La Gorgée has been around for a while, and although it is in a touristed area, is open seven days a week, serves very good food, and even has recognition from the Gault & Millau restaurant guide (two chef’s toques), it remains delightfully unknown to the tourist websites and thus to tourists. Long may it remain that way!
The restaurant is situated not far west of the Luxembourg Gardens.
The interior is welcoming, with a large number of wine bottles stacked on the bar:
We were there on a Sunday evening, and all the other diners seemed to be French with the possible exception of one woman who was dining alone: from the bags by her table, she evidently had been out on a shopping spree that day. The noise level was low.
The carte:
During the week and Saturday at lunch, entrée/plat or plat/dessert is 25.50€ and a plat by itself is 19.50€. Nights and Sunday lunch, it is 34.50€ for entrée/plat or plat/dessert and 25.50€ for plat by itself. An additional entrée or dessert is 10€.
The restaurant has two wine lists. The standard one is filled with good and typical bistrot-type selections:
I did not see the second list, which contains more expensive wines, because we were not interested in wine by the bottle that evening.
To begin, L and I each took a glass of Saint-Véran, a Chardonnay from the Mâcon region in southern Burgundy:
The wine was full-bodied and balanced with good acidity and freshness.
L was not hungry enough for an entrée, so I ordered for myself and to share with her the melting chèvre with green peppers and confit tomatoes on a Parmesan sablé, with a mesclun salad on the side.
The red circles were a tapenade with some red fruit mixed in with the olives. This was an attractive dish with freshness, flavor, and precision.
For her main, L took the special of the day, which was a choucroute of seafood:
This dish both looked and tasted delicious.
For my main course, I took the chicken breast braised with red currants and coconut, and served with a sweet potato purée with avocado and confit tomatoes:
The dish was a nice detour from the standard chicken breast with potatoes, and was very light and fresh.
I took a glass of Dominique Piron’s Morgon to go with the chicken dish:
This was a solid, if somewhat standard, Morgon. Alas, it was served at room temperature instead of cellar temperature, the common failing of 90+% of restaurants in France. It was the sole wrong note of the whole meal.
For dessert, L ordered the Pavolova, which we split:
As you can see, this version of Pavlova consisted of vanilla ice cream and raspberry sorbet with whipped cream beneath a meringue topping. It was light and flavorful and couldn’t have been better.
With a very friendly server (whom I believe was also the chef, Eric Lequeux), the bill came to 87€:
La Gorgée is a friendly bistrot serving very good, fresh food at moderate prices daily at lunch and dinner. It is a very welcome addition to my list of restaurants in this part of town.
La Gorgée
22, rue de Fleurus, 75006 Paris
Daily lunch and dinner
Telephone: 01 43 22 41 14
website: www.lagorgee.com
Métro: Saint-Placide (line 4), Rennes (line 12), Notre-Dame-des-Champs (line 12)
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