I badly wanted Le Goncourt to be the place that finally settled my score with small plates restaurants, a trend I embraced wholeheartedly at the outset thanks to the creativity on offer as well as the diminutive portion sizes paving the way for even more varied delicious bites. But with a few exceptions, Le Goncourt is offering up the same even-smaller portions, thing-on-a-plate mentality, and overly-casual service that has recently made me prefer staying at home.
That sounds harsh, and I’m well-aware of that. It’s not Le Goncourt’s fault that I’m a little bit exhausted by this current trend, and this new restaurant is certainly bearing the brunt of my exasperation, a straw breaking the back of that proverbial camel. So please, take my criticism with a grain of salt. It’s not that Le Goncourt is in any way bad – far from it. It’s just evocative of so many things on the current Parisian dining landscape that I, personally, have grown weary of.
With that in mind, let me please begin with the good parts about Le Goncourt.
I quite liked the vibe of this spot, tucked into a quiet street not far from one of my favorite cheese shops, Fromagerie Goncourt, as well as from storied innovative restaurants like Le Chateaubriand. At Le Goncourt, no reservations or necessary (or even allowed), and the mismatched plates, wooden tables, and tiled floors evoke that sort of flea market shabby chic vibe that has become so popular in Paris in recent years. The result is a cozy spot with a nice selection of natural bottles (and four by-the-glass selections). The somm offered loads of suggestions and detailing the wines on her list with the ease of one afforded by deep knowledge and passion.
The menu offered 11 small plates plus one option each for cheese and dessert, all priced around the 9 to 15 euro mark, with a few outliers like the 4-euro egg-mayo with bottarga or the 24-euro butter-poached monkfish with salicornia and seasonal vegetables meant to serve two.
That said, I wonder if a two-person portion might have meant I didn’t need to gorge on bread, a simple chewy baguette.
Indeed, one of my first gripes here is the truly minuscule portion sizes. Small might be right there in the name, but I get the impression that even the smallest of plates are shrinking in Paris, and it’s tough to stomach a 12-euro saucer of trout slivers in tomato water, tasty as the combo may be, when you barely get two mouthfuls. (That the server dumped the remainder of the tomato water on my foot with barely an apology only soured the experience.)
But more than small portions, what irked me here was a lack of precision. The mayonnaise in the bottom of this bowl of egg-mayo was delicious, but the egg was chalky and overcooked.
My textural gripes only continued with this dish of peas paired with both white and wild asparagus served in a puddle of stilton sauce. While the sauce was certainly tasty (although not as heavy on the stilton as I might have liked), and the asparagus lovely in both forms, the peas themselves were starchy and devoid of the sweetness I would have loved to see in such a seasonal dish.
The decision to opt for dessert stemmed more from hunger than any desire for more of the same, and while the chantilly, caramel sauce, and strawberries paired with this cream puff were all tasty, the chou itself posed those still-same textural woes, proving tough and a bit bland.
There was, however, a beacon of light on the menu: this bavette dish, which came topped with a chile and apple ferment and a fresh, zingy herb salad. Perfectly seasoned and perfectly cooked to medium-rare, it was an absolute champion of a dish that made up for any issues elsewhere on the menu.
I’m not writing off le Goncourt, but I do think I need to take a step back from eating small plates for dinner. The plates – and the tables – are just too diminutive, at this point, to make the experience worthwhile or pleasurable. There’s some obvious talent in the kitchen here, and I could see the benefit of dropping by for a glass of wine and one plate or two before heading somewhere else… and preferably somewhere with a bit more of a service-oriented mindset.
Indeed, Le Goncourt aside, I think that what I’m on the lookout for, these days, is some pomp, some circumstance. I want dining out to feel like an experience again… and I don’t want to have to eat two baskets of bread at dinner before I feel full.
Le Goncourt – 10 Rue des Goncourt, 75011