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Paris Restaurant Report
A wonderful trip to Paris for a week over New Year's Eve. Weather was in the 40's -- no rain and even days of sunshine!
Hotel Raphael: in the 16th very near the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysees. Classic french style with antiques, silk drapes, beautiful wood paneling, etc. Highly recommend. Our second visit. Around 500 euros/night Restaurants: L'Astrance on 4 Rue Beethoven. The "it" chef according to our crew of concierges and Zagats. Extraordinary cuisine. If you're a foodie you will love this place. Was a fixed 12-course dinner when we were there, 150 euros per person, food only. Not sure if that was a holiday menu or not. Worth the splurge! Prunier. Fish/Seafood. THE most delicious scallops I have ever put in my mouth! (and generous with the black truffles!) Great seafood menu with many different oysters and their own caviar, which I highly recommend. Excellent service and friendly staff. With a bottle of wine and expensive caviar with dinner, was $300. Willi's Wine Bar: Great place for wines by the glass and after a day of shopping/sight seeing. Serves food in a quaint room. Very cute place. Near Le Grande Colbert (from Something's Gotta Give). Willi's is located on 13 Rue de Petits-Champs. La Truffiere. 4 rue Blainville, 5th Romantic 17th century house with a stone cellar. Very cozy. The food was excellent as well as a very healthy wine list. The owner and sommelier are gracious hosts. Food was outstanding!! Highly recommend! We ate with a fixed menu and wine for New Year's so not sure what the regular prices would be. Zagat's says 68 euros each. I would guess a little more than that. Great place for a romantic dinner. Mon Viel Ami on Isle St. Louis, 69 rue St.-Louis-en-L'Ille. Find this restaurant! Small, modern in decor. Great service. Food was very good. Wanted to eat there twice but it was closed! Fontain du Mars. 129 rue St. Dominique, 7th What a french bistro should be. Warm welcome from the owner. Great service. My husband's lunch was great! My duck confit was not. But I would go back. Everyone else's dish looked great and it was very busy with Frenchmen. That's a good sign. Lunch with a 23euro bottle of wine, fois gras appetizer, 2 entrees & 2 desserts was 150 euros. Paul's (Patisserie) Still having dreams about the pistachio macaroon! and pain de chocolate. Who cares what the price was. You have to have these when you're in Paris! Crazy Horse : "Taboo" show. Skip it. Looked like a sorority talent show. Beware of cabs waiting after the show. Their clock has been running a long time! That's all I can remember. Still upside down on my time clock! Helpful travel guides: *Zagat's Paris Restaurant Guide *Eating and Drinking in Paris (a menu reader)(A must if you don't speak French) *Knopf Mapguides Paris, the city in fold-out section-by-section maps. *Behind the Wheel French cds. Only made it to the 5th cd but I did well. Except at Gucci when the girl spoke English and it still sounded French! Overall, great weather. Great attitude from everyone. (No anti-Americanism from anyone.) Great food. Very expensive ($1.52 with exchange and charges at the AMEX counter at airport using cash) I just love Paris. |
Do you have addresses or websites for these restaurants? I know you have some addresses but not all. I haven't had breakfast yet so I was getting really hungry reading your post!
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Nice report with a lot of good restaurant advice.
However, it isn't clear to me where you ate on NY eve and what the price was. Was that at l'Astrance (which seems too cheap, if so) or the one where you said you ate on New Years (was that the day or NY eve?). Do you remember the approximate price of the dinner you had at Truffiere? thanks |
Minor point, but everyone raves about Paul. I love the atmosphere and some of their pastries may be great, but try as I might (and I have several times), I wouldn't rate their pain au chocolate very high. In fact I'd much prefer one from the cheap little La Croissanterie (sp?) chain places. Fresher, flakier, and more chocolate. We'd go to the Paul's at Rue de Buci and Seine in the morning and despite their making them in the back, ours always tasted dry, doughy, and not fresh.
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Hi Melissa,
I don't know of websites except for La Truffiere which is www.latruffiere.com Prunier is on Victor Hugo, I think. Very close to the rotary at the Arc de Triomphe. Christina, Hi. L'Astrance was about $720 with wine and champagne. La Truffiere was New Year's Eve and a special menu and wine pairing. Dinner and wine pairing was $800. But as I mentioned above, regular menu prices according to Zagat's is 68 euros. As far as regular prices for L'Astrance, those could be there regular prices. There is no menu they hand you. Its what the chef is preparing for the evening. They only ask if there is something you are allergic to or do not care to eat. Hope you can go to either as they were both memorable. And should be at those prices! Au revoir! |
Excuse my english. " those could be THEIR regular prices"
Also, for La Truffiere, $800 was for 2 people. This is so depressing now looking all this up on my amex billing. Calls for a good wine and cheese tonight to take the amex blues away! |
From the roundabout in the 13th Place D'italie, if you walk about 1 city block down Rue Bobillot on the west side you will find a restaurant called,
Place D'Istanbul! This little Restaurant serves Chicken Gyros that are to die for. 2 Gyros with fries and 3 sauces on the side plus 2 beers each total with tip about 12 Euros. We were there in Sept '04 and the weather was fab so we ate outside. This is a place worth going to for food and people watching AA+ |
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Thanks much for the great report. I too ordered the confit of duck at Fontaine de Mars...excessively fatty etc...yuck. Everthing else looked great...my wife's Dover sole was superb. Go figure! JP
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thanks Beachgirl247
I'm leaving myself on Thursday, and La Fontaine de Mars is already reserved. |
I failed to mention La Petite Bowfinger. Across from the big Bowfinger. This one is much more quaint and the service is good and the wait staff very nice. Food is good and great people-watching from the window seats. Just a comfortable place to be.
Have a nice trip, Elaine. I miss Paris already!! |
for search purposes, I'm going to correct the spelling to
Bofinger |
actually, it should be
Petit Bofinger |
Thank you, Elaine! (I'm a little jet-lagged.)
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go to sleep and dream about your trip!
=:) |
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