Louvre Bouteille

My family and I ate dinner here last night. The food was flavorful and delicious, not to mention creative!
The menu is small (4 or 5 choices in each category), but within our group we tried most everything in each course. Stand out items were the Tagliatelle made from carrots, the lamb, the Brie, and all the desserts. Truly though, everything was excellent. Service was great as well. This is a don’t miss!

One of the best Sommeliers in France owns this discreet French restaurant and he works there too, providing wine direct from the château with impeccable provenance to accompany French countryside cuisine with some upscale twists. 3 course Prix-​Fixe under € 40 and welcome in this arrondissement (1er) which I have found too full of brasseries serving the same 20 overpriced items, poorly executed pizza joints, sushi and Chinese (when in France) and sloppy drunk bars ruining my sleep at all hours of the night. I’m not a friend of Monsieur Lebel nor a homer, just a fan of true, authentic French food and wine from my early visits to Paris some 30 years ago. I’ll save my McDonalds and Dominos for Houston and forgo the overpriced brasserie fare all together and mange ici tous le temps.

Bravo a Frédéric Lebel pour son accueil et son conseil avisé concernant les vins, cuisine inspirée, service impeccable le bonheur A découvrir

Un grand OUI !
Voilà un restaurant bien sympa. La salle n’est pas grande et donc la capacité d’accueil plutôt restreinte mais malgré tout on est pas déçu de cette escale au pays des produits frais. Carte courte mais avec des produits de saison et bien cuisiné. Carte des vins suffisante avec de belles découvertes. Une adresse à essayer si vous passez sur Paris !

Pour le diner de Noël de notre entreprise, nous avons réservé une grande table à Louvre Bouteille.
En passant dans la rue Saint Honoré, impossible de né pas le remarquer. Peint tout en rouge, il frappé aux yeux. La déco à l’intérieur est similaire avec de nombreux tableaux originaux accrochés aux murs.
Petite anecdote lorsque nous nous y sommes rendus: il y avait juste a côté de nous des candidats de Master Chef Saison 4. Il parait que le chef est un ancien master chef.
Le menu qui nous a été proposé était peut être particulier étant dans un cadre d’événement d’entreprise. Pour 65e ils nous ont proposé champagne, entrée, plat, dessert avec plusieurs bouteilles de vin.
En entrée: un oeuf mollet avec une crème de champignons et des morceaux de bacon grillé. Hyper original et franchement très bon. J’ai même saucé mon assiette avec du pain tellement la crème de champignons était bonne !
En plat: une escalope de veau et une purée de pommes de terre. L’escalope était super tendre, un vrai délice
En dessert: un gâteau au chocolat à la crème Earley, original mais un peu lourd.
Bref, on a passé un très bon moment, le service était super agréable et nous sommes sortis repus !

Déçu
Accueil sympathique. Malheureusement, le reste né suit pas. Problème avec la cuisson des viandes, plats tièdes, strudel glacé et serviettes en papier pour le dîner.

Restaurant Gastronomique à essayer !
Nous y sommes aller un soir assez calme durant les vacances, et le service a été très rapide et agréable. Nous avons surtout été marqué par les entrées et desserts qui sont des vrais plats signatures du chef ! (l’oeuf ainsi que le mélange chocolat blanc/​passion vont nous rester en mémoiré !) Un choix de vin intéressant et différent des vins habituels, à des prix corrects ! Le restaurant a un an d’existence, et je penses qu’il ont dû avoir un peu de rodage à en voir les avis précédents, mais je trouve que c’est une petite perle à essayer rapidement ! (menu complet du soir à 38 Euros) :-)

Encore un petit effort…
Petit manqué d’assaisonnement, bonne exécution même si parfois un peu inégale: peut-​être trop d’éparpillement sur la carte (des choses très variées d’inspiration exotique ou très française…). Gros groupe à l’étage donc petit problème de température et service un peu long… Service très sympathique et bonne carte des vins.

