Pudlo, Schmudlo (well, just this once!) - Wednesday, 5 October

I recently read that the classic French bistro, Au Lyonnais (in the 2nd arrondissement, near the Bourse), is the resto critic Gilles Pudlowski’s (Pudlo's) favorite lunch spot.  He is very popular, has written multiple guides and for multiple periodicals including Saveur.  Normally his stuff is right on, so I just had to book a lunch at Au Lyonnais this trip.  But today my reaction was “huh, really?”  Alain Ducasse acquired the resto in 2000 - it’s one of his 60 restos in seven countries and three continents, so I’m guessing that he doesn’t visit each of them all that often!

My reservation was for 1:00 and it was fairly full.  But it was absolutely buzzing by 1:30.

For an amuse bouche they brought a shallow dish of finely diced cucumbers in crème fraiche with shallots, chives, pepper, and olive oil.  A couple thin baguette crisps accompanied it.  Refreshing, but not particularly inventive.

I wanted the “River” first course (crayfish, smoked pike perch, trout sausage), but they were out of it.  Bummer.  So I went with the “veggies from the farm” option (Ducasse is famous for supplying his French restos from his farm in the southwest of France).  They were mostly raw, some just lightly cured.  My favorite was the endive with pear, basil and fleur de sel - simple but multi-dimensional and interesting.  The slender slice of daikon with some kind of steamed squash and hazelnuts was tasty, but there were some inedible bits of tooth-breaking shell (happily my tongue found them before my teeth did!).  The dressing quite viscous - I believe it was an orange vinegar, olive oil, and a bit of syrup.  All the veggies were very fresh and pure, but sorry, they really do benefit from some cooking (in my humble, but outspoken, opinion!).  I loved the fresh walnuts to dig out of the shell.  Terrific crusty bread.  

My antique-looking “chanteur” plate was very cute - Manon the singer singing “here is the sun ~ it's spring ~ it's awakening ” in the rain!  You can click on the photo to enlarge it.

With fall approaching, I thought that the hare main course would be lovely.  The one small piece of seared duck foie gras on top was almost worth the price of admission - I’ve rarely had any this good - I’m guessing that it came from his farm as well.  From the hare, the shredded roasted leg meat in red wine sauce was good - hearty and deeply flavored - but it contained a few bits of bone (they seem determined to break diners’ teeth!) and thyme stems. The sautéed breast meat was overdone.  There was some grainy organ meat.  The celeriac leaves were delightful (I’m guessing that they sliced the celeriac very thinly on a mandoline and then poached the slices in some vegetable stock).  The potato purée was very nice. 

The Laurent Combier 2021 Crozes-Hermitage was quite pleasant with the hare - dry, full-flavored, with impressions of pomegranate, tart cherries, red fruits, and slate.

The room is lovely with dark wood, beautiful ceramic tiles, mirrors, brass, traditional moldings, etc.  I'm glad that I checked out Au Lyonnais, but it won't be my favorite lunch spot!