The vegetarian risotto comes dotted with baby asparagus tops, oven-dried tomatoes, corn shoots, and tatsoi. And the venison steak is the best deer in town. Half the wine selections are exclusive imports from France, and any of L'Express's wine-whiz waiters will gladly tell you what to drink with, say, calf's liver in tarragon sauce, steak frites, or the splendid quartet of roasted marrow bones that stand like nuclear reactor towers in the hazy smoke of the restaurant. If there's such a thing as haute Portuguese, this is it. Whole fish are incredibly fresh and elegantly grilled.
Aficionados ask for a side of speck-beef fat dusted with hot paprika.
After ping-ponging around town, chef Nicolas Jongleux finally seems to have found a home.