I’m not typically in the business of writing pans. Usually, when I go to a restaurant I don’t like, I quietly publish something about it on Instagram and move on. But I was so disappointed by Firmin le Barbier, especially given the glowing reviews, that I had to say something this time. Take my comments with a grain of salt; it’s always possible I visited on a bad night. But the night was bad enough that I have no interest in returning to see if this meal was a one-off or par for the course.
It’s a shame I disliked this meal so much, especially because I’d actually been here once before, over a decade ago. Firmin le Barbier is on the 7th-arrondissement street where I lived when I first moved to Paris in 2007, and my ex-boyfriend and I went once years ago. I still have fond memories of it, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the bright dining room with its welcoming semi-open kitchen shielded with a pane of clear glass was still open. The menu of contemporary French dishes with slight Thai twists is built around two prix fixes – one at 45 for three courses and the other at 63 – which isn’t cheap, but considering the view of the Eiffel Tower from the doorway, it’s not bad either.
My dining companion and I opted to order the cheaper menu and to share everything, so we’d each get to sample six different dishes. Things seemed to start strong with a bitter green salad seasoned with dried shrimp, coconut, ginger, and tamarind. Laced with thin slices of pickled red onion, this salad immediately inspired me to attempt to recreate it at home. Unfortunately, it was the high point of the evening.
This plate of escargots featured perfectly cooked, tender snails swimming in a charred bread soup. A quenelle of cervelle de canuts studded with herbs and garlic sat alongside. The soup itself had a strange acidity that permeated many of the dishes, and the stale bread was far from the most exciting way to sop up any remaining bits of cheese.
The chef may have skipped the desalting step when preparing this paltry portion of cod brandade. Beneath that pretty smattering of green onions, an unfortunate skin had formed over the top of the dish.
A side of sucrine wedges seasoned with caesar dressing was perfectly fine, but nothing to write home about either.
Bobosse boudin blanc from Lyon fared slightly better – maybe thanks to the quality of the core ingredient – but the creamy vinegar sauce just tasted sour, and the gratin dauphinois beneath the slab of sausage felt like an odd choice, lending almost nothing to the dish.
Of the two desserts, I actually quite liked this passionfruit crème brûlée, though I couldn’t quite detect the promised sage. The other dessert up top, however, featured an undercooked saffron-poached pear served with Greek yogurt sorbet and hazelnuts. I’m still not sure where the slightly alcoholic flavor came from, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.
So, too, did the service. We visited on a Monday night at 8pm to a nearly-empty restaurant, and the hostess not only claimed she couldn’t serve my friend a carafe of water when she arrived, forcing her to order a four-euro bottle of sparkling until I arrived and asked instead for tap, but she hovered over us constantly, warning us that the kitchen would soon be closing and huffing when I refused a second glass of wine.
The promise of Firmin le Barbier’s stated goal of adding Thai twists to French classics in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower is a good one. Too bad it’s so poorly fulfilled.
Firmin le Barbier – 20 Rue de Monttessuy, 75007