Our time in Paris is very short and consists of less than 24 hours in the City of Lights. Although we checked into our hotel quite late and had to leave early we still had time for one meal: at the famous Le Relais de l'Entrecôte. So what is it like and is it worth the hype? And did we stay in a tiny Paris hotel? Oui oui!
I tasked Mr NQN with finding a hotel. He chose one near Gare du Nord train station, a gorgeous hotel in a slightly sketchy neighbourhood with a tiny yet gorgeously styled room. I don't know if I could recommend the Hotel Le Deux Gares unless you paid for a suite because there is no room for anything apart from luggage on the floor. But yes, it's a typical Parisian hotel room.
Let's focus on the positives. Despite its tiny size it is fitted with good quality fittings and Diptyque amenities. I open the windows to the view of the train tracks outside and the smell of cigarettes from the smokers down below. I have a shower and sit down on the bed slightly fretting about the size of the room and claustrophobia. "It's Paris sized,' says Mr NQN shrugging. He promptly falls asleep exhausted from the early morning flight and carrying our bags through Charles de Gaulle airport, through a security incident and from the train to the hotel.
At 5:00pm I shake him awake. Tonight we have a plan: to eat dinner at Le Relais de l'Entrecôte. There are three locations for this wildly successful Paris steak restaurant. They serve one thing: steak entrecote with fries and a green salad. For €30 per person you can get unlimited helpings of both. The only menus you will receive is for drinks and dessert.
We walk part way before hopping on the metro to arrive at 6pm. Le Relais de l'Entrecôte opens at 6:30pm and I had read to arrive around 15 minutes early. But even on this Monday night the line is already long and I'd recommend arriving at 6pm or even earlier. At 6:30pm on the dot they start asking if anyone would like to sit outside. There are around half a dozen tables outside but we don't want to eat around smokers so we wait another 10 minutes or so before we reach the front of the queue.
A smiling woman beckons us to follow her. She pulls out a table from the opposite side to the banquette and I slide in. The tables are so close together that it is physically impossible to slide in between tables as we have around an inch between us and the next table. The couple already sitting down almost feel obliged to say hello.
Within minutes, menus are provided in French and Mr NQN chooses a glass of house red wine while I stick with water. They also bring out the first course: a lettuce salad with a Dijon mustard vinaigrette and chopped walnuts which is a fresh way to start the meal. They also bring a basket of sliced baguette.
They then ask how we would like our steak. Our usual choice of a medium rare steak is not an option. You can choose either: rare, medium or well done and we go with rare. A few minutes later another couple slide in next to us and it is elbow to elbow increasing the awkwardness.
Our steak arrives and they plate it for us, they give us around 3 slices of steak with the famous green sauce and fries. The fries need seasoning and I murmur something to Mr NQN about needing salt. The new couple next to us can obviously hear me and she passes the salt. "Thanks!" I say. Every couple is whispering to each other because we are sitting so close to each other and we don't want to bother everyone with our conversation.
The steak itself is well cooked to rare and the famous green sauce is actually a bit different to what I thought it would be. I had assumed that it was like a chimichurri because it is called "green sauce" (their name for it) but once you see it, it is a khaki rather than the bright green of chimichurri. Apparently it is made with onion, tarragon, sage, walnuts, anchovies, capers, Worcestershire sauce and a whole host of ingredients but I can taste a warm spice added to it that almost gives it a curry-ish aspect to it although none of the recipes online reference a spice that would come close to it. When we finish our three slices of steak they ask us if we would like more and we have three more slices. I notice that everyone basically goes for seconds but not thirds.
We also try one of the desserts: a raspberry vacherin with meringue discs, thick vanilla custard cream, raspberry sorbet and raspberry sauce. It's classic and looks eye catching when brought to the table.
The thing about having tables so close together is that it makes it very awkward to talk to each other which I'm sure is all part of the business model. It is not somewhere where you linger and we are in and out in an hour as are our table neighbours. And while Le Relais de l'Entrecôte is somewhere I'm glad I tried, I probably wouldn't go again unless I was with friends that wanted to try it. When we left, the line stretched even longer down the street, going past where I could see in the dark Paris night.
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried this restaurant?
All meals and hotels in this post were independently paid for.
NQN and Mr NQN travelled to Europe as guests of Vietnam Airlines.
Vietnam Airlines
Vietnam Airlines offers 23 flights per week connecting Sydney, Melbourne and Perth to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Vietnam Airlines is continuing to add new routes having recently announced new flights to Milan, Munich and Delhi.
https://www.vietnamairlines.com/au/en/home
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