Paris Restaurant Reviews
November 2007
During our Thanksgiving vacation in Paris, France we emphasized Bistro style restaurants, primarily in the Marais district. As expected, it’s easy to find absolutely terrific food in Paris. However, we did manage to uncover a place to two that were not so good, and one that was truly horrid.
In general, dinner service doesn’t begin until 8pm and the crowds don’t show until closer until 9pm and service continues until 11pm or midnight at most places. We “opened up” a couple of places by showing up at 8pm. Now that’s a contrast to the US, where dinner is winding down by 9pm.
It helps to know the French words for a large selection of foods. Most menus are not in English, and it can be surprisingly difficult to decipher the menus. If you don’t mind looking like a complete tourist, you can always bring a French phrasebook. That’s probably better than ordering something that’ll make you toss!
We found waiters to be a bit hurried, but able to speak English and generally helpful. Our strategy was to pretend to know French for the first dozen words out of our mouths, until it became obvious we didn’t have a clue. The blank stare after the first question from a waiter seemed to tip them off that we had just used up our French vocabulary!
Wine was a good deal compared to what we are used to paying the US. Its easy to get a very good bottle of wine for 24 euros, or about $35, with lots of French and German selections. We got a bit spoiled … now back to overpriced Napa wines …
Here’s our summary of the establishments we visited.
Nov 17th
Le Petite Marche – Excellent bistro in the Marais district. Busy, friendly, full of locals, and a slight Asian influence in some of the dishes. The croustillants gambas (fried shrimp in wrappers) and the lamb brochettes were fab!
Nov 18th
Le Relais Odeon – Located along the Boulevard St. Germain, near the Latin Quarter, this was a passable little café that had pretty good pasta. Not great, but not bad.
Les Deux Musees – Truly horrid. Located very near the Musee d’Orsay, it’s easy to be tempted by this busy corner bistro. We stopped in for coffee and ordered the cheese plate and a chocolate mousse. The mousse was completely inedible (literally – hard, sugary, and just awful), the cheese was dried out and didn’t taste good, and even the coffee was marginal. I absolutely hated it.
Chez Janou – Also located in the Marais district, and with a slightly more touristy crowd than Le Petite Marche, we had a great shrimp pasta and magret de canard (duck). Tables here are real small. And real close together. But we had fun!
Nov 19th
Café Hugo – Relaxing, middle of the road traditional bistro near the Place des Vosges. Wide selection, tables not crammed together, service not rushed. Café Hugo is a good place to watch the crowd go by enjoying a leisurely lunch or dinner, and be within a hundred feet of Victor Hugo’s original residence!
Caves Saint Gilles – This is a Spanish tapas restaurant done French style. The selection are served as platters of small servings, rather than the traditional Spanish style of each item on its own small plate. We will most remember the dancing waiter, who appeared to be enjoying himself the more the evening went on! This is a very friendly place, with lots of locals and great food.
Nov 20th
L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon – Fabulous, high-end, expensive small plates restaurant near the Musee d’Orsay. Really, really good. Really. This is the only place on this list where it was clear that we were under-dressed wearing nice jeans.
Gli Angeli – A friendly Italian restaurant in the Marais district. The cheese ravioli consisted of handmade bishop’s hats and was killer. Had a good bruschetta too. We liked this place.
Nov 21st
Le Petite St. Paul – A small, hole-in-the-wall place near the Place des Vosge with good food and very good crepes. When we were there for lunch, it was 100% locals.
Le Tete Ailleurs – Located in the Marais across from the apartment where Jim Morrison of the Doors spent his last days, this bistro serves Mediterranean inspired French food. Along with a couple of great prawn dishes, they serve a great artichoke barigoule!
Nov 22nd
Le Martignac – Basically a bar located a few blocks away from the Musee d’Orsay in the midst of a bunch of government buildings. If you want to see some Gendarmes with machine guns, this is the neighborhood for you. Security is taken pretty seriously. They serve whatever the owner felt like cooking that day. We had fish covered with a puree of tomatoes and clams, and a steak covered with a mushroom puree of some sort. Sounds better than it was. But the owner was very friendly and we were glad we stopped, for the experience if not the food.
Auberge Nicolas Flamel – Located in Nicolas Flamel’s historic 600 year old house, the food here was inventive and close to being very good. Surpisingly, most of the dishes needed a bit of extra salt! We did the whole thing here – foie gras, mushroom soup, coquille st. Jacques (scallops), lamb, and finished with a terrific crème brulee with a thin, semi-sweet chocolate crust! Yum!
– Chris