Yeah, I know it sounds weird. But bear with me…

A while back, I was talking with my friend Garen about our plans to spend three months in Italy and take a side trip to Paris for a week while we were in Europe. Of course, that was the trip that we ended up cancelling in spring 2022 due to a total, post-COVID melt down of the travel industry.

She told me about this great restaurant that she and her boys loved to go to in Paris. The restaurant had no real menu, because all they served was a salad, steak frites and dessert. The boys called it the “Green Steak” restaurant because the steak was served with a green sauce, a secret family recipe. It sounded delicious.

There is a catch; the restaurant doesn’t take reservations and is very popular with Parisians. As a result, you sometime can stand in line 90 minutes to get a table. But as is not typical in most restaurants in Paris, meal service is fast, and tables turn in about an hour.

Clearly, we had to make a visit to Le Relais de l’Entrecôte a priority for this year’s trip.

The restaurant has a location on Boulevard du Montparnesse, a short Uber ride from our apartment. We watched the weather, and made a strategic decision to have lunch there on one of the few warm days so far. We arrived at 11:45 a.m., 15 minutes before the restaurant opened, prepared to stand in line…only to find we were alone.

But not for long. Within 5 minutes there were 20 other people in line, some families, some young adults (perhaps university students), and lots of professionals on their lunch break. By the time the doors opened, there were close to 100 people waiting.

The restaurant is definitely cramped, and the staff run between tables at lightening speed. Since there isn’t a “menu” per se, the only questions center around beverage choice and degree of doneness for the steak.

I was amused by this part of the order process — the server wrote our cooking and beverage orders on the tablecloth. I guess it was in case someone else delivered our food and beverages.

AP/AP designates our choice of medium for our steaks, the second column is our beverage choices: A glass of Côtes du Rhône for mom and a carafe of water for me.

Our salads were served very quickly, and with the MOST amazing salad dressing. I tasted Dijon mustard, ginger, chervil and white wine vinegar…hope to replicate it at home.

Then it was time for the star of the show, the steak frites. And the “green sauce.”

I sent a text to Garen that said, “OM freaking G, that sauce is amazing!”

The steak was tender, the fries crisp and hot, and the sauce…incredible. I tried to wheedle the ingredients out of our lovely server, Julia, but no dice. I did detect parsley, a hint of anchovies and butter.

But my favorite part of this experience is that they serve the steak frites in two small portions, so you get a “refill” and your frites are hot and crispy. I am sad to say that I could not finish the last bite.

I am hoping we make it back to “green steak” before we leave next weekend. But if we don’t, I will have fond memories of a fabulous meal with the working folks.