danon

"
If I have to rate Akelarre, which doesn't belong to this Paris thread, I'll give it a 3.5/5 muffins. It's by no means a bad note: I still enjoy the lunch there very much, but a half menu with half the price, would be better."

Interesting. A friend of mine ,who took a food focused tour of Spain , did not enjoy
Akelarre at all.

cafegoddess

Very nice!

annhig

StCirq: those dishes were actually tiny, the amuse-bouches were as big as coat's buttons and the main dishes are smaller than my hand's palm. After I left Tour d'Argent or Le Cinq, I could have easily eaten another cake.>>

the only one of these that we have been to is le cinq, when it had "only" 2 stars, and we were completely stuffed when we left. We took advantage of what was then their €85 lunch menu, which though advertised as 3 courses, was in fact more like 6, and reckoning that this might be a once in a lifetime splurge, had a glass of the house fizz each followed by a bottle of the cheapest house wine which though it was "only"€50 was still pretty good. After champers, amuse bouches, starters as per the menu [oysters prepared 3 different ways I think] another free course, the main course [which I have forgotten!] some free cheese, a dessert platter and chocolates, we rolled back to our hotel in a state of some disorder and went to sleep! The total bill with coffee was €300 odd but as the advert says, the memories are priceless.

FuryFluffy

AJPeabody and cafegoddess: thank you for liking it^^

danon: there were some dishes in Akelarre that I didn't quite like, so it's a possibility that your friend did not enjoy
the restaurant at all. That's why I only gave it a 3.5/5 note (not a bad note, but not a high one either). Perhaps my menu was so long that I found several dishes I appreciated in it.


annhig: maybe the reason I wasn't stuffed in Le Cinq is because I didn't drink wine or coffee, and didn't take the free cheese (I was too shy to enquire them if the cheese was free or not, so I just said "No").

annhig

annhig: maybe the reason I wasn't stuffed in Le Cinq is because I didn't drink wine or coffee, and didn't take the free cheese (I was too shy to enquire them if the cheese was free or not, so I just said "No").>>

lol, FF, are you suggesting we were a tad greedy? you're probably right. But it was a lot of fun.

Thanks for the thread - it's probably the closest I'll get to the other restaurants you are reviewing so I'm keen to read every detail.

ira

Hey FF,

>I was too shy to enquire [of] them if the cheese was free or not, ...

You must work hard to overcome this flaw in your character.

Think of all of the terrific cheese, etc that you have missed due to your shyness.

Work at overcoming it by asking at every resto you visit:

Is ______ free?


Thanks for your reviews.

tuscanlifeedit

I would have had to ask if the cheese was included. At our only starred lunch in Paris, awhile ago, they served the cheese. Three small pieces but very delicious.

OReilly

FuryFluffy:

Thank you - this is wonderful, and truly appreciated

I have eaten in many One-Star Michelin restaurants, and several 2-Star - mostly business dinners, when it was acceptable to do so (not any more).

The only 3-Star I have eaten in was about 15 years ago on my birthday - https://www.ambroisie-paris.com/. It cost about 250 Euros for lunch on Saturday, with wine. It was an experience I will never forget.

My problem in eating in these establishments is that I MUST have wine - it is my genetic heritage that drives it unfortunately, and that generally doubles the bill.


Keep going!

Best regards ... Ger

annhig

My problem in eating in these establishments is that I MUST have wine - it is my genetic heritage that drives it unfortunately, and that generally doubles the bill.>>

me too Ger [though I can't blame my genes!] - and it did!

OReilly

<though I can't blame my genes>

Well, neither can I Ann, it is just an excuse, as it was far away from the lands of the Vine that MY tribe came from

I just cannot eat good food without having good wine. And it is always at least doubles the bill. However, in France it is better than London, where it is often MORE than that, for wine of far less quality.

FuryFluffy

Thank you everybody for your comments.
Fortunately I don't have that wine gene^^
I appreciate a good wine to accompany good food, but I can live without it.

On the other hand, the shyness is in my genetic heritage - have been fighting it for years without results. Again, I can live with it!

StCirq

Logically, my heritage would dictate that I have a beer gene, but somehow that tanked sideways when I fell in love with France. I mean, you just cannot, cannot drink a Guinness with magret de canard and pommes de terre sarladaises (OK, I get the rich tradition of potatoes in my heritage, so that's all good).

And shyness is not my strong suit. I would have been ALL over the cheese.

