My friend and I were afraid that we would be kicked out of Lolo, a restaurant only a few weeks old, for not being lit enough, but in spite of lacking the cool credentials of the young, über-trendy customers, we were treated exceptionally well, maybe because we were odd outliers? Whatever the reason, we had a wonderful time, loved every single dish we ate and adored our attentive and knowledgeable server, whose name was Elliot.
We were a bit shocked by the prices at first – the three main courses weighed in at about €40 each, side dishes were extra, and the wines were pricey – but Elliot explained that the mains were extremely copious and meant to be shared. That helped a bit, but the final bill (with wine), at €73 each, was still more than I like to pay.
As an amuse-bouche, we each had a fantastic oyster with bits of smoked sausage and béchamel sauce, which had been passed under the kitchen‘s Japanese barbecue. Highly recommended.
Our first dish was something you don’t often see in a Paris bistro, and a real winner: a scotch egg. The perfectly cooked egg was swaddled in a thick crust of fine smoked sausage meat from the Jura and set atop a delicious beetroot sauce whose mild, slightly sweet flavor was the perfect complement to the sausage meat.
Then came a wonderful carpaccio of scallops generously topped with trout roe and fumet en gelée, or jellied fish stock, which I believe was an invention of chef Zacharie Gannat, formerly of Frenchie London, who was quietly toiling away in the open kitchen in the front of the restaurant.
Of the three main courses – the other two were a Milanese style pork chop and half a guinea fowl – we chose to share the sole. It was an excellent choice. The beautiful fish was perfectly cooked and served with beurre blanc. A poem of delicate flavors.
A side dish of barbecued white asparagus, sprinkled with some fresh dill, was also perfectly simple and perfectly delicious.
The rice pudding we shared for dessert was so amazingly good that I had to restrain my friend from licking the bowl and myself from ordering at least one more.
Wonder of wonders, Lolo is a rare Paris bistro open on Monday night, which is how we ended up there, almost by accident. We left happy, satisfied and maybe just a tiny bit cooler than we were when we arrived?
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