In my previous post, I mentioned the reservations I have and the realities of doing a post when just doing a single visit to a restaurant. But, when travelling, the reality is, you may only have one meal at a place……often a meal you were looking forward to, had planned on having, and when, like that visit to Le Comptoir de la Gastronomie does not work out, well things are magnified. And then there are times when you have a second opportunity to revisit a place. Le Pont de Sichuan was such a place.
My apologies about doing this a bit out of order.
It was Thanksgiving of 2018 and we were staying in the 2nd Arrondissment, as I mentioned in my previous post. We had visited Versailles (coming up in a future post) during the morning and now wanted some "comfort food" (it's all relative, no?) for dinner.
Right up the street was a place I had on my "list"; Le Pont de Sichuan. I had read some positive things about the place….taking note of the ahem, "authentic Sichuan" tag thrown about. Even though I'm not one to use "authentic" in my descriptions; because cuisine is not like a signed Picasso; it is not a static picture, it changes, is dynamic….ok, enough of that.
We decided to check out Le Pont de Sichuan as our Thanksgiving meal.
We were the first customers in the place. The service was also quite nice in terms of Chinese restaurants; it definitely had a French touch to it. I'd done a bit of research and had pretty much decided on two of the dishes beforehand.
One of them was the Crispy Lamb with Cumin.
The lamb had obviously been braised first, then deep fried making the exterior parts quite crisp. Nice and gamey and tempered with soy sauce and cumin. Not overly salty, crisp and then tender….while, in my opinion it could have used more cumin, this was a very nice dish.
We needed a vegetable, so we got the dry cooked green beans which were ok.
A bit too greasy and salty and lacking in savory tones.
The other dish I'd been wanting to try was the Marmite de Champignons; basically sautéed mushrooms….but not quite what your mind pictures as sautéed mushrooms.
We loved the earthy, toothsome variety of mushrooms, all the different subtle flavors, different textures. A slight spice, the pleasant savory-saltiness of soy sauce, a slight bit of sour-acidity, some mild heat….and most of all….a good dose of Sichuan peppercorns. The slices of pork was well seasoned and tender. This was so good.
We really enjoyed our meal here.
And so, during our last visit to Paris, at the end of our 2019 Budapest – Vienna – Salzburg – Munich – Stuttgart trip, we were excited to be back in the Missus's favorite city and wanted to have another nice dinner at Le Pont de Sichuan. I even made reservations.
This time, we thought we'd try some more traditional Sichuan dishes along with that amazing Mushroom dish we'd had on the previous visit.
We started with one of my favorites; the Ko Shui Ji (Mouthwatering Chicken).
First off, his was served warm. Second, the chicken was really dry. Third, other than being drenched in chili oil, it really had no other flavors going for it.
The next dish we ordered is another Sichuan favorite of ours, Shui Zhu Niu Rou (water boiled beef).
Think of this as being really dry, hot pot style top round dumped into a one-dimensional chili-oil based sauce….it lacked the complexity of a good Doubian Jian, though at least in this case, there was a sprinkling of ground Sichuan Peppercorn. No garlic tones; no mild hint of sweet, no complex spicy-savory flavors.
It's ok we thought. If that mushroom dish was a good as on our previous visit it would really balance things out. After all, it was the dish we really came for. Alas, it was not.
As you can tell, the color is a lot lighter, some of the mushrooms were really crisp and over-cooked, some were really tough and under-cooked. The Sichuan Peppercorn flavor was MIA….maybe they forgot? The pork was dry and tough. Uneven stir fry technique. Even though the chilies were present, this wasn't particularly spicy.
Overall, it was quite a disappointing meal, which I'm sure was amplified by the fact that we were really looking forward to eating here.
Sad…..I'm not sure what the norm here is? Was it the 'B' team, or was our first visit just a lightning strike?
There are other places we've revisited in Paris over the years that have been quite consistent. This was not one of them. And while I'm tempted to try them again, our time in Paris is always limited, it's costly, we're on holiday, and want to enjoy our meals. I don't think the Missus would want to roll the dice and take a chance that it's "visit B". Life is too short.
Le Pont de Sichuan (SuperMian)
86 rue de Richelieu
75002 Paris, France
