Aldéhyde, Paris 4 -- Second Visit
Last September I enjoyed an excellent dinner at Aldéhyde, which had just opened the month before. I returned yesterday to check out how the restaurant performed at lunch.
It was a January day made especially cold by dampness and breeze. Here’s what was on offer:
The small restaurant quickly filled up with French people from all walks of life and ages — people in business attire, people casually dressed, and maybe some retirees.
The lunch began with an onion-centric purée as an amuse-bouche:
With very good, crusty whole-wheat bread, this was a small, but pleasing, start, showing plenty of flavor, good balance, and silk texture.
Next came the salad of red cabbage and beets:
This dish was refreshing and full of flavor without being filling. It was an excellent first course.
With it, I ordered a glass of the red wine of the day, a 2023 Crozes-Hermitage from Yann Chave:
It was an adequate representation of Syrah, but not nearly as good as some of the new wines coming out of Crozes-Hermitage or as some of the wines available by bottle at the restaurant.
For the main course, I took the paleron de boeuf (chuck steak) braised with winter vegetables, orange, and sauce bourguignon:
This was warming on a chilly day, but slightly bland.
The dessert was described as pear, tonka (beans) and chocolate, and it was really superb:
The pear was located in the white mound of whipped cream and then on the bottom in a warm disk of molten chocolate that was separated from the whipped cream by a tonka-bean hard disk. The flavors were rich and well-defined and there was a diversity of textures.
I finished with a café in a beautiful presentation:
Unfortunately, the coffee was overly burnt and bitter, resembling the café Richard that is still too often served in Paris.
The bill:
Bottom line: the lunch was satisfying and contained two outstanding dishes, the red cabbage and beet entrée and the dessert, but I was also let-down some by the under-spiced main dish, the so-so wine, and the poor quality of the coffee. Some restaurants are better at lunch and some at dinner. I suspect that Aldéhyde is a dinner location, and I will try to return in the coming weeks to get a second view on dinners here.
Aldéhyde
5, rue du Pont Louis-Philippe
75004 Paris
website: aldehyde.paris
Tél: 09 73 89 43 24
Tuesday-Saturday lunch and dinner
Métro: Pont Marie, Saint-Paul, Hôtel de Ville