text: Saturday night dinner timennI had read several reviews of Gordon Ramsays new restaurant at Paris before dining there One thing people talked about was the unique entranceway into the restaurant designed to emulate the Chunnel from France into England It was interesting but best to appreciate it before you walk in since before the hostess can even finish telling you what the entrance represents you are already through it and into the bar area The bar is separated from the two storied restaurant by a glass wall The ground floor eating area is adjacent to an open kitchen which allows the smell of the cooking steaks to permeate the restaurant There is a long flight of stairs against one wall leading to a second eating area on the balcony overlooking the restaurant After you sit down and take in the surroundings you being to realize just how loud and blaring the background music is You can hardly hear the waiter not to mention the people sitting across the table from you I guess the overly loud music is supposed to give an energy to the place but it is too overdone and passes well into the annoying rangennWe started with a half dozen west coast oysters and a heirloom tomato salad The oysters were very fresh and come with a trio of sauces vinaigrette soy sauce and a traditional red cocktail sauce The tomato salad was a medley of sweet tomatoes prosciutto and watercress Both simply presented dishes were very well done nnFor the second course we had the asparagus soup and lobster bisque The asparagus soup was served over a central mound of Dungeness crab celery and smoked salmon caviar The soup had a rich asparagus flavor and the subtle crab meat blended well with it However when you were unfortunate enough to bite into one of the cheap orange caviar pearls the taste was ruined but this intense fishy flavor filling your mouth I do like unique combinations of flavor but these tastes did not mesh well at all The lobster bisque was served with a whole portion of shelled lobster tail meat sitting in a very flavorful brown lobster broth The meat was buttery and perfectly cooked Clearly this was a well thought out dish and earned the high recommendation the waiter gave it when suggesting entreesnnFor dinner we had the roasted Beef Wellington one of Gordons signature dishes at and the fish and chips The Wellington was served already sliced down the middle on a layer of very creamy mashed potatoes There were puddles of a dark brown very salty demiglace splashed around the dish and a small pile of glazed root vegetables Overall the dish was good however not one to order if you like your meat well done As it is I like my meat medium rare so the very pink interior did not bother me The fish and chips however were a greasy mess The fish filets are served breaded and fried with their tails on The two filets are plated on top of several large dollops of tarter sauce The dish comes with a small side of truffle oil fries The first thing you notice however is the somewhat unappetizing fishy smell I am sure the fish was fresh it better be for so perhaps they are reusing the oil to fry batch after batch I suppose it is somewhat ironic to complain that a fish dish smelled fishy but it was unappetizing to have your food smell like an old fishermans net When you cut into the fish the next thing you notice is the oil pouring out around your knife and fork Combined with the creamy tarter sauce this is a heavy heavy greasy dish It tastes allright but it will sit on your belly for the rest of the night If you have plans later it is probably best to avoid this particular entreennFor desert we had the sticky toffee pudding a small French pressed coffee and a double espresso The pudding is served along side of a small cup filled with extra molten toffee to pour over the pudding and a rectangular block of butter flavored ice cream made to look like a stick of butter Unfortunately there was so much butter in the ice cream it also tasted like a cold stick of butter The pudding was very sweet almost too sweet such that after a few bites you feel like you need an injection of insulin The whole dish is gaudy inyourface butter and sugar We stopped eating it after a few bitesnnThe waiter did a good job and came by often during the meal However you can only hear half of what they are saying to you due to the excessively loud music It was amusing to look around and see different waiters around the restaurant leaning in to repeat things to other diners Does not the manager also notice things like this Overall the food was ok but was certainly not worth the excessive price tag You are basically paying extra for the name and hoping the food lives up to the reputation Unfortunately the entire experience falls short