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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

Paris Day 4
20 November 2007

The temperatures are increasing along with the amount of rain, but we have finally managed to crack the secret to getting around Paris at least partially. Line 1 of the Metro, which runs East/West is at about 75% capability, and we managed to see the Arc de Triomphe, Tour Eiffel, Tuileries, etc. Eventually we came to understand the Metro announcements, all in French, including the words “désolé”, “retard”, “minute”, “ligne”, and “trente” when we attempted any other lines. Bottom line: lots of standing on platforms where trains may never arrive.

This morning, there was a newspaper outside our room for the first time since our arrival. I had been wondering why no paper, but of course! The newspapers have been on strike along with all of the transport workers. And the Opera workers. And the school teachers, which explains all of the kids wandering around at all times of the day … The whole strike fuss centers around a 17th century law that allows ballerinas to retire at 40, on a pension, after working at least 10 years! Cabbies can retire at 50! Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, had the audacity to attempt to reform these perfectly good and relevant laws and the working man (and ballerina) has rebelled! According to the paper, of which I read every word since I have know idea when I will see another, Air France is set to strike on Saturday. Ha! We leave on Friday! Of course, we still need a taxi to get to the airport …

Ahh, but I digress. We did indeed make it to L’atelier de Joel Robuchon in the 7th arrondissement, which is a Zagat 27 rated restaurant with an Asian seafood emphasis presented in Robuchon’s traditional small plates approach. We’ve been to Robuchon’s restaurant at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and had a great experience, not quite equaled by his Paris establishment. We chose four plates to share for our lunch, including scallops on macaroni with truffles, terrine of foie gras, crab with daikon and radish, and egg cocotte with mushrooms and parsley. All were truly fine food. Actually, the only disappointment was dessert, which consisted of a soufflé with chartreuse glace dropped into the center when served. The execution was great, but we just didn’t like the flavor of the glace very well.

After such a fine lunch, we figured we should break from tradition a bit and chose Gli Angeli, a local Italian restaurant in the Marais district for dinner. Good food, a fun atmosphere, and I could recognize almost every dish on the menu! It’s clear we eat more Italian food than French in our haunts back home.

Today, our goal is crepes. And Mediterranean food. And café. And wine. And …

– Chris

Paris Day 1
17 November 2007

Woo-Hoo!  The Eagle has landed … In Paris, that is!  Laura and I are in Paris for Thanksgiving week this year, and after less than 24 hours on the ground in Paris we have settled in to our routine.  Sleep, walk around, drink fabulous French espresso and cappuccinos, eat fabulous French pastries and baguettes, drink fabulous French wines, and eat fabulous French meals.  Then, sleep some more.  During the walking around part is some sight-seeing, but that part hasn’t really started yet …

Our hotel is the Pavillon de la Reine, a 17th century hotel located at the Place des Vosges, one of the oldest squares in the city of Paris, dating back to 1610.  You can only imagine the amount of history these city blocks have seen – the “new” buildings are a few hundred years old!   Do we even have any buildings in California that are a few hundred years old?  Maybe a Spanish mission, here or there.  But in 1610, Columbus was considered a recent visitor to the “New World”!  The Place des Vosges is located in the Marias district of Paris (the Marsh district, since it used to be a swamp land), near the famed Bastille prison that was stormed during the French Revolution.   Paris is arranged in sectors along either side of the Seine, and the Place des Vosges is in the 3rd arrondissement, which is located on the right bank of the Seine, not far from Notre Dame Cathedral.  How’s that for an address?! Pavillon de la Reine, 28 Place des Vosges, Marais district, 3rd arrondissement (on the right bank), Paris, France!

We had dinner at a little bistro called Le Petite Marche, just down the street from the hotel.  While Le Petite Marche is rated a 22 by Zagat, it’s relatively unknown since it’s a bit off the beaten path for tourists, but it’s very unique!  The dining room is small, with about 35 seats, and the tiny kitchen is open to the dining area.  The food is French Bistro with an Asian twist, either in preparation or in the use of spices.  For example, the salad is an interpreted Chinese chicken salad and the paper wrapped shrimp is deep fried and served with spicy chili dipping sauce straight from Vietnam.  The lamb brochettes, while having a hint of Asian spice, were grilled to true French perfection!  The cote de boeuf was good, but couldn’t keep up with the lamb.  A chocolate cake with the last of our red wine and espressos to finish it off, and we were back to the walking part of our “routine”.

Turns out that the taxi drivers are on strike.  Hey, that’s a surprise!  In France?  Get outta here!  It does mean that we have some hope (however small) that we will not be wearing home every calorie we consume!

Oh, as we were informed by our #3 son at 4am, the new Hockey jerseys are way cool, and they played a good game…!

Hotel Pavillon de la Reine …

and, Chris & Laura at Le Petite Marche!