After multiple views of the episode above and read-through of dozens of reviews, I found myself a bit giddy and nervous all at once. The French-only menu exacerbated my nervousness. I needed Emmelle and a carafe of Rose to calm me down and remind me that it's just food. It's just food. But man, the cuisine evokes long-lasting smiles, even the "lesser" lunch menu. The highlights:
1. Nicoise salad. We wanted to wait on nicoise salads until we arrived in Nice. But, we really needed something fresh and green; it turned out to be a fortuitous decision. Notice the pickled garlic.
2. Deviled eggs. Bourdain's companion at the restaurant during the episode above mentions that he frequents Le Comptoir regularly during lunch service specifically for the oeuf mayonnaise. I'm sure the servers at the restaurant mentally roll their eyes any time American tourists order this dish now, but I couldn't pass it up. This dish is actually very stellar. It's really all about the homemade mayonnaise - rich but not heavy, tangy and bright, even some mustard quality to it. We've eaten nothing quite like it.
3. Lobster ravioli from today's specials. If you go back to the Le Comptoir bit in the No Reservations episode, you'll see Bourdain rave about a blood sausage ravioli dish that was part of his prix fixe dinner. The ravioli pasta we ate today is similar but with a lobster filling and wonderful lobster bisque foam. Not at all cheap, but probably my favorite dish of the day.
Not pictured: Toasted sandwich of smoked salmon and caviar with oozing white cheese, dessert that we regrettable did not order. Shame.
More to come from Nice.
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