John Talbott's Paris

Best price-quality places these days. Part II: Not on a budget

Talbott Prix/quality ratio = 9.09
7.0 Le 6 Paul Bert
6 Rue Paul Bert in the 11th, (Metro:  Faidherbe-Chaligny)
T: 01.43.79.14.32
Closed Saturday night, Sundays and Monday
77 E for two

Talbott Prix/quality ratio = 8.99
6.5 La Verre Moutarde
145, rue de Saussure in the 17th (Metro: Wagram)
T: 01.42.27.35.55
Closed weekends
13.90 for 2 courses, wine and coffee

Talbott Prix/quality ratio = 8.86
7.2 Felicity Lemon
4, rue Lemon in the 20th
T:  01.71.32.71.77
Closed Sundays, Tuesday and Wednesday dinners
57.80 E for two

Talbott Prix/quality ratio = 7.33
8.5 Les Tablettes de Jean-Louis Nomicos
16 avenue Bugeaud in the 16th (Metro: Victor Hugo)
T: 01.56.28.16.16
Open 7/7
116 E for two

Talbott Prix/quality ratio = 7.14
8.0 Les 110 de Taillevent
195, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore in the 8th (Metro: Ternes)
T: 01.40.74.20.20
Open 7/7
112 E for two

Talbott Prix/quality ratio = 6.50
6.5 Le Gagnage
46, rue Falguiere in the 15th (Metro: Pasteur or Falguiere)
T:  01.43.22.54.48
Closed Sundays and Mondays

Talbott Prix/quality ratio = 6.19
7.5 Le Petit Champerret
30, rue Vernier in the 17th, (Metro: Porte de Champerret)
T: 01.43.80.01.39
Closed weekends
121 E for two

Talbott Prix/quality ratio = 3.33
8.0 Le Sergent Recruter
41 rue St-Louis-en-l'ile in the 4th (Metro: Pont Marie)
T: 01.43.54.75.42
Closed Sundays and Mondays
240 E for two

Best price-quality places these days. Part I: on a budget

Every few months I’m tempted to tackle this issue and it takes a lot of time and digging (I know, you really feel for me) but I hope it’s to someone’s benefit (it’s the hopeless doctor dreamer in me).

So after today’s meal at Jin Xin Lou with has a 19.80 3 course “menu” and bottles of wine under 20 E I’m  tempted to try again.

So here goes with some of the most recent ones:

Le Verre Moutarde
145, rue de Saussure in the 17th (Metro: Wagram)
T: 01.42.27.35.55
Closed weekends
13.90 for 2 courses, wine and coffee

Jeanne B.
61, rue Lepic in the 18th (Metro:  Absesses)
T: 01.42.51.17.53
Open 7/7
17.00 E for 3 courses

Jin Xin Lou’s French section
63, rue de l'Amiral Mouchez in the 13th (RER: Cite Universitaire)
T: 01.53.80.27.89
Closed Wednesday dinner, Saturday lunch and Sundays.
19.80 for 3 courses

FAQ: “John. Any must restaurants to recommend? I have been reading your blog, but I can't tell which ones are really musts.”

This is probably the most common question I’m asked.  So as a guide to the perplexed, here are the ones I’ve been most impressed with since the rentree that I rated higher than 6/10:

8.5 Jean-Louis Nomicos
8.0 110 Taillevent
Sergent Recuiter
7.5 Petit Champarret
Premices
Vivant
7.2 Felicity Lemon
Clandestino
7.1 Abri
Marloe
7.0 6 Paul Bert
Garance
6.9 Crom’Exquis
6.8 Atelier Vivanda
6.7 L’Office version iv
6.5 La Gagnage
La Verre Moutarde
6.4 Flamboire
6.3 Les Degres de Notre Dame
6.2  Jeanne B.
Novices
6.1 Mamou
Jin Xin Lou

Not forgetting those that opened on the cusp of the summer vacation:
7.5 Pierre Sang in Oberkampf
Flora
Pirouette

Charged for leaving things on your plate.

