L’os à moëlle : The Bone Marrow Restaurant
Early May this year, Ben and I had close family friends from Washington DC who visited us in Paris. We wanted to share with them a small sliver of the good food that Paris has to offer, and also have a relatively conducive place to chat, since we haven’t seen them in 4 years. As our friends had a few days of fine dining in Paris, we thought we’d share with them also a more traditional bistro, known for their copious simple foods, with casual, familial service.
We picked L’os à Moëlle, which we have never been to, but have heard rave reviews for it from friends in NYC and other food bloggers. The resto (short in French for restaurant) is simply decorated and painted in a friendly inviting yellow color. The server gave us a broad smile and brought us to a cosy corner at the back of the resto, where we could have some privacy.
We ordered the menu dégustation (tasting menu), which consists of 6 courses for €38. The first course was soup. We had crème de champignons (cream of mushroom soup) and crème de tomates (cream of tomato soup). It was just right and warmed us up from the chilly weather outside. Unfortunately, after the soup course, there was a change of wait staff and we landed with someone who was hurried and a general space cadet. It all went downhill from there.
Two of us had ordered the lotte (devilfish) and one of us ordered the bar (sea bass). This silly serveuse (waitress) brought out two lottes and one bar, but told us otherwise. At the same time, she also brought out a lotte dish for the table next to us. She was so confused about her fishes, and was so flustered, she left to return to the kitchen. The kind Frenchman beside us graciously swapped his seabass dish thinking that it was the devilfish, so we could start eating and he would wait for his lady friend’s dish to arrive to start together. Quel galanterie ! (What gallantry!) We heaved a sigh of relief and started digging in. Half way throughout the meal, another waiter dashed out and told us our devilfish was the bar and the bar was the devilfish. “You all ok or you want to swap your fishes? It would take a while. But we do. No problem.”
For the cheese course, we asked Dingbat Waitress what the cheese special was. She stared blankly and said “Stinky cheese”. We were stuffed to the gills but we ordered it anyway. Even if just to prove, that Americans can eat stinky French cheese. As it turned out, the cheese wasn’t stinky one bit. After eating the entire chunk, we still had no idea what it’s called or where it came from.
To top it off, she asked if we would like to have a coffee or tea… three hands rose up for déca (decaf) and I asked what kind of tea was available. Here, she quickly replied. “I don’t know. I don’t know if we actually have tea. I’ll check.” And she dashed off. I had the only tea available… Ceylon fannings in a tea bag. Needless to say, I left no tip for Spacey.
Our family friends were gracious about my (bad) choice of restaurant and laughed it off. They thought the Silly Waitress was funny. I guess it would be too if I saw bad service once in a blue moon in Paris. Dinner at L’os à Moëlle reminds me of a Chinese saying that is used when a couple is mismatched “鲜花牛粪上”which means a fresh flower stuck on cow dung. My conclusion is that Thierry Faucher’s food was good, fresh, well-plated, but it could use some decent service to complement it.
Tonight, I’m going back again, with some girlfriends and giving L’os à moëlle another shot…. What awaits us? I wonder…
L’os à Moëlle
3 rue Vasco de Gama
75015, Paris
Tel : 01 45 57 27 27
Métro : Lourmel (ligne 8)