Même si les plats inscrits au menu se la pètent un peu, il faut reconnaître que c’est bon ! et l’endroit est plutôt agréable pour le déjeuner. ça permet de changer des brasseries alentour !

Restaurant ouvert
début 2012 par Cyril, ancien de Masterchef, il a le mérite d’offrir un menu au
dîner, chose rare, qui plus est dans le quartier. Au dîner, menu à 28EUR
pour Entrée/​Plat ou Plat/​Dessert et 36EUR pour le package complet! Un petit coup de fil
pour réserver avant est vivement conseillé. La clientèle est assez
calme, ce qui rend l’endroit peu bruyant. La carte est
alléchante et originale, sur le papier. A l’arrivée des assiettes, ça se
confirme. On n’est pas dans la cuisine traditionnelle familiale, on sent un
réel effort d’esthétique. Au palais c’est bon certes, mais quelque peu moins
goûtu qu’attendu. Le rapport qualité/​prix est cependant imbattable. Pour ce qui est du
service, beaucoup de volonté mais il reste encore beaucoup de travail. Mais je
crois que notre serveuse commençait tout juste!

Pas trop mal, mais peu mieux faire
De passage sur Paris, nous sommes allé a Louvre Bouteille sur conseil d’un amis. La déco est agréable et l’accueil sympathique. Beaucoup d’attente entre les plats et un gros bémol pour la pomme au four qui est arrivée froide et dure, du coup difficile a manger avec une Cuillère…

Très déçu, il en manqué peu pour en faire un super resto !
En voyant la carte, originale, je me suis réjouis: «chouette, je vais me régaler !». Effectivement, la cuisine est innovante, j’ai découvert certaines associations très intéressantes pour un prix raisonnable. Nous avons été bien accueilli, avec une serveuse (sur les 3 ou 4) bien sympa. Par contre, gros coup de gueule : — ce que je déteste dans un resto, c’est demander 2 fois les choses: ça a été difficile d’avoir une bouteille d’eau. — le cuisinier né sait à priori pas cuire les viandes: mon magret demandé rosé était presque bleu (à la rigueur, ça passé, la viande est de très bonne qualité) mais le pire a été pour ma femme, qui, enceinte, a demandé (avant la commande pour être sûre) une viande bien cuite. Et bien même après 3 retours en cuisine, son morceau de bœuf était toujours saignant. Résultat, nous avons mangé en décalé, soirée gâchée ! — aucun geste commercial pour l’attente de (mauvaise) cuisson. — tout juste un «au revoir». Alors, oui, j’ai personnellement bien mangé, mais, non, je n’y retournerai pas et c’est bien dommage !

Emplacement top et cuisine sympathique
Un emplacement top à deux pas du Louvre et un cadre sympa et décontracté, voici ce qui vous attend au Louvre Bouteille. L’accueil est charmant et la cuisine très honnête. La carte propose quelques plats assez originaux. Nou avons pris le saumon, bon mais pas assez relevé et un baba au rhum délicieux. Les vins sont corrects et présentent un bon rapport qualité prix.