Ohhh la la.  Recently I read an article saying that “Restaurant fines diners who leave food on plates.“

So now I’m in fear.

The day this was written, I left 1/5th of my merlan and veggies uneaten (PS I finished all my tapenade, soup, langoustines and dessert.)   So did they charge me?  No.

But I find, even though I’m not a real Food Critic, but do write every meal up, that the Big Boys don’t polish off every dish; FS says he often has bottled water and part of one course. 

In often told stories (by me) there are three incidents that spring to mind when I haven’t finished my meals and would have had a fit if I’d been charged.

The first was at an Alsatian place which will go un-named where we simply ordered too much flamenkuche and my buddy said “get out one of your bags, John and we’ll dump the excess in a Vigipirate container on the way home.”  Dutifully I did and a few blocks away, he said ‘OK here’s one, dump it there” and I realized I’d left it on the floor of the restaurant.  Go back?  Are you kidding, we high-tailed it away.

The second was at Helene Darroze with the same pal and our wives where the food was so dreadful we got out our sacks, carefully emptied our almost full plates and purposefully left them on the floor a a gesture of disgust at Ms. Darroze’s cooking.

And third is an occurrence that occurs everytime I have steak in France.  It is simply too much to finish.  So once again out comes my handy ziplock bag, in goes the steak and that night the remains are perfect with Worchester sauce.

FAQ: What is the best place for ________ in Paris?

Websites seem to encourage these questions like fly traps attract flies.

What is the best place for
Oysters
Baguettes
Chocolates
Macaroons
Steak & frites
Galettes des Roi
Falafel
Onion soup
Choucroute
Oeufs mayo
Cheese store
Starred restaurants
The list goes on.

And yes, Dear Reader, I too have participated in these exercises that threaten to bring back the old TV show “Can you Top This?”

On one of these recent “whose genitals are bigger” competitions my good friend Parigi said
“Still waiting for someone who has tried every oyster stand in Paris and is thus qualified to answer the OP. "Best".”
To which another poster, Sunshine 842, added
"(and not only every oyster stand in the city but throughout the season and every week, to differentiate between quality variances between species, harvest region, and time of year...)

Hard to top that.

The Emperor Has No Clothes – Restaurant Division.

Since I’ve already weighed in on my top picks of the year I thought it only fair to list those places that were the worst of 2012.  These are not the worst places I ate at but rather those hyped, reviewed favorably or entering with pedigrees that qualify them as big disappointments.

Like the Guignols I’ll list them in descending order:

#6 Ma Cocotte in St Ouen – Sorry folks, you can’t eat the scenery.

#5 La Dame de (Anne-Sophie) Pic – Bad enough that she charges for this food but the critics lap it up because of who she is or at least was.

#4 Antoine de Montmartre – After his crash at the Moulin de la Galette, confused menu at Chamarré Montmartre and brilliant recovery at the Clocher de Montmartre, he dove down once more into the abyss.

#3 Youpi & Voila – No there, there.

#2 Chez Marcel – on everyone’s “best of” list, makes you wonder who’s doing his PR.

#1 Les Grandes Tables de l’Ile Seguin – Arnaud Daguin’s latest clunker (following the disaster at the Café Pleyel).

10 Myths about the French or French eating.

The French:

1. Never eat alone.

2. Never just order one dish.

3. Never expect young people to give up their Metro seats to older folk.

4. Never expect to be treated nicely by Parisians.

5. Never wear sneakers or chinos.

6. Never talk politics.

7. Never talk money.

8. Never cut cheese across its tip.

9. Never go on time to a restaurant or home.

10.Never go to a fancy restaurant in a black tee-shirt.

The half-bottle of wine problem – solved.

