nukesafe

Moroccan food has always left me lukewarm, but one of our party will want to revisit Moroccan food on our trip to Paris in May.

Any suggestions for restaurants?

Any suggestions for dishes that will make me change my mind?

spaarne

Chez Bebert at Montparnasse is pretty good. Cous cous is my North African meal of choice. At Chez Bebert you get a table full of food. It is a busy place.

AnselmAdorne

Hi nukesafe. By coincidence, I dined at a Moroccan restaurant last evening. It was Le Souk, at 1 rue Keller in the 11th, 01 49 29 05 08. This was my third time there since 2008; it is a warm, casual, welcoming place with good service. Entrées are in the range of €7.50 to €10, tajines from €16 to €18, and the couscous dishes are around €20.

A point to mention, however: while we all enjoyed the food, none of the four of us were able to finish our main dishes. I do not recollect that problem from our previous visits, but it is a disappointment. I like the variety of trying both an entrée and a main dish, but in this case there was simply too much food. I would happily see the quality/quantity balance tipped the other way.

I hope other posters have additional suggestions. I like Moroccan and would be interested in trying other places on a future visit.

Ernie

avalon

Not a specific restaurant , I find this site to be very useful for Paris dining. Similar to Top Table yo will find lots of special offers. They do list by nationality

50% off is good for me!

http://www.thefork.com/1_restaurant/Paris_restaurant/1/

kerouac

Is Moroccan food specifically desired? Most of the Maghrebi food in Paris is Algerian and a lot is also Tunisian.

Chez Bébert has 3 locations, however. Besides Montparnasse, they also have a restaurant at Place de Clichy and also at Porte Maillot.

StCirq

I thought Chez Bébert at Montparnasse was a terrible disappointment. Not only was it a madhouse, with waiters slapping the food down on tables and a noise level beyond belief, the food was incredibly mediocre by real Moroccan standards.

I like 404 in the 3ème and Oum El Banine in the 16ème.

Weadles

We really love L'ATLAS, 12 Blvd. St. Germaine. Wonderful Morrocan food, reasonably priced, and beautifully decorated restaurant! Have fun.

kerouac

Many years ago, I ate a Chez Bébert in some of their locations that no longer exist, like rue Marbeuf just off the Champs Elysées or on the Grands Boulevards. They have downsized in Paris over the years from about 10 locations to the current 3. I have never been to the one in Montparnasse, quite frankly because it does look like a madhouse.

I prefer the small neighborhood couscous places that one can encounter by accident.

nukesafe

Thank you all for your helpful replies.

To answer Kerouac's question, I'm sure my friend merely used "Morocacan" as a generic for "North African" food in general. She just remembers having a wonderful meal in such a place in Paris years ago. Now, with your help, she can do it again and make converts of the rest of us.

If we fail to find one of the neighborhood places, it looks like either Le Souk, 404, Oum El Banine, or L'Atlas will be our top choices.

Being a complete novice in this cuisine; any further suggestions on particular dishes, 'cause I'm going to be ordering blind?

nukesafe

Kerouac,

In which area of the city should we look for concentrations of the small neighborhood places you recommend? I have looked up the web sites for some of the restaurants listed earlier, and they are a far cry from "neighborhood" joints. Pretty fancy, and appear geared to the tourist crowd.

Any specific suggestions?

Guenmai

A few minutes ago, I was going through my bookmarks and noticed that I had bookmarked, "Le Comptoir at 37,rue Berger, near Les Halles. I saw it on www.geobeats.com. It's a North African restaurant, not particularly Moroccan. I haven't tried it though. Happy Travels!

Guenmai

I just looked at the website and it does do Moroccan dishes. Geobeats was referring to it as North African. Happy Travels!

kerouac

If you're willing to spend 30€ for couscous (I'm not), <b>Wally le Saharien</b> is supposed to be an excellent address at 36 rue Rodier in the 9th.

For 20€ you can have an excellent couscous at <b>Chez Mamane</b> at 23 rue des Cinq Diamants in the Butte aux Cailles area in the 13th. It is an Algerian restaurant.

Meanwhile, <b>La Bièvre</b> at 30 rue de Bièvre was a favorite of President Mitterrand who lived across the street from it. I'm not sure if they still have it, but one of their star dishes was "le couscous du Président."

One thing to remember in all of these restaurants is that the best wine to drink with this cuisine is a chilled Moroccan <i>Boulaouane gris </i> -- or, if you like really hearty reds, the famous Algerian <i>Sidi Brahim</i>.

nukesafe

I'm with you, Kerouac, on the €30 couscous being a no no. The reviews on the Algerian place sounds great. The one review I found for it sings its praises.

Our choice will depend on how flush my friend feels and how much she wants to spend on dinner. My vote would be on the €10 - €12 couscous at Chez Mamane, but then I'm a cheap old bastard.

spaarne

For the record my cous cous at Chez Bebert cost &euro;33.50 including a 25 cl flask of Burgundy wine. When I travel I do not worry myself over &euro;5 or &euro;15 extra for dinner, especially in France. After a couple days of enjoying whatever I want in Paris I go to the Place Maubert markets and fill a sack with bread, cheese, pate, salad, and wine and picnic in my room while watching TV. I wish they had Dutch haring there.

nukesafe

In general I agree with you Spaarne. I'm on vacation in Paris, and it is a given I will spend more than I perhaps should. If something I want to do costs more; so be it. However, I don't believe in being stupid about how I part with my bucks.

An example: Our friend really has her heart set on taking a Seine cruise, and thinks she would like it to be a dinner cruise. I have taken the dinner cruises, and I have taken the dinner-less cruises so I looked up the relative costs and presented them to her. For the Bateaux Mouches dinner cruise it costs between €95 and €135 depending on the menu you choose. For the Videttes Pont Neuf cruise, without dinner, it costs €12 (€10 with a coupon) for essentially the same sightseeing experience.

I think she will choose the evening Videttes to watch the tower sparkle, and we will have dinner afterwards. We can have one really swell feed for the €85 difference between €10 and €95, IMHO.