Not sure what’s a bigger warning to stay away: The horrifically punny name or the fact that the cook is an alum of «Masterchef»
My wife and I were walking down rue St.-Honoré hoping to find a new restaurant to try by random. As luck would have it, the nearly brand new Louvre Bouteille was right there, with a menu that looked promising and décor that was neither the standard Parisian café/​bistro/​brasserie-​in-​a-​box crap nor the cheap «neo-​lounge» bullshit new restaurants use to draw in people who care more about the latest trends than food.
We were immediately seated and the waiter brought us an enormous chalkboard menu, avoiding the need to decipher the illegible scribble upon one of the mirrored walls. [This phenomenon can also be observed at Gilles Choukroun’s trendy and overrated MBC, which also sports an illegible mirror menu.] The waiter was kind enough to point out which dishes were unavailable (squarely half of them) but fortunately the ones we were most interested in were still on hand. Before making up our minds, we were rushed into choosing a wine (the most expensive was recommended to us, of course, which we didn’t take) and in addition I asked for a large bottle of sparkling water.
The starter we both selected (poached egg with pureed mushrooms and coppa crumbles) arrived ridiculously quickly, along with a bottle of Châteldon mineral water («Very good,» the waiter assured us.) Why was he telling us the mineral water was very good? Oh, yes, because he’d brought out their most expensive bottle, instead of just a standard large bottle like I’d asked. Oh well, never mind those extra euros, let’s dig into this egg dish!
While not particularly beautiful in terms of color, the chef had at least paid attention to presentation. It was a very meticulously arranged dish with everything in a perfect circle. If only he’d paid attention to taste and temperature. The mushroom purée lacked dimension, and the poached egg was ice cold in the center which, along with its rapid appearance on the table, was the bumbling sign of a pre-​cooked and then rapidly reheated egg. (In commercial dining, like in magic, it’s best not to reveal your tricks to the audience by way of error…)
After a more reasonably long wait (long enough to believe the food was being made to order) the main courses arrived. My dish of lamb loin with puréed parsnip and heirloom carrots looked lovely, with beautiful colors and careful plating. The wife’s «crispy duck,» on the other hand, looked like something off of the
web site or in a Cyril Lignac-​endorsed supermarket magazine. But it should taste good, right?
It took me a while to find out how the lamb would taste. After my initial attempt to cut into the lamb, I had to remind the waiter that I needed a proper steak knife. He came back with another standard table knife saying, «Hopefully this one is sharper.» I asked if they had any steak knives, and upon the negative response, wondered how I was going to tackle this hunk of lamb. Well, other than the 10% of it that was uncuttable connective tissue, it was actually very tender. And practically raw. And cold.
The wife’s duck breast apparently did not have the temperature adjusted for the rare doneness she’d requested, so while the flesh inside was rare, the outside was not adequately seared and thus gummy. And also cold. The «crispy» wrapping of brique dough on the outside didn’t make up for this, and the incongruous accompaniment of fried polenta and a so-​called «thai» bullion of mango and lemongrass didn’t seem to help matters much.
Alas, the lousy food was only half of the disappointment. Service was nothing short of annoying, with the waiter coming by every few minutes to refill our already full glasses of wine, and at the end implying that we should add more to our credit card draft as a tip. (WTF?! Is that even legal in France?) Not to mention that the bill was brought to us before we even asked for it. (Seriously, GFY.)
We opted out of dessert, hoping to hurry up and get the fuck away from The Land of Trying Too Hard (And Failing Miserably). It wasn’t until after leaving that I found (via the first Unilocal review of this joint) that the chef is Cyril Rouquet of Masterchef (France) fame. Then it all made sense. The French version of Masterchef is insufferable, and never have I seen anything on the show that I’d actually want to eat. When friends have suggested I audition for the reality TV vomitfest, I feign modesty and say, «Oh, no, I’d never be able to compete,» when in fact I want to say, «Do you really think that little of my cooking?»
Seriously, if you ever compare anything I make to anything having to do with this restaurant, just fucking kill me. This shithole is representative of why Parisian dining, popular culture and generally everything are in decline.