There are times when one wants wine from a newly opened bottle, not one that’s been sitting next to the espresso machine for 3 days.  The reasons for this vary: one is alone; one’s companion must work (yes, some of my dining partners actually see patients, spy or do nice PR after lunch); one’s spouse is under the weather; one’s “fallen in among bad friends” friend has a hangover – no matter, one wants about a half-bottle of wine.

Well, why not order a half-bottle or a 50 cl carafe or 2 glasses?  Ah ha.  Well, because the half-bottles are often if not always the price of the most cheapo wine on the list; because the 50 cl carafe comes out of a box, and no matter what the facts are, who do you believe about oxygenation, me or your “own damn eyes?”; and because the glasses are from the aforementioned bottle sitting in the heat for who knows how long.

But with the Loi Evin, I discovered “how to.”  As I’ve told before, at the original Regalade, I said I wanted “a glass of wine?” – “not possible;”  “a carafe?” equally unavailable; but “we’ll give you the bouchon for a bottle and a brown sac and you can take it home. “  Voila! 

Last fall when in Italy and while I had never tested this trick before here, I realized I was facing the same issue; so I asked, “is it legal to carry open bottles around in Milan?”; Ans. “but of course Sir.”  Et presto! 

Doesn’t that answer one of life’s persistent questions as Garrison Keillor would say?

Japanese chefs, cuisine and sensibility in Paris.

On a food website recently, a poster under the title of Fusion Food asked for suggestions on places that “that had the best of both worlds: French food for me with a Japanese flair for her."  Many of us plunged in with ideas but I realized there was really a spectrum of places and here I’ve tried to codify them.  All are places I’ve been to, most since 2010.

Restaurants that are almost purely French cuisine cooked by Japanese chefs:
L’Office
Au Passage
Vivant
Kei
Chez la Vieille (Adrienne)
58 Qualite Street
Hide
Ribouldingue
Breizh Cafe

Restaurants that are almost purely Japanese cuisine cooked by Japanese chefs:
Yuzu
Concert de la Cuisine
Guilo Guilo
Enishi
Abri

Restaurant that is almost purely Japanese cuisine cooked by French chefs:
Qui Plume La Lune

Restaurants in between that have some Japanese products, herbs and spices:
La Clarisse
H. Kitchen
Les Degres de Notre Dame
Clandestino

Restaurants in between where French food is influenced by Asia/Japan:
Monjul
Carte Blanche

Restaurants with French chefs inspired by trips to the Orient:
MBC
Ze Kitchen Galerie

Restaurants in between that are ½ terroir ½ Japanese:
Passage 53
Le Kolo of Asafumi Tamashita

Restaurants in between in using raw veal & fish more than the usual:
L’Agape
Stella Maris
Atao

Restaurant whose original mission was to offer French and Japanese food separate but is more now like French food cooked Japanese style:
Sola

Japanese chef cooking French food with a Japanese flair or French food cooked by a chef who happens to be Japanese:
La Table d’Aki

FAQ How does your 0 to 10 rating system work; just food or other stuff?

I say I only rate the food not the welcome, decor, prix/qualite, etc but that indeed plays a part.  How much?  Good question.  From 0 to 20 % maybe.

I'm not my friend Randy with his "total experience," I love crabs or oysters on brown paper in a shack on the Atlantic."

The other day Iate at the Dame de Pic where the food, to be generous, was a 4.0/10
I wound up leaving the restaurant with two eating pals in Paris and said to myself – “Over all, about 5.5.”

Just to test out whether my hunch had any accuracy or was just a stab in the dark, I sat down and wrote out scores for almost every single aspect of the meal and this is what my tally sheet looked like:
8.0 Outside
8.0 Decor
8.0 Nappery, glasses, knives
8.0 Welcome
8.0 Service
6.0 Wine price-quality ratio
4.0 Food
1.0 Noise level
1.0 Food price-quality ratio
1.0 Pretentiousness
---------------------------
= 5.3 rounded up to 5.5 - you do the math, works for me.