L’OGRE, A Pleasant Bistro: B
L’Ogre Though the location across the street from the exasperating (this building is much too big and it’s impossible to find the entrance) round Maison de Radio in the 16th arrondissement isn’t very convenient, there’s still a lot to like about L’Ogre, a friendly and very lively modern bistro with an attractive and welcoming young staff, great views of the Eiffel Tower, and good solid traditional French cooking.
The main reason this place works so well is that it was born for all of the right reasons. To wit, a bunch of friends who were working as wine distributors and who love good food decided that it would be fun to do a restaurant together. So they took over this old corner cafe and kitted it out with a post-industrial-loft-look, i.e. factory lamps and visible heating ducts. They kept the old zinc bar though, and made sure the lighting was good, a detail much appreciated by the media crowd who pack the place at dinner, and also decided the chalkboard menu would be sort of a greatest hits roster of simple tasty French classics like terrine de foie gras mi-cuit or rillettes de lapin (potted rabbit) to start, and then pedigreed meat, including an excellent steak tartare, boudin noir and a superb veal chop with shallot cream sauce for two, and shrewdly chosen and very fairly priced wines.
Not surprisingly, it’s all worked a charm, and this place has become a real hit with well-heeled young Parisian professionals. Given the better-than-average cooking and reasonable prices, plus those swell views of the Eiffel tower if you get a Seine facing table, the real surprise is that this place hasn’t yet been trumpeted as a great address for anyone visiting Paris.
L’Ogre, 1 avenue de Versailles, 16th, Tel. 01-45-27-93-40. Metro: Mirabeau or RER Maison-de-Radio-France. Closed Saturday lunch and Sunday. Average 35 Euros.
