1 Rue Monsigny
75002 Paris
This is a classic sit down restaurant that is on our street, about two blocks down from our apartment. I had eaten lunch there with the folks from Pretty Simple and enjoyed it, so I took Melanie on Friday for our first "date night" in Paris.
I stopped by earlier in the day to make reservations for 7:00, but as it turns out that wasn't necessary. The restaurant was not crowded at all when we arrived, though it was starting to fill up when we left at around 8:30. (Parisians tend to eat dinner between 8:00 and 11:00.)
The decor at Villa Dondelli is eclectic, but sort of charming:
 |
| Villa Dondelli was packed at lunchtime, but at 7:00 we pretty much had the place to ourselves |
The hostess was very nice and spoke reasonable English, as did the elderly owner; but our waiter was definitely a non-English speaker. When he asked if we wanted: "Plateau d'Huitres" we had no idea how to respond. Seeing our confusion the hostess came over and basically asked the same question, this time pointing to a tray of something stone-like under a glass case. "Is very good!" she said, with gusto.
As I studied the case I realized that I was looking at a tray of raw oysters. Melanie was turned the wrong way and couldn't get a good look at them, and before I could say anything she asked the hostess, "What are d'Huitres? Is that a vegetable?"
The hostess seemed dazed, if not a little horrified, by the question. She sputtered, "No... NOT a legume! D'Huitres!" She brought one over on a plate so we could see it. Melanie and I laughed and asked if we could get a half order, since we weren't sure if we were hungry enough to eat 12 oysters... they looked pretty big.
A few minutes later they delivered this to the table:
 |
| Plateau d'Huitres, served on a bed of seaweed - some of the best oysters we've ever had! |
Melanie and I love raw oysters, despite the fact that she is allergic to shellfish. They remind us of the ocean and before we even tried these the aroma from the seaweed brought back fond memories of the beaches in California, where Autumn was born.
France has a reputation for oysters and they delivered! These were some of the best oysters we've ever had and we regretted not getting a full order. Especially after our entrees arrived, but I'll get to that in a minute.
The d'Huitres came with a fresh lemon, a red wine vinegar sauce with shallots, and some pieces of bread with butter.
Bread and butter? Uh oh.
In the United States we squirt lemon juice on our raw oysters, add a few drops of the red wine vinegar mixture, and then just tip them back and slurp them down. What if they don't eat oysters that way in Paris? Is that why we got the bread? Are we supposed to put them on the bread like little open faced seafood sandwiches? We had no idea...
The hostess and owner were watching us anxiously and as Melanie picked up her first oyster I could just imagine them thinking, "Oh no... what is she doing? Oh my god! Is she just going to pick it up and suck it down her throat like a ravenous otter??? Sacré bleu! How disgusting!"
It didn't help that the oyster wasn't separated from the shell, like they are back in the States, so when Melanie tried to pour it into her mouth the damn thing got stuck. She sucked harder, "SLURP", but it was still firmly attached to the shell. Her eyes widened like saucers and she gagged a little bit as oyster juice dribbled down her chin. "GLURP!" It sounded like she was about to get sick, but eventually she got it down while tears of suppressed laughter welled up in my eyes.
As it turns out, our fears were unfounded. The staff was watching because they were really proud of these oysters and they wanted to see if we liked them. When the hostess came over I told her that the d'Huitres were incredible and she looked very pleased. I asked how they eat oysters in France and she confirmed that they eat them the same way we do in America.
Whew!
Okay, time to order some dinner. Although we received English menus from the waiter, a lot of it was still in French (or maybe Italian?) Melanie was tempted to get a steak but she has tried two of these in Paris and both were like shoe leather. I was looking at the pizza with truffle foam, but while the truffle part sounded good I wasn't really in the mood for flatbread.
After some consideration, Melanie picked out a pasta dish with mushrooms and sausages. I decided to be bold and ordered a noodle dish with veal kidneys and a marsala wine sauce.
Okay, that's what we THOUGHT we were ordering. Unfortunately, "sauvage" does NOT mean "sausage", it's the french word for "wild". And it didn't come with pasta. So Melanie got a bowl of sauteed wild mushrooms and some Parmesan cheese to put on top. She said it was good... but it was a bowl of mushrooms.
My veal kidneys had been breaded and were apparently cooked in Marsala wine. No pasta, no sauce.
 |
| My veal kidneys tasted okay, but I was expecting something very different. We REALLY need to learn French! |
Although we were both sort of disappointed with our meals we didn't blame the restaurant. I think we just ordered poorly. Next time we'll do better, and we'll ask more questions when we don't understand something on the menu.
We're anxious to return to Villa Dondelli and are delighted to have a nice Italian restaurant so close to home!
No comments:
Post a Comment