I went with 2-​foodie friends. And, I have to say, we were all very excited to go because the Chef de cuisne Cyril Roquet is well known in Paris and a lot of it had to do with his participation in the Masterchef contest, a French cooking show.
The restaurant is in a great, convenient location, «Rue St. Honoré» I have to say it was nicely decorated and the upstairs room was really lovely. And, the tables and seating were well spaced, so you didn’t feel like you were being packed in. We all complained that the menu was hard to read. One wall had a long mirror, on it was the written menu. Unfortunately, the mirror had a glare, and depending where the light shone, it was either readable or not. We were all able to decipher the menu, in part because depending where we were seating, we could see parts of the menu and we shared the information.
Two of us had the «Velouté corail rutabaga huile d’argan.» Smooth scallop coral with rutabaga and «argan» oil, garnished with a little yellow edible flower. We all commented that this was the first time we’ve tasted scallop corals in a soup. Although it was tasty, it was served just lukewarm. We all agreed it could’ve been served warmer.
I had the «Oeuf crème champignon croustillant coppa.» A poached egg with mushrooms/​polenta and crispy bacon. When the dish arrived my first thought was, what an absolutely ugly dish, how amateurish? It looked like sand that had a poached egg on top, surrounded with what looked like canned sliced black olives and grated hard boiled cooked eggs, and garnished with a little mâche. I have to say this dish not only looked bad, but tasted just awful. The polenta was not cooked, so it had a gritty sand taste. The only saving grace was that the poached egg was cooked perfectly. I could not finish the dish it was so bad.
After we finished our entrées we waited, waited, and waited some more for our plats. Even by French restaurant standards, this was way too long of a wait in between courses. It finally came.
One of us had the «Tournedos fumé au thym, sauce moutard, pommes grenailles.» A steak dish with thyme and mustard sauce with whole potatoes. My first impression when the dish came out, it was totally out-​of-​proportion. Even for meat and potato loving people, this dish was out of whack. Clearly you can see that it seemed the potatoes were the star of the dish. It looked ridiculous. I tasted it, and again, although tasty it was lukewarm.
Two of us had the «Margret de canard croustillant, bouillon Thai, frite de polenta.» Crispy duck breast, accompanied with a Thai bouillon with a fried polenta. The crust they were referring to was phyllo dough the duck was encased in, otherwise known as «brick» in France. My friend loved the dish, but I have to say the duck skin was extremely fatty and inedible. And, although the breast was tasty, it was extremely rubbery. The accompanying bouillon seemed like an afterthought. It was almost as if he didn’t know what to do with the leftover duck, so he made stock out of it, with a bunch of stringy leftover meat at the bottom of the glass, put some lemongrass, hence, the Thai influence, and some mango balls. Although the broth was good, it just seemed out of place to me. And, because of the stringy meat at the bottom, it seemed very amateurish.
We decided we came this far, let’s order a dessert and a cheese plate to share. I wish I could give you our impression of what we ordered; unfortunately, we waited, waited, and waited some more and the restaurant started emptying out. So, we decided to ask for the bill.
The bill came and they charged us for the dessert. My friend told the waiter, who also happens to be the sommelier and I believe is also the business partner of the Chef, that had he paid attention to us, he would’ve known that we never got the dessert, and that’s why we were leaving.
Summary: I wanted to like this restaurant so much, because of the location, the ambiance, and the nice staff, albeit pretty «clueless». To me, reviewing a restaurant has to be sincere. I did not like this restaurant at all. The food had more misses than hits, and although the wait staff were charming, they were totally clueless of restaurant timing. We wondered if the lukewarm food was a result of the staff not getting the food out in time. None-​the-​less, the prices are reasonable, you get what you pay for. I realize they’re relatively new, but I would prefer to pay a few extra euros to have a better dining experience. With 2-​bottles of 2009 Réserve Bordeaux and 2 glasses of Chardonnay, we paid a total of 95 € for 3-​people for lunch.
Would I go back? Although I wish them much luck and success, and hope they improve, I probably would not go back! There are just so many other choices.

Foncez!
Ici ça déborde de gentillesse, aussi bien à l’accueil que dans les assiettes. Service attentionné et rapide, les produits sont délicieux et la cuisine bistrot intelligemment revisité par ce chef que vous reconnaitrez sans doute… Bref on leur souhaite succès et réussite. Et surtout qu’ils restent aussi agréables, souriant et professionnels! Longue vie à Louvre Bouteille!