Saturday, April 17, 2010

La Cagouille (Paris, France)

Our first night back in Paris from the south of France. We decided to go to one of our favourite seafood restaurants La Cagouille.


This time instead of sitting us in the large dinning room, they put us in the more intimate red room. It has less tables, less tourists and less noise. It was almost like a private club. The room had a lovely bistro charm to it with its red wall and large mounted posters.


For the amuse bouche was baby clams. The clams were so tasty in a light buttery broth. We could not stop eating them.


The wine we chose a 2007 Domaine Dauvissat Chablis. A well balanced white wine with good acidity and dry. It went very well with the seafood.


The first starter was deep fried eperlan. The eperlans were crispy on the outside but very tender on the inside. Which is amazing for such a tiny fish. With a squeeze of lemon, this turned out to be a great starter.


The second starter was deep fried baby sole. When we heard that they had baby sole on the menu, we ordered it right away. It is so rare to find these babies. The fish was deep fried to a golden brown. You stripe the fillet off the bone and the meat was so moist and juicy. A rare beauty.


The first main course was pave de lieu en pot au feu. One of my weaknesses is for pot au feu. I can eat this dish anytime of the year. Even though its more of a winter dish. I immediately ordered this dish when I saw it on the menu. I am soooo glad I did. The huge chunk of pave de lieu was so tender that it fell apart once my fork touched it. The broth and vegetables that accompanied the pave was out of this world. So so tasty. An unbelievable dish. I actually want to learn how to make it.


The second main course was raie with sauce gribbiche. Another unique dish due to the gribbiche sauce. Raie is a lovely fish to eat. The gribbiche brought this dish to another level with its array of tastes, colours and textures. Just amazing.


We really consider La Cagouille to be the best seafood restaurant in Paris at the moment. The food is consistently delicious. The selection of fish is wonderful and always so fresh. The cooking style is to make the seafood the star and not the sauce. The fish always turn out to be cooked perfectly and that is so hard when it comes to fish.

The service is very good, efficient and friendly. However; this time we were not greeted with a friendly manner. The woman at the front who was in charge of sitting us was for some odd reason not in a good mood. No smile or no bon soir. I believe;when people who work in this industry are not in the mood to be friendly with their customer, they should go home! Fake it if you have to but do not transfer your bad mood to the customer. So unprofessional! Anyway, at least it did not ruin our lovely & delicious dinner at La Cagouille.

www.la-cagouille.fr

10 Place Constantin Brancusi
75014 Paris
01 43 22 09 01

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