A charming restaurant
Oct 13th, 2000, 12:38 AM
#1
Guest
Posts: n/a
A charming restaurant
I am posting this as a recommendation particularly to those who are inexperienced in France and would like to experience some very good classic French cuisine and might otherwise have some concerns about choice of a restaurant (too touristy or whatever). While living in France we often found ourselves in Paris. Today we are back on business from time to time. We always pass through Paris and if together we always find a Michelin one star or two star to dine at. Our latest find was a gem we want to share. The name is Le Recamier and it is at 4 rue Le Recamier which is a short alley off R. des Sevres and very close to the Sevres-Babylone metro stop in the 7th arrondissement. The staff is very courteous without being stiff. Although we spoke French, we heard the staff speaking English to another party. The decor is entirely from the Art Nouveau period---authentic, I think---and their specialities are saute de boeuf bourguignon (ABSOLUTELY SUPERB) and mousse de brochette sauce Nantua, which looked great but we did not try. Expect outstanding service and seating. With a good bottle of wine (of course) dinner for two should run about $150.00 and it will be a memorable experience. <BR>A remark in closing: everyone has their favorite guide for choosing restaurants. We use Michelin which is the world's foremost. Their Red Guide is, from our point of view, indispensible. They use a 3 star system, believing that the more usual 5 star systems of other guides don't add anything; i.e., they seek to rate the best, not to rate every restaurant. If it isn't noteworthy don't even list it. We give the Red Guide 3 stars!
Oct 13th, 2000, 08:59 AM
#7
Guest
Posts: n/a
Anne, <BR> <BR>I was very interested to read your opinion of this restuarant. I bought a beautiful cookbook last year, right before my trip to Paris. A recipe from Le Recamier was featured, along with some very tempting photos of the restaurant. I hunted for information on the web about Le Recamier, and the only outside opinion I found was on the "Bonjour Paris" website, Someone who must have bought the same cookbook I did asked a question on bparis.com's BB seeking opinions of Le Recamier. The woman who runs the site (I think) made a brusqe, dismissive comment about the place--negative enough for me to delete Le Recamier from my already-extensive restaurant list. Having read your post, I am sorry I didn't check it out for myself. But you know how it can be: you have a great big huge list of places you're dying to try and a limited number of meals to eat in Paris, so you weed out those with a strike or two against them. As luck would have it, I'm going back to Paris in a month or so--I hope I'll be able to have dinner at Le Recamier; my husband loves boeuf bourguignon....Thanks so much for posting your review.
Oct 14th, 2000, 11:28 AM
#11
Guest
Posts: n/a
I have eaten at the Recamier. Came by it in the Michelin Red Guide. I was impressed by the wine recommendation with the boeuf bourguignon which I tried only because it was listed in the Red Guide as their specialty. A super match of wine to meal. I'm no gourmand, but I will never forget that meal. Thanks for the memory.
Oct 16th, 2000, 10:52 AM
#12
Guest
Posts: n/a
We had dinner at the Recamier 3 years ago. My SO had the ris de veau (sweetbreads) which was excellent. We, too, enjoyed the Art Nouveau decor and ditto on the excellent service. One caution: even though it's in an alley, you can get turned around easily when you come up out of the Metro and it seems like that Metro station (Sevres) has exits on both sides of the street, so check out the street signs. But it is very close by.
