Different strokes... etc - Unlike PaulR my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed our meal at Joel Robuchon three weeks ago. He's DEFINITELY not a foodie... and he's still talking about it. Maybe because we didn't really have any expectations. Just went in one nite because we were staying in the adjacent hotel.
My WORST meal which I will never forget was in the Italian rest. at the Hyatt in Jerusalem. (Am about to serve dinner go won't go into details! Don't want to lose my appetite.)

We haven't been back, but from what I recall it was a fairly "bullet proof" menu -- and with so few choices that is USUALLY easy to keep palatable. Not like the chains in the states with endless menus, listing choices that go on for so many pages you wonder how they could all be decent...you know some could be no more than a glorified TV dinner, snatched from the freezer, zapped in a microwave and maybe run under a broiler for color. (Then left sitting on a steam table to wait for some poor overworked 17-year old waitress with multiple piercings.)

Ya know, I think it would be fun to put this question on the US forum...

Andouillettes--ugh. UGH.

What are andouillettes?

My worst meal in Paris was at Le Procope this past August. The house wine was fine, the house pate was fine, but the plain, dry chicken breast was inedible. Live and learn.

Just returned last night. Worst dining experience we ever had in Paris was at Georges on the top of the Pompidou. Avoid at all costs!

La Coupole.

For sure, the place (those columns!) is gorgeous. Way too brightly lit, closely spaced tables, horrendously crowded, overburdended waitstaff (spending lots of time with "regulars", none with others), unbelievably LOUD. Food overpriced and quite dismal.

Yup, La Coupole was a total downer for me, too. Really brusque and slow service, waiter got the orders mixed up, then argued with me about what I'd ordered (a plate of bulots with mayonnaise - not something it takes long to prepare) because I told him I had a train to catch (2.5 hours later). The place was incredibly loud and chaotic and WAY overpriced, IMO.

Chartier - this place holds some sentiment for me. I just love the look of the place and the paper tablecloths the waiters scribble on, and the fact that you get shoved right in the face of other customers you don't know and it's all hustle-and-bustle, , but the food is incredibly spare and plain, and it's all about a sort of negative ambiance that runs counter to what I'm usually looking for in a dining experience in France.

I was quite disappointed with the food in Paris. I'd come w/ great expectations on my first trip, but found the restaurants in particular to be mediocre or plain bad. Better luck with the boulangeries and pastisseries though.

The worst had to be one near the Pantheon. I did all the things I learned to spot an authentic good restaurant when traveling but it didn't work. The menu was all French, the place was small but packed w/ more "local-looking" people. The decor was intellectual hip being the universities.

But the food tasted like or were from the can. All the veggies were soggy and drained of colors and salty. The steak was cooked to death, like a piece of leather shoes. Even the dessert was canned peach.

Here's a recipe for andouillettes that I found through Google. Makes me seriously consider becoming a vegetarian!  

Ingredients :
1 x Large intestine and belly of the pig (or part)
Fat bacon (1/3 of above weight)
Bouillon
1/2 x and-half milk and water to cover
3 x onions stuck with
4 x cloves each
3 med carrots
Salt, pepper
1 x bouquet garni

*(If the intestines, etc., have not been cleaned, soak in cold water for 24 hours in a cool place. Overnight only in warm, humid weather. Then clean and scrape them. Simmer for an hour in water.)

* Set aside enough intestine for the casings-thinner pieces for andouillettes, fatter for andouilles-and out them into suitable lengths. Sprinkle with salt and store in the refrigerator or the coolest part of the larder.

* Slice up, with scissors or a sharp knife, the rest of the intestine and the belly, into strips 1/3 to 1/2 inch wide and a little shorter than your lengths of casing. Put them in a bowl and sprinkle with plenty of salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a mixture of spices such as quatre-spices. Remember that andouillettes and andouilles need a strong spice contrast to the slightly rubbery smoothness of the tripe filling. Let the strips macerate in the seasonings for 24 hours, in a cool, dry place.

* Next day, out the fat bacon into pieces about the width and length of the tripe pieces. If you refrigerate the fat first, this job becomes quite easy. Divide the tripe and bacon strips into bundles and tie each one, at one end, with a length of "heavy- duty" white thread.

