The Great Parisian Plate Debate

8, Rue Saint-Paul
75004 Paris
Tel. 01.48.04.75.89

“Hi, my name is Dan, and I’m a guacaholic. I haven’t had good guacamole in 8 months.”

As any seasoned American ex-pat will tell you, it’s not possible to get decent Tex-Mex food outside of America. My standards aren’t even that high-I’m from the east coast. All I want is a goddamn Chipotle burrito. Hell, in my deprived and weakened state, I might even settle for Taco Bell.

But that’s getting a bit ahead of myself. Stuck late at work on a Friday night, we picked Le Rouge Gorge after a hasty online search for a wine bar with light food. When we arrived around 8:30, the place was empty. It did fill slowly as the night went on, but despite its billing, it’s vibe was definitely that of a restaurant, not a wine bar.

The menu was small and based on traditional French, so imagine my surprise when I saw guacamole on the menu. It didn’t take much effort to convince my slightly less seasoned ex-pat friends that we should share it as an appetizer. The official billing was “Verrine de guacamolé, chèvre frais et tapenade” - 8€. I’ve seen tiny portions of guacamole in fusion restaurants, tastefully plated with tilapia, but this is the first time I’ve seen a gentrified take on the ‘umpteen layer Mexican dip,’ an old standard of the pot luck dinner.

Along with the guac, the chef layered olive tapenade and a light chevre. The light bite from the chèvre did quite the job masking the typically uninspired guac. Oddly enough, the tapenade wasn’t very salty, so it didn’t really stand out when they were all mixed. The whole concoction was served up attractively in a fluted tumbler glass, which was good, because once you slathered it on the bread, it turned into a sloppy mess. All complaints aside, it ended up being the best guac I’ve had in France-pretty tasty, but definitely no match for a sketchy taco shack in texas.

For my main plat, I ordered “Joues de porc caraméliseés, riz basmati” - 18€ . There was rather a large portion of meat served, but the meager amount of gravy was quickly soaked up by the disappointingly plain rice. The meat was tender and had a nice flavor, but wasn’t particularly special. When I order a specialty meat, such as pig cheek, I expect something exciting. The most interesting thing about this were a couple segments of raw grapefruit topping the rice, which was clearly an afterthought.

The bill came to 84€ for 1 entrée, 3 plats and a 24€ bottle of wine, or 28€ per person. Not a bad meal, but a little overpriced, even for the area, and I don’t think I’ll be back.

Christian: Dan displays great intelligence by referencing consumption of Taco Bell as a potential reaction to his weakened state. T-Bell has the power to revitalize the spirit and replenish the senses, a truth I previously thought Dan was unwilling to accept. The guacamole was good, although I didn’t quite understand the olive accompaniment. As far as the plat was concerned, the main thing I remember was that it was served with rice as well. Probably not the best sign.