Bookmarking for my October Paris trip. Enjoying this!

my stomach is growling for more....

Mariarosa, nothing to envy, I'm afraid. While you were busy having a second child, I got a new job a few months after that Dordogne trip and consequently haven't really been able to travel much. I've just now picked it up again.

And guess what??? I have reservations at both Au Bon Accueil and Chez l'Ami Jean. Eerie, huh? I'm glad you liked ABA and hope you enjoy CAJ.

Did you and your husband do any sightseeing that particularly knocked you out?

Ha, ha, I should probably dispel the myth: unfortunately, we did not eat at L’Ami Jean (which based on what we saw on the menu and the diners on our first night, it's probably worth visiting), but more on that on Day 4 (otherwise known as the day I decided to write this food report because you can get delish food for not much money or average food for a lot of money in Paris)!

Day 3
Today, we had an EARLY dinner at L’epi Dupin (www.epidupin.com - 11, Rue Dupin in the 6th). Inquiries (made by email) indicated space was available for 7 pm, but only in their outdoor terrace. Now, at home, I usually eat dinner with the kids, starting at 5:30 – 6:00 pm. But in Paris, it was hard to pull ourselves away from museums, shopping and people-watching to go to dinner. L’epi Dupin does 2 seatings, so if you like to take your time sightseeing in the day and eating at night, make reservations for 9 pm (which is what I wish I would have done), but by all means, eat here as the food was excellent. We arrived at 7 pm, and the restaurant was already open, with a group already seated and looking at the menu, which is written on the chalkboard daily. We were seated outside in their tiny outdoor “terrace.” Unfortunately, the view is not the best, as there is a fairly modern, 8-story building in front, but the terrace allowed us a great view of the feats of parallel parking in the small street. The interior was equally cramped, but warmly decorated and everyone seemed to be enjoying the convivial atmosphere.

On to the menu…It’s a carte-menu for 34 E, which changes daily. There are about 5 choices for each of the 3 courses, with some choices have supplements of 3-10 euros. It was hard to decide what to get, as every choice sounded delish. Sigh, with only one stomach each, we settled on a rabbit in pastry (very savory) and an asparagus/beet salad (with an interesting bright yellow mousse-like mayo) for first course, cod and a turbot-like fish for main dishes (both nicely crusted on the outside and melt-in-your-mouth-not-overcooked on the inside). The fish main dishes were spectacular. They both had very delicate foam sauces (for those of you who watch Top Chef, these were similar to those foams that Marcel used to be obsessed with), with the turbot-like-fish having a vanilla-infused foam in a spinach bed, and the cod having a savory foam in a ham-cabbage bed. For dessert, I had the chocolate mousse, which was interestingly plated and I can’t remember what my husband had, but it must have been good too, because we walked out completely wowed and ready to do some window-shopping at the nearby Au Bon Marche (which had some funky window displays with little plastic dolls).

Service was efficient, but even given the 2-hour space in which we dined, it did not feel rushed. The owner/chef came out to greet us at the beginning and see if we had any questions about the menu, and came out towards the end, to see how the meal was. This type of personal touch – and direct feedback from customers – is probably part of the secret of success of this place. Small details, like nice glassware, were also present. Enthusiastically recommended. It was our second favorite restaurant of the trip given the level of creativity and execution of the dishes.

We return “home” to our hotel, Le Bellechasse, to find out that our dinner plans for the following night have changed... Stay tuned.

Hi Leely,

Regarding sightseeing, since it had been such a long time since my previous trip to Paris, I re-visited many of the museums and attractions that first-time visitors go to: Louvre, Orsay, Cluny (which has always been my favorite museum in Paris), Ste Chapelle, Conciergerie, Notre Dame, Pompidou, Place des Vosges, Montmartre on a Sunday, etc. My husband had never seen the Ste Chapelle, and I purposely tried not to make too much of a fuss about going to see it, especially since you cannot tell from the outside what an amazing jewel is hiding in the inside, for maximum, jaw-dropping effect.

My fav of the touristy sightseeing was climbing Notre Dame's tower. This was under reconstruction when I was a student, so it was a real treat. However, I did not listen to the guidebooks when it said, "get there when it opens or after 5 pm." I went at 2 pm, which was a bad, bad idea. The Museum Pass does not allow you to skip the line, which is long. And once you climb up, you are "stuck" up there for a while as the narrow lane gets filled and the stairs used to descent are the same stairs used for climbing the last little portion. Everyone wants to climb the last little portion, so you're just up there standing for over half and hour, after having stood in line for almost an hour. Granted, there are much worse places to be stuck, but the whole experience took almost 2 hours, which can be tiring and may not be the amount of time that I had originally planned on devoting to it. I can only imagine what it will be like in the summer!

