Grand Vefour

Grand Vefour is an institution as much as a restaurant, one that has been on this site since the 18th Century in one form or another.  The dining room is snug, as in airline economy class snug: the tables are crammed in and the conversations of your neighbouring diners are close enough that you will have an opportunity to join in.  There is red banquette seating and pretty tiling on the walls and ceiling –making  it look more like an old brasserie than a grand dining room. A starter of four scallops had excellent scallops that were cooked well, though the mustard sauce with them was a rather sad brown sludge with only a faint hint of mustard (18/20 for the scallops).  A lobster from Brittany was cooked well, served partly in its shell, with just some fennel to one side as an accompaniment (17/20).  Cheese was in a generally good condition, though Munster was rather unripe, and the Comte not as good as one might hope (17/20).

The best course was dessert, with pineapple cubes served warm with a sponge topped with excellent pineapple sorbet (19/20). Coffee was excellent, with good quality petit fours e.g. an excellent chocolate wafer, though the Madeleine was somewhat overcooked and hard. The bill for two, with a cheap wine (EUR 50 counts as cheap on this, almost entirely French, wine list) was still EUR 530 for two for lunch, though admittedly there was a cheaper, limited, lunch option.  This is a lot of money for essentially borderline two star cooking. When I visited this as a two Michelin star place many years ago I felt that it was barely two stars; on this visit my opinion remains unchanged (postscript: Michelin finally saw sense and downgraded from three stars).