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The quirky decor includes a caricature of the owner drawn on the wall and pigs on the ceiling. |
The pepper sauce on the steak at La Bourse ou la Vie gave me a five-minute-long attack of the hiccups, my central nervous system’s response to a large quantity of quartered …
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The quirky decor includes a caricature of the owner drawn on the wall and pigs on the ceiling. |
Pros: Quirky atmosphere and decor
Cons: Unexceptional produce, preparation and delivery
The pepper sauce on the steak at La Bourse ou la Vie gave me a five-minute-long attack of the hiccups, my central nervous system’s response to a large quantity of quartered peppercorns (click here for an explanation of this phenomenon). That, and the fact that the steak wasn’t very good, did not make for a very pleasant overall experience.
In fact, the whole meal was pretty disappointing. I had been at a bit of a loss for where to go for a bite after the opening of an art-and-design fair in the Tuileries, where I had the only visible proof I have seen so far that there is a recession on: the champagne did not flow freely, as it had in previous years. You either had to buy it, at €10 a glass, or else it was doled out at the discretion of the stall holders, who only extended their largesse to serious customers. If you weren’t a serious customer, the way to look like one was… to buy a glass of champagne. But I digress.
A Web search turned up a warm recommendation for La Bourse ou la Vie (the name, which means “your money or your life,” plays on the restaurant’s location next to the former Paris Bourse). The house specialty – steak – was said to be succulent, and the fries authentically cooked in beef suet. I was in the mood to murder a steak-frites.
Our experience at the restaurant showed that online information gets out of date very quickly, which is why reader feedback is so useful (hint to Paris Update readers).
First off, we were told that the two offerings on the menu we were debating between were the same cut of meat anyway. We could have it with pepper sauce or without, and we could ask for rare, well-done, etc. Second of all, the meat was pedestrian, and that’s putting it kindly. At a time when people are falling over themselves to serve you the beautifully hung meat of Hugo Desnoyer, this came as a sobering reality check on the general poverty of run-of-the-mill steak-frites.
The fries? These days, any self-respecting chef double-cooks his or her fries, when they don’t fry them thrice (try saying that after a bottle of Douro red). These had had only a once-over and retained that slightly raw, glassy texture of once-fried potatoes. I’ve had worse (and much better in kebab joints), but I wasn’t thrilled.
The three rugby types at the next table in the colorful, quirkily decorated (pig figurines on the ceiling, a caricature of the owner drawn on the wall, etc.) restaurant went for the whole kidney, which was served in what looked like a liter of cream. It was not attractive.
We had found the starter of rosette (a type of pork sausage from Lyon) unusually tasteless, and we decided to pass on dessert. We did, however, enjoy the wine, the aforementioned Douro red.
LBOV seems to be one of those places that has stopped trying. The ex-architect owner still officiates at lunchtime, we were told, and perhaps his eagle eye ensures that what comes out of the kitchen delights lunchers, but the cat’s away in the evening, and the mice are not doing a good job.
La Bourse ou la Vie: 12, rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris. Tel: 01 42 60 08 83. Métro: Bourse. Nearest Vélib stations: 1, rue des Filles Saint-Thomas; 71 rue de Richelieu. Open Monday-Friday for lunch and dinner. A la carte: around €30.
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