In terms of non-touristy things to do, my husband would say his favorite event was running through the Promenade Plantee (off Bastille), between all the real Parisians (I enjoyed it too, just not as much as he - the real runner - did). My favorite non-touristy event was taking a local bus around the left bank (but away from the Seine) through more of the local places. And of course, I happily cafed my way through the entire week, in various locations - some touristy, some less so - but all fun for people-watching.

We get “home” to our hotel and we have a message waiting for us from la Fourchette (www.thefork.com) that our dinner tomorrow night at La Regalade is cancelled, as they are full. Bummer! I was really excited about this! La Regalade has been mentioned as having GREAT food and a convivial bistro atmosphere at wonderful prices. I did think it was odd that I was able to get a reservation there within 72 hours. So, make reservations before you leave home, especially if you use an online booking system. Even if you think it’ll thwart your style (it won’t). Even if you are not sure what kind of food you want to eat on a particular evening (I’m sure it’s the “good food” type of food). Even if you think you may miss out on a restaurant discovery (you can always cancel one of your reservations – just make sure to give the restaurant some advance notice). Even if you think you don’t know which time you want to eat on a particular day… make reservations sufficiently in advance.

Le husband and I discuss our options for the next day. We have a few on my overly-researched list (the “overly” is his opinion, not mine), including L’ami Jean, Florimond, Les Papilles, and La Ferrandaise. We pull out the computer to check out these options, and they all fly out the window (or should I say, get sucked into the monitor) when husband checks email and realizes boss is inviting all of us out to dinner the next evening. We were in Paris due to husband’s conference (which he faithfully attended, while I got to play in the biggest amusement park for adults), and so was his boss. Sigh, it’s a free meal, but would it be as good as the places on my list?

Dinner Day 4
Boss’ concierge made reservations at Pershing Hall Restaurant (www.pershinghall.com), located inside its namesake hotel. And the restaurant was as chi-chi as the hotel. Clearly, this had expense account written all over it: dark, swanky, loungy interiors, loud music, seating for half the table was on a sofa in their interior patio, expensive menu (in English), and lots of beautiful people that look like they hang out with the Russian mafia. Clearly, a bunch of nerdy researchers like us were not their typical clientele.

We had checked the Trip Advisor reviews just prior to going (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...de_France.html) and it was rated as #213 of 5,845 restaurants in Paris. Clearly a popular place. But would the food be good? Will there be any substance beyond mere trendiness?

Service was OK, our guy certainly must do the runway thing during the day and tended to disappear for good portions of the meal (probably to touch up his perfect hair in the bathroom). It was hard to hear, with the loud music and all. It was hard to see, with the dim lights. It was hard to sit up, on the swanky, loungy sofa.

For appetizer, husband and I shared one of their large appetizers – a French sushi combo (yes, it did have foie gras rolls). It was 36 euros. And it was OK. For main dish, I had the black cod. It was 48 euros. And it was good, just a tad too sweet. Not complex at all. Nowhere near as good as my previous cods in Paris. Husband had beef (40 euros). It was good, not great. One of the folks in our table sent his beef back for being overcooked (how could he tell in that dim lighting was beyond me, I could barely see my food!). For dessert, we shared the … (take a guess!) … moelleux au chocolat (described simply as “chocolate cake” in the menu, but I don’t mess when it comes to dessert and had asked the waiter to tell me what its called in French hoping to hear the word moelleux in there). It was good, but at 15 euros, it better be. The best value of the meal was the bottle of Chateneuf du Pape for 55 euros. It was a very, very nice wine.

All in all, an OK, completely overpriced meal. By now, you've probably figured out this was our least fav meal of the trip. What went wrong here? Concierge recommended a hot, popular restaurant. So, if you use a concierge to make your dinner reservations, make sure to specify the kind of place that really tickles you (hey, maybe Pershing Hall is your type of place). Otherwise, you may find yourself almost on the Champs Elysees (which to me summarizes the epitome of touristy consumerism gone haywire), eating just-OK food at excessive prices.

Tomorrow… wine tasting and more learnings!

Okay, will skip Pershing Hall.

And will try the Notre Dame towers. I've never been up there because the line has always discouraged me.

Do you recall how long the run on the Promenade Plantee was? I am debating whether or not to bring running shoes. I think I might have brought them to the Dordogne and they never came out of the suitcase.

I think I'd skip Pershing Hall too...
Sounds like the kind of place that I avoid in LA...

Definitely tell us about your wine tasting trip.
Are you going to any of the wineries outside of Paris?
Champagne tasting?

Yup, I didn't think travel-savvy Fodorites would be rushing to Pershing Hall...

