There’s something a bit Disney-like about this no-reservations restaurant in the 17th. Eager tourists join the line a good half-hour before it opens at 6:45pm, and the waitresses costumed in black dresses and white aprons bark their only line: “How would you like it cooked?” After all, steak is the only thing on the menu. Most order their super tender sirloin à point or medium-rare. It comes bathed in a “secret” sauce most agree is made with mustard, tarragon, anchovy, and more butter than any reasonable cardiologist would recommend, and yet that doesn’t keep us from wiping up any remaining streaks with the ho-hum baguette or flabby, disappointing fries before the waitresses come around to offer second helpings. For an appetizer, you’ll get a small but tasty salad slick with mustard vinaigrette and topped with toasted walnuts, and you’ll definitely want to save room for the majestic desserts like a decadent slab of chocolate cake richer than brownie batter. The menu doesn’t change whether you visit the O.G. or its sister restaurants in London, New York, and across town at the Relais de l’Entrecôte in the 8th and the 6th. But there’s charm to the original dining room steeped in the Venetian décor the founder was ostensibly too cheap to change when he took over in the ‘50s.
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