* Wash the salt off the casings, and draw the bundles in, by means of the

* "heavy-duty" thread (this is where the neat-figured are at a premium). Cut away the thread and tie the andouilles or andouillettes at each end.

* (If this process appalls you, you can, more simply, chop the tripe and bacon fat rather than slice it into regular lengths. If you have a sausage-making attachment to an electric mixer, you can treat the mixture like sausage meat and fill the skins that way--but use the very large-holed plate as the final result should not be too smooth or solid in texture.)

* If the knobbiness of your andouilles and andouillettes seems excessively exaggerated, roll them backward and forward with the palm of your hand on a smooth surface (Formica or marble slab).

Cooking Andouillettes
* Prick them with a darning needle and arrange evenly in a large saucepan. Cover with milk and water in equal quantities, add the other bouillon ingredients, and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for 3 hours. Leave them to cool down in the liquid until tepid, then lay them side by side closely in a shallow dish and put a lightly weighted board on top. This gives a handsome squared-off appearance, which is not strictly necessary but gratifying. In France they are often glazed with a mixture of lard and veal fat in equal quantities, or, when the weather is warmer, with one fifth mutton fat and four fifths veal fat.

* Now they can be fried, or else slashed across in three or four places and grilled. Serve them on their own, as a starting course, with French mustard; or with mashed potato as a main luncheon dish. Well-spiced andouillettes are a great treat and worth the trouble of making.

I think it's safe to say that even many of us who are died-in-the-wool francophiles and live in France at least part time think andouillettes are absolutely disgusting and would not eat them under any conditions.

Many French people feel the same way. It's definitely an acquired taste.

The restaurant was highly praised for its fine food and decent pricing from many sources, so for my birthday while in Paris 4-5 yrs ago, we made reservations at l'Epi Dupin. T

he place was crowded with Americans 9only Americans from the sound of it, and a bad sound at that), the waiter argued with my wife over her dessert choice (and brought HIS choice, not hers), the rare duck was well done, the rabbit farci was dry (as in dried out), the sides were few and overcooked, and the price was decent. Subsequent reviews have all been less than stellar, so we missed the peak.

I am sure that the pedestrian pizza grabbed in haste at a cafe was objectively worse than the sorry underperformance at l'Epi Dupin, but it was a bummer as a birthday meal for a foodie.


I appreciate the posts from the remining regulars. Thanks, degas.

>What are andouillettes?

As noted, they are tripe sausage.

The texture is somewhat glutinous, yet still chewy.

The flavor and aroma are strongly reminiscent (if not closely akin to) of being in a barnyard.

I shall stick to Ris de Veau.

JC98,

It sounds as though you had really bad luck when eating in Paris--usually it's hard not to find a good meal, even in the less expensive restaurants. What kind of food do you like?

winnie:

I could understand if you thought GEORGE's food was not great, but how could you not enjoy yourself there with such a stellar view of Paris? Also the decor...Plus, our waiter was adorable. Heck, even the bathrooms were cool! Welcome back!

My worst meal in Paris was at a Wimpy's on the Champs Elysée in NOvember 1968. I don't know what possessed me to eat there--perhaps I hadn't known of their reputation.

Second worst was some years later. I don't remember the restaurant (which was OK), but the main dish was--you guessed it--andouillettes. Never again!

A minor digression here, but does anyone remember the joke about getting to heaven where the Chefs are supposed to be French, and the lovers Italian, and the something English and the something German? Can you remind me how it goes?

It is interesting that most of the replies here don't include the actual name of the restaurants. I guess we want to forget the bad meals as quickly as possible. I have been pretty lucky in choosing places that are quite good, usually still referring to an old edition of the Food Lovers Guide to Paris, but the worst was a chinese restaurant in the middle of that big pedestrian zone near Les Halles.

Also mediocre food and bad service (as mentioned below) at le Vieux Bistro, although I have friends in Paris who adore it and even claim they prefer the "american" room in the back. Also any restaurant in sight of Notre Dame on the street level is automatically overpriced and not good.

an addendum to the discussion on andouillettes...there is a tiny place called l'escure on the rue Mondavi, a small street off the rue de Rivoli, between the Intercontinental Hotel and the Crillon, that serves fabulous andouillettes (if you like 'em...I do). The waiters are funny, the food delicious, not expensive, and you sit together with lots of other folks, many local, at tiny tables packed together, with dried garlic hanging from the ceiling.