Friday, April 03, 2009

Le Hide (Paris)

One of our favourite bistros for lunch in Paris; Le Hide. It is walking distance from the apartment and the food is absolutely fabulous.


Le Hide is full of contradictions. Chef Hide Kobayashi is Japanese but cooks some of the most old-school traditional French food that you'll find in the capital. Chef Koba has been trained with Dominique Bouchet and Joël Robuchon, and you can tell from his food that chef Koba knows what he is doing. On top of this; chef Koba has priced his lunch & menus at very reasonable prices in an area that is not known to be cheap.


The first dish was a salad gourmande. The salad was topped with fois gras. I know, salads are suppose to be good for your health; but, the description of the salad sounded so good that we needed to try it. It did live up to its name...gourmande.


The second dish was snails. What I liked about chef Koba's version is that the snails were not over whelmed with garlic. Normally, after eating snails, I cannot taste anything else because the over dose of garlic which kills all other tastes. Instead, these snails had the very nice combination of shallots and garlic. It added a different flavour element to a simple dish.


The third dish was lamb with salad. The portion was enormous (which we did not mind). The lamb was so tender and tasty. A wonderful dish.


The fourth dish was pork with rissoto. I think I had a kilo of risotto...but it was so good. The pork was cooked perfectly and it was so full of flavour. I wish I could cook such simple dishes and make them taste so good as chef Koba.


The dessert was cafe gourmande (we were stuffed with food so we decided to share the dessert). The dessert consisted of a flourless chocolate cake, creme brullé, caramel ice cream and a cup of coffee. The chocolate cake was a bit too dry (disappointing), the creme brullé was fine and tasty but the caramel ice cream was the star. After a bite, we got a sweet caramelly taste which lingered on the tongue for bit and then the sweet taste disappeared and a hint a salty taste appeared. Amazing.


The dinning room is small and the decor is simple.


Le Hide (Koba's Bistro)
Cuisine Francaise traditionnelle
10, rue du General Lanrezac
75017 Paris
01 45 74 15 81
www.lehide.fr

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