FuryFluffy

Sure, StCirq, one's genes change when one fall in love ^^
I adopted my sweet tooth for that matter.

mjs

A very nice write up of both restaurants. I had dinned at LT back in the 80's and at Le Cinq when Legendre was chef and enjoyed both meals. I do like wine with my meals but found that one can find a very nice and inexpensive bottle to go with one's meal by chatting with the sommelier.

cafegoddess

Topping

AJPeabody

Awaiting Ange 20 review.

Kathie

Yes, I'm awaiting Ange 20 as well.

NoosaChic

Thank-you FF for sharing your great reviews.

FuryFluffy

Thank you everybody for the waiting and for your compliments. I'll post about Ange20 in the next hours ^^

FuryFluffy

Part 3: L’Ange 20 and Maison de Victor Hugo

I decided to go to L’Ange 20 after Ger’s Paris Trip Report (thanks Ger). Fortunately the menu has changed from Ger's time, because I'm not a fan of pintade in general...

Photo and review:
https://moveablefeastofamess.wordpre...ange-20-paris/

Text and rating only:

L’Ange 20 proposes a bargain that’s hard to beat in the city center of Paris: A lunch menu, not during weekend, of 19.5 E for Starters + Main dish + Dessert, or 16.5 E for two courses among those three. I chose the latter. If you want to keep the price down at 16.5, there’re only 1 choice for starters of this formula: warm goat cheese with salad, so I didn’t take it and opted for Main dish + Dessert, for which I could choose from the dessert menu, among 7 different kinds of sweets and cheese plate. If you look at the website of L’Ange 20 in english, you won’t see this lunch formula, only “A la carte” menu. The online menu, both english and french, are not really up-to-date either, at least for the day I was there.

The restaurant is a tiny bistrot, with a very typical Parisian look (for what I’ve experienced so far). The decoration is retro and friendly. The kitchen is open and in the room, you can ask to have a table where you see the young chefs cooking. I forgot to ask, and as I was alone, they put me at a small table next to the pillar. Other tables can be a little too close to each other, but that’s expected in a bistrot.

I ordered “une carafe’eau”, which is free tap water (in France it’s free in all restaurants). I thought that I would order wine at the same time I order the meal, but the waiter didn’t ask, so I also forgot about wine.

My main dish is roasted rabbit saddle, with polenta. They took quite a while to deliver it: I was the first customer, and they had plenty of time to prepare the rabbit before the 2nd customer arrived. The 2nd customer ordered his meal, his starter arrived, then I still wait for another 10 mins before my dish arrived. That rabbit was sure too fast to catch. But it was delicious.

The meat was tender and the skin was crunchy, with a just amount of spices. Polenta is usually not something I like (or I haven’t tasted real Italian polenta yet), but serving this polenta with white cheese (ricotta? feta? I don’t remember) and some herbs made it much better. For me the tomato sauce didn’t add much, but it’s not something to criticize either. The best (and fastest) rabbit that I have ever eaten.

For desserts, I chose cheesecake. You can also choose a cheese plate, if you’re still hungry. The best (and smallest) cheesecake that I have ever eaten, but I haven’t eaten much of cheesecake in my life, considering that cheesecake parts in anglo-saxon shops or Starbucks are huge and look really heavy. Not this one. The sablé underneath was yummy, the raspery was fresh (not a frozen one), and the fruity sauce balanced well the fat cheese taste.

Rating: 4/5

Price: 16.5 euros/person, lunch formula

A very satisfying meal, which was abundance enough for an adult. If you happen to need a restaurant lunch, this is the top choice. But its diner menu (for evenings, or during weekend) is not such a bargain: 28 E approximatively for 2 courses, and 37 E for 3 courses, which still is reasonable for the area’s price, but which is bit too much compared to its lunch menu. So, when I travel, I often book lunch in restaurants and eat diner in my room, either self-cooking or supermarket bread+cheese+olive+wine. If you can obtain a good bread, that supermarket meal is nothing less than great.

If you want to eat at L’Ange 20, book ahead by all means. It’s very popular at the moment, and its website has 10 options of language!

L’Ange 20 is right next to Place des Vosges, and the Marais quarter, so you can have an enjoyable ballad nearby, looking at the art galleries, and pop into the Victor Hugo house at the corner. When I was there some weeks ago, there’s a Poem exhibition in the house, and it’s rather intriguing for me: for one and only one poem of Hugo, one not even that long, they exhibit everything they could find relate to that poem. Some paintings inspired by it, some art arrangements from college students. It was a small exhibition, but catchy. I don’t know if it’s still on, I look up on their website, but it’s not on the ongoing exhibitions list, nor in the archive old exhibition list either. If you’re interested by Hugo, if you pass by that house, and if the poem is still on, try not to miss it. The rest of the house is interesting (and rather flamboyant), that's what I wanted to "review" about it though not a restaurant.