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There's a lot going on at the Jardin des Plantes at the moment ; a new mini-exhibition explaining the history of the place, new giant squid in the Museum (true!), renovation of the hothouses (soon to be finished) and... La Baleine, The Whale, a new restaurant on the edge of the gardens, with a terrace on both sides and a posh-looking interior. Open since the end of February 2008, we decided to check it out.

We were initially drawn to the two terraces, one on each side of the building. We're sure these will be absolutely packed in summer, however the day we were there the first few rays of spring sunshine were accompanied by lots of cold gales, so we quickly decided to sit inside...



The inside of the restaurant is partly in muted blue tones (to echo the sea?) with drawings of whales on several wllas, explicative texts (just like in the Museum next door) and even a wooden structure on the ceiling of one of the rooms to evoke the skeleton of a whale. We thought it looked pretty nice. Check out the little film below to have a look round...



Sat down in our designer interior, we received our menus, chose our meal and waited. And waited. And waited. It seemed like the staff were half panicked or half blind. Some waitresses would go past us with taking just one plate to the kitchens, whereas they could easily have carried something else too. Crockery and glasses started to pile up on the bar. Not pretty...

Also, as one of the rooms is up two steps, there was endless tripping and crashing of plates or dropping of cutlery. As we were sat next to the stairs, this made for a noisy and frustrating accompaniment to our v-e-r-y long wait.

Eventually, someone came and took our order. And then we waited some more. Finally, one hour after having sat down at our table, the food arrived. The steak was juicy but tasteless, and the Portobello mushroom very greasy. In fact, it was also only just warm, making us suspect that it had been sitting in the kitchen waiting to be served for a while. We sent it back to me heated up. The biggest success of the main courses was the tuna steak with mango salad. The latter was fragrant with a wonderful vinaigrette, and the tuna correctly cooked.



Despite the only relative success of our main courses, we nevertheless decided to try out some dessert. These came a lot more quickly (thankfully) than the main courses, however taste-wise they were fairly disastrous. The almond tart had a texture that made us think that it had probably been made elsewhere, the large macaroon didn't have any taste at all, and the tiramisu - everybody's favourite surely? - turned out to be a big pot of whipped cream and not much else. Terrible...



So, the verdict? La Baleine certainly has teething problems. The food looks great but tastes average or not really good at all. The prices are between standard and slightly dear. The waiting time is completely unacceptable (we visited them three weeks after opening. Usually that would be enough to iron out the problems). If you are with children visiting the gardens, zoo or museum, this is obviously a handy spot to stop off for refreshment. Hopefully, the taste of the food will have improved by then and the service also. We were disappointed, but hopeful that this smart-looking spot will get its act together for the summer months (especially as we'd like to go back!). For the moment, perhaps you should just stick to coffee and fruit juice for the kids!

Check out all the pictures in our lovely Flickr gallery!


La Baleine, 47 rue Cuvier, Paris 5th arrondissement. Métro Jussieu (lines 7 & 10). Tel. +33 (0)1 40 79 80 72. Open every day from 11am to 11pm


Bigger map here