Leely, Promenade was just slightly over 2 miles each way (maybe about 4.2 roundtrip)? I brought running shoes (and running apparel) and only used it twice, but both runs were very pleasant (we also ran along the banks of the Seine)! Husband used his running gear 5 out of 6 days, so clearly it depends on how passionate you are about running. Paris is flat, which helps.

nancicita, no, snif, snif, our wine tasting was in Paris.

Day 5 coming up! Learnings about the 5th Arrondisement!

I'm really looking forward to hearing about the 5th. We just booked three nights at the Hotel du Pantheon in the 5th. Your report is wonderful reading!

Evelyn

Day 5 was very exciting. It was the end of my husband's conference, so he had most of the afternoon free, and we had scheduled a 2 hour wine tasting with O Chateau (www.o-chateau.com), from 5:00-7:00 pm, at their 17th century "caves" in the 1st. The wine tasting was fun. We're not super knowledgeable about French wines, so we walked out with some new information, but more importantly, the experience was fun and relaxing. This is a good activity for those going solo (leely: hint, hint), because they sit everyone around the room in long tables. Most visitors were American, although there was also a small group of Aussies. Not a "must do," but certainly an enjoyable two hours. We really liked the wines they picked for the evening, and my only criticism is that they did not provide us with the wine list because their printer was broken (and me, being a bad, bad student, forgot to bring a pen and notepad).

Our wine tasting ended at 7:00, but by the time we helped in finishing the open bottles (what a sacrifice!), and chatted with those taking the "class," it was 7:15 pm and we had reservations at Le Pre Verre, in the 5th, at 7:30 pm. We RUSHED to get to Le Pre Verre and get there at 7:35 pm, only to find a line of people waiting outside and a restaurant that has not yet opened for the evening. They finally open past 7:40. This would not be a big deal, except they do two seatings, and the meal was rushed, even by US standards (by French standards it was almost fast food). Contrast this with L'Epi Dupin, where we had eaten a few days before, which opened before 7 pm to start sitting customers, because they also do two seatings.

If you look at the website - www.lepreverre.com - you can see that it has a creative menu based on whatever is fresh from the market. The carte-menu, 3 courses for only 28 euros, was written in English and French, which was the second sign that it caters to a large proportion of tourists. The first sign was the glass, entrance door - covered in stickers of guidebooks that feature this place. Pauline Frommer loves Le Pre Verre in her 2007 opinionated guide (which I enjoyed reading very much). And I can tell, that this place was a gem when it opened: creative food, fresh ingredients, and low-prices result in a good value ratio.

Another reason why this place is very popular and featured in so many guidebooks is that the portions were large. My asparagus salad was served over aan absolutely delish artisanal chevre and had an interestingly-textured gelee. Main dishes were also fairly large-sized. I ordered the pork in a milky mild-spice sauce, whle husband ordered the rabbit braised in cumin. I couldn't finish mine, as it was too much food. Both were very tender, clearly cooked for a long time. Both were nciely-plated. Both were a little unilateral, and lacked the complexity of flavors we had experienced in other meals, although they were certainly good.

The wine list was not as interesting as I expected, based on the aura of crativity of the place. The best value wines were crossed out (unavailable) and the wine we chose, a Bordeaux, wasn't a great wine, especially lacking in comparison to the carefully-chosen wines we had just returned from sampling at O-Chateux's tasting.

What killed this place was the rushed service. We were seated. Then, a curt waitress came to take our order almost immediately. We ordered when she came back (only a few minutes later). As soon as the plates for one course were removed, our curt waitress placed the next course in front of us. I can't even remember what I had for dessert. I know it was good, as I didn't have one single mediocre dessert the whole week, but the whole meal was such an ill-paced, non-experience that I couldn't even savor the food. I think we were there for slightly less than 1 hour and a half!

A victim of its own success? Perhaps the demand was so large, they are forced to push people along the meal? No excuse. This place also seemed to have a larger tourist-to-local ratio, probably due to its location. Which brings up my next (opinionated) observation. The 5th has always been a popular tourist spot, with good reason. The winding medieval streets, including rue Galande, rue de la Huchette, Contrescarpe, etc., are very charming. However, it is hard to appreciate the charm of the area with the overwhelming amount of visitors, particulalrly the school groups that descend in the spring into this area. And I think the location of Le Pre Verre, in the 5th, has helped to attract a steady stream of visitors, happy to enjoy a market-fresh, inexpensive French meal. They will probably return back home and say "the French are rude" (which they are not, and the service in this restaurant was the only curt service we received the entire week we were there, enjoying cafes, restaurants, museums, using public transportation, shopping, etc.). If this "resto" were located in an area with a higher ratio of locals to visitors, they probably would not be doing so well, as I doubt folks would return to a place that is so rushed. But, despite this seemingly unenthusiastic review, I think this may be a good place for those visiting Paris on a budget, as the 28 euro 3-course meal was certainly fairly interesting, tasty, well-plated, generous, and reasonable. Let's face it, with the euro at 1.4 to the US dollar, a good-value restaurant is worth mentionning, even if it wasn't my favorite (it was 4th).

