Would you like some fries with that steak?

So much for the Bouillon Racine being the one exception to my "do no pay for expensive steak" policy (see post on Bouillon Racine for more info).  When the word started circulating around our program that there was this place that served amazing steak and fries, I just couldn't resist.  After confirming with many many people, a few of us headed off on the #6 metro to find le Relais de l'Entrecote (the Montparnasse branch).

We were pleasantly surprised to find no wait line for this heavily hyped up dinner at 8:30pm on a monday evening.  We were quickly sat down and explained that there is no menu option, just the pre-fixe salad and steak and fries.  Our only options of the night were drinks and whether we wanted our steak medium or well done (no medium rare or rare options...).  Once again, in my attempt to find the ever elusive free tap water at a restaurant, this time I asked for a carafe of tap water (which is what I was tipped to say) but it seems to have been to no avail.  We ended the night paying an extra €10 for two bottles of "non-gassed" water.  I also ended up ordering a 4€50 bottle of Orangina.

As for the actual food, the salad was very light with sides of walnuts and radish.  A simple starter for the real meal to come.  I had no complaints here.

I did have some complaints with the "steak" though.  While the portions were fine (they actually came by with a second round of steak after the plate), the quality and cut of the meat seemed very run of the mill.  It was more like a flat-iron steak or a skirt steak than a fattier rib-eye or even basic sirloin.  The steak was missing a lot of tenderness even cooked for a medium and had no layers of marble or fat.  The fries were excellent and the sauce on the steak was decent but for a €24.50 steak, I was actually quite disappointed (salad is included in that price).  

And at the end of the meal, after totaling my orangina, the split between two "carafes of tap water", my steak and fries, and a €1 tip, I ended up shelling out a "modest" €32.50 for a quite average meal.  If there's one thing I learned besides to stop trying to order water from these French restaurants, is that I need to stick my my policy of eating delicious steaks at home and dishing out money for foods that are harder to cook or find outside of the kitchen.  I apologize to those who really enjoyed their meal here but if you had to ask my for a steak frites recommendation in Paris, I would point you towards the direction of the Bouillon Racine rather than le Relais de l'Entrecote on Montparnasse.  It may be that the main branch of this restaurant on the Rue Marbeuf is much better, but it is not something I will be finding out on this trip.

le Relais de l'Entrecote (Montparnasse branch)

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101 Boulevard du Montparnasse, Paris
Metro: Valvin or Montparnasse - Bienvenue or Edgar Quinet

Fine Dining in France

Ok so I forgot exactly what a Bouillon meant in conjunction with the specifics of French cuisine or restaraunting (yes I just made that word up) but this specific Bouillon (Bouillon Racine) is pretty famous and has some pretty amazing interior decor.  Their website has a lot more information about their history (since 1906) and the type of food style they're trying to achieve.  

You can say this was my first official French cuisine in Paris so I wanted to go all out.  They had a set lunch menu (see the the heading Menu-Daily Market-) that included a starter and small entree, or small entree and dessert for €15.  But since the set came with a "small" entree I decided that it wasn't for me because I wanted to do it BIG.  I also decided against the other set menus that were €30 and €41 and just went with ordering
a la carte off the other side of the menu. I ended up with this:

I wanted to experience authentic French cuisine so I went with a dish that was supposedly really popular in France, a.k.a. Steak Frites.  The steak and fries were both very good as was the sauce that came on the side, but at the end of the day...it was just steak and french fries and I was wishing I kind of tried something even more unique like Tartar Steak or even foie gras (which I had already tried once in America).  My rule of thumb with expensive beef back home is that I'll pay good money for hard to cook/rare items like Prime Rib or Tartar Steak but just regular steak is something I prefer to buy from costco and fire up on the grill outside (because it usually tastes just as good as a Ruth Chris $40 filet mignon).  So all this to say that the steak frites was good, but next time I would try something else on the menu because this particular item tastes exactly how you would think it tastes like (like good steak with french fries).  

But no meal is complete without a dessert.  I myself am a huge proponent of creme brulee so when I saw creme brulee with waffle on the dessert side of the menu, there was no question that that was what I was ordering.  I was expecting creme brulee with a waffle on the side.  One thing I've learned about ordering food in France though is to expect the unexpected because what I got with this dessert was a waffle fused with creme brulee ON TOP:

Ingenious in thought but the execution needed some work.  My favorite part of creme brulee is the hot, crispy shell protectively covering the custard beneath.  This particular waffle creme brulee was missing both the hot and the crispy.  That's not to say it wasn't bad.  The dessert was quite delicious, but again, it just wasn't what I expected, especially with creme brulee.  I think a side of vanilla ice cream would have gone extremely well with this by the way.

This meal along with an unexpected bottle of water (can't seem to get how to order just plain tap water at a restaurant yet) put me back €27, a modest price for a fine dining experience that included a giant steak .  (remember this was lunch). Overall I have to say the Bouillon Racine was a positive dining experience with good food. I would go back to order something different off the menu once I figure out how to order some regular tap water rather than €5 glass bottles of filtered water.

Bouillon Racine
http://www.bouillon-racine.com/en/home/index.html

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3 Rue Racine, 75006 Paris, France
Metro: Cluny - La Sorbonne