In today's NY Times Dining Secion, Sam Sifton gives Le Relais de Venise L' Entrecote a one star (good) rating. (article: Hop Off the Wheel and Taste Paris)
The restaurant has no menu. It's salad and steak frites.
He describes the salad: "It is a pile the size of a softball, mixed green and red lettuces draped in a mustardy vinaigrette that in early days here was nearly as thick as a mayonnaise. Lately it has thinned out into something closer to silk. Walnuts are strewn across the top, rich and oily."
And the steak: "Your steak comes in two stages, on a relatively small plate: you eat your portion of meat, sauce and fries and then are served seconds. The beef is fine, sliced thin across the grain and as tender as cheap meat gets, a perfect midweek dinner with a friend. The fries rate higher on the crazy-good scale: salty and crisp, with tender interiors that aren't mushy even when soaked in the sauce."
The ingredients of the sauce are kept secret. Sifton desribes it as "perhaps a variant on the gravy poured out at Café de Paris in Geneva since the 1940s: butter, basically, infused with herbs and mustard and cream, with a metallic tang of chicken liver running right through its middle. Whatever it is at L'Entrecôte, you could pour the stuff over a boot and still have an excellent dinner."
Cheeses and desserts including profiteroles are available if you have room...
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