Lunch at Le Dauphin

Bill and I were exploring Paris's Belleville neighbourhood, last Thursday, when we came upon Le Dauphin, a very hot new restaurant which we had been meaning to try. We dropped in and made a reservation for the next day for lunch.

Le Dauphin is a few doors down from Le Chateaubriand, Paris chef Inaki Aizpitarte's wildly successful first restaurant. Le Dauphin, its sister-restaurant, does tapas and lunch and won the 2010 Le Fooding award for best decor when it opened at the end of that year. It was designed by Rem Koolhaas and Clement Blanchet.

The next day we got there around 15 minutes before our 1 pm reservation, just before the place started to fill up. This allowed us to see the marble walls and ceiling, the mirrored walls and the wooden furniture.

 The bar fills the centre of the space and was already swarming with regulars.

Our waiter, above, was very welcoming and professional.

I wish I could tell you exactly what we ate, but I didn't make notes from the menu. I can tell you Bill's appetizer was called Brandade au Foin and that under that foam is a deeply hearty and delicious combination of fish and potato.

My appetizer was Veau Cru. Lets have a look at the veal under all those delicious vegetables.

The veal was divine, as were the sauces.

 This perfectly roasted lamb was Bill's main course.

I got the lemon sole. Both meals were served with chick peas, humus and tapenade, and daikon radish slices. The spicing was subtle and intriguing. It's almost midnight as I'm writing this post and these pictures are making me hungry.

 Let's have closer look at the seared edges of my sole!

 Dessert was the lightest of whipped creams over strawberries and crunchy fragments of meringue.

How I wish I could let you try some!