Comment Solicited On Paris Restaurant Proposal
 

To all with experience on Left Bank restaurants:

My wife and I will be staying for five days at the Hotel Pont Royal this Fall. How does this lineup of restaurants for dinner strike you:

Fish La Boissonnerie
Ze Kitchen Galerie
Allard
L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon
Jacques Cagna

Thoughts for Lunch:

Sunday brunch -- Alcazar
Any weekday -- Jules Verne

Hi grady,

Sounds like a nice list.

Great list!
Allard is one of our favorites!

Ira: Judging your past participation on this site, I value your reply. Thanks.

Thank you, Grady.

Would you care to share why you chose this list and not others?

Ira, it would interest me to know how many of the seven restaurants on Gradyghost's list you actually know from personal experience...

Sure: I have been in touch with The Concierge at Hotel Pont Royal, Mr. Pierre Tieng,(www.paris-assistance.com), and some of these choices were amongst his suggestions. I also relied on Patricia Wells' book as well as the Red Guide. If there is critical comment on these selections, I would be interested.

Highly recommend Le Jules Vernes if you can get a reservation.

Also: Le Grand Vefour

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon is off my list due to all the negative reviews I've seen (tiny, tiny portions, dismal service, no atmosphere).

There are many terrific dinner destinations that are moderately priced: L'Atelier Maitre Albert, Chez Julien.

Within blocks of your hotel are La Ferme Saint-Simon (we love that place for lunch, especially romantic for dinner), Telegraphe, Bistrot de Paris.

Highly recommend walking all about the neighborhood, perusing menus, peeking inside and reserving any place you find appealing.

Usually, after being out and about all day it's much better to have a dinner reservation within a short walk of your hotel.

Hi Eloise,

I admit to not having been to Ze Kitchen Galerie, as I am not a fan of cutting edge cuisine in a Bauhause atmosphere.

We just discovered Allard on our last trip to Paris in March, and I highly recommend it for a taste (literally and symbolically!) of a Parisian bistro of yesteryear! I would love to know the recipe for the dressing on the beet and mache salad!

I hope you'll tell us about the Hotel Pont Royal when you return; if I'm not mistaken, it was mentioned in a recent Conde Nast as good value for the $$.

A second to the suggestion of Grand Vefour, for a splurge. Also, have you considered Le Train Bleu, at the Gare de Lyon? Good food in a gorgeous fin de siecle setting.

grandmere, ask Gourmet magazine for the recipe, they do a Provence issue. Thumps up for Grand Vefour and Train Bleu.

Grady, it's a good list because it offers a number of different dining experiences. Fish is very informal, crowded, noisy, relatively inexpensive, and has a good wine list, as one of the owners runs La Derniere Goutte, the wine shop across the way.

Ze Kitchen Galerie is modern, exciting Asian-influenced cooking in a space that has the chef's own collection of contemporary paintings on the walls.

Allard is a classic old bistro style place with large portions of traditional dishes. L'Atelier has had a mix of excellent and unenthusiastic reviews, but it's certainly different from any other place in town, and has the added advantage of being downstairs in your own hotel.

Jacques Cagna is the only one I'd argue with. It's got one star from Michelin (used to have more, which indicates some slippage, I think) but I think you can do better for the upscale, Michelin-star category. Your concierge might have suggested it because it's quite close to your hotel. If that's the case, equally close is Relais Louis XIII, a Michelin 2-star which is often overlooked.

But if you intend to go to Jules Verne for lunch (haven't been, so no comment), I'd try something more adventurous for the night you're scheduled for Jacques Cagna. For example, Chamarré, also one star, has a chef from Mauritius with a reputation for excellent food using unusual ingredients and seasonings, and it's not far from your area, in the 7th.

I can't really comment on Alcazar, as I've only had drinks in the bar, but it didn't seem to be somewhere I'd choose to eat, given the enormous range of choice in Paris.

Whatever you choose, I don't think you'll go wrong. Do post about your reaction to the Hotel Pont Royal, I'm curious to hear about it.

Thanks for the suggestion, Mimi; I was thinking of writing to both Gourmet and Bon Appetit. They've probably been approached for the recipe before and turned it down, but who knows--only one way to find out!

It was you who encouraged us to try Train Bleu, which, IMO, has "good" food; it is not a place to go "just" for the ambience and decor.

grandmere,
I have here on my desk, my menu from Allard :) We were given it by our waiter because it was our anniversary and the date is on the menu.
You should ask for the
Salade de mache betterave recipe.
I remember it too :) I always wish I could make salad dressings the way the French do.
Good luck with Bon Appetit, I love that section of the magazine~
and grady,
If you don't smoke, you might enjoy L'Atelier because it is a non-smoking restaurant~

If this is what you want to accomplish, then it should be just fine.

To all responders, you have outdone yourselves and I am grateful. I shall report upon my return, especially on Hotel Pont Royal. Gradyghost.

Grandmere, I had a memorable beet and mache salad at La Florimond that I have tried to duplicate. It had a walnut oil vinaigrette. Maybe that would get you started. The beets were roasted. Absolutely gorgeous to look at and taste.

Thanks all who are responding to my quest for Allard's beet salad dressing. It was not a clear dressing, but white in color (as though it were made of sour cream), and the waiter did say it contained eggs, which I would think would make it yellow-ish. don't know of any dressings that just contain whites of egg. Will remain a mystery unless they share the recipe!

I concur with shellio's description of Fish La Boissonnerie and Ze Kitchen Galerie ("Fish is very informal, crowded, noisy, relatively inexpensive, and has a good wine list", "Ze Kitchen Galerie is modern, exciting Asian-influenced cooking in a space that has the chef's own collection of contemporary paintings on the walls.
"). My wife and I had a wonderful dinner at Ze Kitchen this past June, and we took our two teenage children with us to Fish the following night. Food preparation and presentation at Ze Kitchen was much more precise and interesting, while Fish is much less formal, more crowded and quite lively. Two completely different atmospheres.

My family very much enjoyed Ze Kitchen. We were in Paris in May for 4 nights and ended up at Ze Kitchen for 2 of those!! Enjoy them all!