Tortoni's in the market-place has a reputation for good cooking, but
judging from the two or three dinners I have eaten there, both _a la
carte_ and the _table-d'hote_ one at 5 francs, the cookery is of the
good solid bourgeois order, eight courses and a pint of wine for one's
money. In days long gone by there used to be this footnote to the _carte
du jour_ at Tortoni's, "Les hors-d'oeuvres ne se remplacent pas,"
which was translated for the benefit of the English, "The out-of-works
do not replace themselves." Tortoni's Hotel Restaurant must not be
confounded with the Brasserie Tortoni quite close to it, which is a
bachelor's resort; but which I, as a bachelor, have found very amusing
sometimes after dinner.
Frascati's Restaurant, an adjunct to the big hotel on the sea-shore, is
the "swagger" restaurant of the place, and many a man who has come over
by the midnight boat and has stayed for a bathe and a meal at Frascati's
before going on to Paris by the mid-day train has breakfasted there in
content. The _Ecrevisses Bordelaises_, the _Croutes aux Champignons_,
the _Salade Russe_ here have left me pleasant memories. In the winter
the _chef_ retires to Paris or elsewhere, and the restaurant is not to
be so thoroughly trusted; and sometimes when a crowd of passengers are
going across to Southampton by the night boat to catch an American
steamer, I have found the attendance very sketchy, owing to the waiters
having more work than they can do satisfactorily.
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