Tomorrow...we save the best for last! Our favorite dinenr in Paris. Absolutely exceptional.

I stayed at the Hotel College de France in November which is directly across Rue Thenard from Pre Verre. It was always packed. I walked right by and ate at The Rose of Summerard, a Chinese/Thai place, just few steps from Pre Verre.

No rush. No wait. Cheap. Pretty good food.

Thin

I'm enjoying your report very much! We were in Paris last month and l'epi dupin and au bon accueil were on our list and we didn't get to them. We did go to Pre Verre for lunch and had a great experience. It may be different at lunch, there were mostly Parisians there and we weren't rushed.

Can't wait to hear about the best meal!

Ella

O.K. you have me hungry and hooked. Can't wait to hear about your best meal.

Great report! I've taken some notes for my next trip...

Thanks for the wine tasting idea--sounds fun. Looking forward to reading about the best meal of your trip.

My family(8 persons) went to Cafe Constant in late April 09. This was the second time in 2 years. We found the food delicious, especially tartar oyster and salmon. To make sure of a table, one must get there at 7 pm.

Appreciate your good restaurant report! Bookmarking.

Hey, what happened to the report of the best meal?? Inquiring minds want to know where it was. Thanks.

Thanks for all the comments!

Our fav restaurant was Le Gaigne at 12 Rue Pecquay in the 4th.

A few days before our April 20th departure for Paris, I open my mailbox to find Conde Nast Traveller's 2009 Hot Hotels and Hot Tables edition (May 2009). Just in time! Of course, I immediately turned to the France section, and saw a short, and very promising, description for Le Gaigne: http://www.concierge.com/tools/trave...tail/la_gaigne

Afraid that the concept of "Hot Table" would lead me to the kind of chi-chi place without serious food that is best avoided (ahh, its really quite the irony that we would wind up a few days later at Pershing Hall), I checked out the website, www.restaurantlegaigne.fr, and liked what I saw: a small, modern bistro, with a reasonably priced menu. Not only that, but it would solve the dreaded dining challenge in Paris: where to dine on a Sunday night (note: I think they may not be open anymore on Sundays).

We made reservations online for 8 pm on Sunday. We arrived expecting to find a busy bistro with people spilling outside, waiting for tables (which is the kind of almost mob scene we had been witnessing pretty much all week). Instead, we found a half-empty, serene restaurant, with a very pleasant waitress who gave us a choice of 3 tables (a choice of where to sit! certainly a new concept for us this week). Either Sunday night is a very slow night as the French tend to eat at home with their families, or folks have yet to discover this small gem. If it's yet undiscovered, it won't be for long.

The place is small. It has seating for only 20 diners. It's decorated very simply, serene, and almost Asian in it's Zen-like simplicity. Shades of lavender, soft pinks, and chocolate, combined with natural elements and large, modern paintings of produce. The bathroom was small, but modern, with a super cool faucet (the kind they had to leave the instructions on, so folks could figure out how to turn it on).

The "Degustation Menu" offers 5 small courses (from their regular menu) for 39 euros. The wine list represented the best value of our trip. We had a very hard time selecting one among the many well-priced choices and the one we ultimately chose was inexpensive and wonderful (and I have been trying to find the name, but misplaced the little piece of paper!).

Before the meal began, we were given a printed bookmark with the restaurant information, and the list of courses of our degustation menu, so we could follow along. What a nice touch! The degustation menu changes monthly.

Menu
1st - Les Legumes - Vegetables delicately smoked with thyme, cream of spinach.

2nd - L'Asperge - Green and white asparagus, fresh goat cheese with hebs on blini confit duck gizzards

3rd - L'Encornet Breton - Pan-fried Brittany squid rings, with eggplant caviar and spring vegetables.

4th - Le Canard - Duck cooked twoways glazed turnips.

5th - La Fraise - Savory scented strawberry macaron.

Every dish was delish, delish, delish! The presentation was gorgeous, every dish was very springtime colorful and had its own personality. The squid dish was my favorite dish of the trip because of the combination of flavors and textures. And the service was perfect. When we both were finished with each course, she would take the dish back and give the go-ahead for cooking the next dish.

The restaurant had a diverse clientele when we were there. There were 8 tables occupied. 3 of them, with French solo dinners (solo dinners, take note!), 2 of them with gay couples (restaurant is in the Marais), 2 with American couples (including us), and one with a beautiful, French couple. A very nice mix of folks.

A memorable, creative, beautiful, delicious, unrushed meal, with excellent service, for a reasonable price. What else could you want?