L’Entredgeu

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One of the best restaurants in Paris is one that I have a hard time recommending.

Wine Glasses

It’s not that the food isn’t consistently very good-to-excellent. Nor is the service anything less than friendly and sincere.

One problem with L’Entredgeu is that it’s way up in the 17th, pretty much away from everything else. That’s relatively minor, though. The big problem for me is the name; it’s almost impossible for me to pronounce—although my French friends have a bit of difficulty with it as well, so I don’t feel quite so lame.

paleron

In spite of those two minor flaws, I’ve never not enjoyed myself, and the food, at L’Entredgeu.


A recent meal began with an Assiette de Jambon “des 3 fermes” condiments au vinaigre, which was a plate of nicely-sliced country hams and a little dish of pickles. The Ballontines de caille (quail) au fois gras with a preserved quail leg was nicely-done and almost too refined for such a humble joint. But the best was the Pimentos del piquillos, peppers stuffed with salt cod, which reflected the slight Basque influence of L’Entredgeu.

My main course was a Poule farci aux pieds de cochon et foie gras (two fois gras dishes!) But other menu options were Colvert rôti, roasted wild duck (an added bonus is I always add a few new words to my vocabulary at L’Entredgeu too…’colvert‘ is wild duck, fyi), Filet de canette jus miel, duckling with honey sauce (it must be duck-week here on the blog), and a nice slab of beef, which you see above, served on a disk of creamy macaroni gratin.

All was accompanied by a truly serviceable bottle of Sauternes (23€) that was so crisp and bright that I wished I’d ordered the oysters that most of the other tables were having. Next time.

So in spite of the name, and location, L’Entredgeu seems to be thriving and is always packed. The dining room can be a bit cramped, which is part of the charm. The fixed-price menu at 30€ is a real bargain for food this good, and well-prepared, and L’Entredgeu is far better, in my opinion, than most of the other ‘bargain bistros’ of Paris. And there will be a next time.

L’Entredgeu (map)
83, rue Laugier
Tél: 01 40 54 97 24
M: Porte de Champerret

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17 comments

    • Lesley

    Thanks , it’s now on my list.
    And I’ve been speaking french most of my life, I have no idea what I would do with “L’Entre d geu”!!

    • krysalia

    the name of this restaurant reminds me one famous restaurant from my place (valenciennes, france), which is named “la bouche des goûts”, this is a pretty similar play-on-words than ” l’entre D-geu” :)

    (for non-french speakers, “l’entreDgueu” could mean l’antre dégueu : the gross antrum. The second one “la bouche des goûts” (the mouth of tastes), is for la bouche d’égoût : Sewer entrance.)

    Food is really excellent in this restaurant i know, so this is probably the same thing in l’entredgeu, and i must admit le filet de canette au miel seems pretty appealing ! :)

    • David

    Lesley: Maybe the name gets easier to pronounce the more Sancerre you drink!

    Krysalia: A friend told me that it’s maybe a jeu de mots, a play on words of ‘between games’ or entre jeux. Hmmm…

    I always think it’s funny when French people can’t pronounce certain words, and then I think of English words like ‘worcestershire’—that I can’t pronounce either!

    (And remember how Mr. Bush used to say ‘nucooler’ for ‘nuclear’? That drove me nuts!)

    • Babeth

    So funny, when I saw your new title post in my RSS feeds I thought: What is that name?? Is David having a French prononciation issue ? And you now I read your post I understand :-))
    Thanks for the address

    • Joan

    Very timely: Thanks! I’m coming to la Ville Lumiére tomorrow and have noted the address in my little Black Book of Parisian Secrets!
    Joan

    • nyc/caribbean ragazza

    This goes on the list for my next trip. That photo is mouth watering.

    • Melissa

    I had possibly the best soup I’ve ever eaten at L’Entredgeu a couple of years ago – I think it was a cream of salt cod with crispy chorizo or something like that. Whatever it was, it still haunts my dreams.

    And I read that the name comes from the surname of the owners, Phillipe and Catherine Tredgeu, making it a play on the words entre-Tredgeu.

    • simon

    Krysalia, that’s SO FUNNY, there is a little restaurant in a tiny village called Lumieres in the Vaucluse called La Bouche Des Gouts also. I thought it was so hilarious as I drove by that I stopped and took a picture. Clearly there is a subversive trend in France to name restaurants with snarky doubles-entendre.

    • mb

    Mmm! Wish I lived in Paris! :( Nice pics!

    • krysalia

    david> “entre jeux” would have been close, but what about that D then ? Anyway, they made their point : the name of the restaurant makes us speak of it :D

    hmm… worcestershire is outside the competition, i think nobody (excluding the people in this shire of course) can pronounce it easily ! I often wonder if this is part of the succes of this product, at this time in the eighties where food fashion was all about adding one small amount of an unknown and highly mysterious ingrédient.
    (I remember Bush’s bad habit to say nucooler, but i must confess that this is the whole person of Bush that drives me nuts :D)

    simon> haha, so it was just coming from the name of the owners, so simple !

    i guess i had too much imagination on this one :D

    • Céline75

    I guess “l’entredgeu” is a pun for the French expression “d’entrée de jeu”, which means “from the very beginning”, “immediately”. The pronunciation should be the same, even if it is not spelled identically.

    • Steve

    (Sancerre, not Sauternes, right? Sauternes and oysters just doesn’t sound right.)

    • From Paris With Love

    This restaurant has been on my list for some time now. I seem to be incredibly lazy in the cold months and the 17th just always seems so darn far. Another little gem in that neighborhood is Caius, by Jean Marc Notelet, formerly of Le Troyon. It’s french fancy a little spiced up. I may be partial as I took photos for the chef recently but Caius was also voted “trop bon” by the Fooding Guide two years in a row.

    • pouria

    I went there last month and had a very good experience. I had chestnut soup with fois gras and stuff guinea fowl. The guinea fowl was excellent and the soup was decent. The Sancerre we ordered was great.

    • adrian

    Caius is one of my favorite places. Jean-Marc is a great guy.

    • Man Yi

    After reading your recommendation, we have since visited L’Entredgeu twice . It is one of our most favorite restaurants in Paris. My fav. is a dish of chicken wrapped with fois gras, it was served on a bed of mashed green peas. Now I can only dream about it in Chicago. The waiters speak little English but the wonderful food totally made up for it…besides, you really can’t order anything bad from this place.

    • S Lloyd

    I’ve never been to L’Entredjeu (btw: how are your French friends spelling it: ‘entre djeu ‘I’d guess. I know, not easy to spell since ‘djeu’ is not a french intonation ),but despite all the great tables of Paris, this is one table I’ll visit first on my next visit of Paris for one reason: the meals they offer sound like ones that have character,something distinct.

A

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