John Talbott's Paris

Lobrano, Alexander. Hungry For Paris: The ultimate guide to the city’s 102 best restaurants

Lobrano, Alexander. Hungry For Paris: The ultimate guide to the city’s 102 best restaurants. Random House, NY, 2008.

Alexander Lobrano has written a thoroughly delightful and personal guide to Paris places that should serve as a very helpful resource for those coming to Paris to eat. It’s sort of a cross between a food guide and a food book, that is, it describes how he found himself at 102 restaurants, what he ate and why you should go.

While covering some of the great places, it also covers bistrots and brasseries, and is as generous in its praise as it is critical of those 12 places he omits, mentioning why for each one. I was surprised that it is as up to date as it is, covering such relatively new places as the Breizh Café, Chateaubriand and Hier & Aujourd’hui.

On a personal note of my own, I found that I agreed with him most of the time, including of places, such as Helene Darroze, Allard and l’Ami Louis, he chose not to cover. I think it really will soon become a classic; I just hope that its publisher doesn’t take years to ask for the next edition.

Where we want to eat – The Orsay

Another area where it’s tough to find a good restaurant just outside a touring destination is around the Orsay Museum. Essentially one must either head West towards the Rue du Bac or Southeast past the Assemblee Nationale.

Westward one has several opportunities. My most recent favorite is Cinq Mars on the Rue de Verneuil where the hearty fare include such things as a huge sausage on a huge bed of mashed potatoes and a huge chalkboard of wines from all over (France of course.)

An old favorite that (as Yogi Berra said) nobody goes to anymore because it’s too crowded to the Restaurant (le Club) of the grand ecole, the Ecole Polytechnique. It’s open to the public, but full of politicians of all stripes and if you’re a fan of the 8 PM news, you’ll see the cast of characters enter and exit the private rooms periodically. I’ve been talking about it for years but to my knowledge no one I’ve recommended it to has ever gone; it probably intimidates.

Just a bit farther are two seafood places, the older, Gaya Rive Gauche, now under the management of Pierre Gagnaire, is stark but elegant, the other 35º Ouest, which by my reckoning is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, simpler and also pricey. I’d also tout you off the Ferme St Simon, which is under new and in my opinion, less successful, management.

Heading the other way out of the Orsay resist the impulse to plotz at the nearest bar-brasserie and head over in back of the Assemblee Nationale to the Rue de Burgogne where the 2nd of Bernard Loiseau’s Tante restaurants lies. Loiseau, of whom it was said he never tired of inventing and pushing, died 5 years ago, but his wife has successfully managed what was a complex and complicated empire quite well and the standard of this pl ace – Tante Marguerite, had apparently held up although its prices have crept up.

I would discourage you from seeking food further up the street, because I had a horrid meal at Auguste and a meal at Arpege will take all afternoon, albeit a pleasant afternoon.

My favorites if you must eat exiting the Orsay are:

Cinq Mars
51 rue de Verneuil, 7th (Metro : Rue du Bac)
T : 01.45.44.69.13, Metro Rue du Bac
Closed Saturday lunch and Sundays
Lunch menu 21,50 €., a la carte 35-50 €.

Gaya Rive Gauche par Pierre Gagnaire
44 rue du Bac, 7th (Metro : Rue du Bac)
T: 01 45 44 73 73
Closed Sundays
A la carte 55 €.

Restaurant le Club
Maison des Polytechniciens
12 rue de Poitiers, 7th (Metro: Solferino)
T: 01.49.54.74.74
Closed Weekends
A la Carte 35-60

Tante Marguerite
5 rue de Bourgogne, 7th (Metro: Assemblee Nationale)
T : 01.45.51.79.42
Closed weekends
Lunch menu 34 €, dinner menu 40 & 65 €, a la carte 60-65 €.

Reviews of reviews - The Week of April 21st, 2008

The Week of April 21st, 2008

In Sunday’s NYT there was a piece about Reader’s Picks that named Le Comptoir, l’As du Fallafel, le Bistro de la Muette + Le Hide as restaurants in Paris to go to.

Monday in Le Fooding, Yves Nespoulous wrote about L’Endroit in Honfleur.

Tuesday-Wednesday, in ANP, Jerome Berger wrote {yet another} article about Gordon Ramsay with no ratings.

Wednesday, Richard Hesse in Paris Update reviewed the Thai Madame Shawn.

Wednesday, in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin awarded three hearts to the Le Squer/Ledoyen-directed ETC., 2, rue La Perouse in the 16th, 01.49.52.10.10, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays, costing 68 at lunch (with wine) and a la carte 80-100 € for a surf and turf “fantasy,” pigs feet and veal liver, entrecote, and caramel ice. Two hearts went to the reprised Chez Julien, 1, rue du Pont Louis-Philippe in the 4th, 01.42.78.31.64, open 7/7, costing 35-50 € for a terrine maison, steak with shallots and a cod brandade. One heart was awarded to the Paris brasserie/Manhattan diner Café Central, coordinates given before serving fish and chips and hamburgers etc for 25-30 €. Finally busted hearts went to Passage Saint-Roch, 15, rue des Pyramides in the 1st, 01.44.50.77.07, open 7/7 but serving food as sad as military rations and the Indian Saveurs des Indes, coordinates given before.

This week, in Figaroscope’s Dossier, the team listed and described Tea Salons:
Russian
Kusmi tea
Shop Food
Bonpoint
Film lovers
Salon du Pantheon
Boudoir
The cool
Institution
Carette
Garden side
Café Medicis
Neo T
Charming tea time places
Musee de la Vie Romantique, La Cocotte, 1728 + Les Ombres.

Francois Simon in his Hache Menu went to the 1T Scribe, 1, rue Scribe in the 9th, 01.44.71.24.24, open 7/7 where he spent 54 € on tea plus a Caesar salad, éclair and “fingerfood.” He said go if you’re nearby but don’t go far.

Wednesday-Thursday in Le Monde, Jean Claude Ribault reviewed places in the north, specifically: La Flamiche in Roye, A L'Huîtrière + Le Sébastopol in Lille and the Château de Montreuil in the town of that name.

Thursday, in l’Express, François-Régis Gaudry reviewed l’Agape, coordinates given before, carefully detailing where the veal, lotte and pigeon come from and how (complicatedly and carefully) they are prepared. In addition, his colleague Pierrick Jégu, reviewed Le Quai in Tain l’Hermitage.

Friday in Les Echos Jean Louis Galesne wrote a piece on restos that use seasonal products that one can now see in transition: Maxan, Au Vieux Comptoir, La Cagouille, Ze Kitchen Galerie + Mori Venice Bar .

In Saturday’s Figaro Francois Simon and Alexandra Michot, in “Croque Notes” and two other articles wrote about the 50 Top Restaurant survey done in the UK magazine Restaurant. The header on Page One of the Section is entitled “Le Flop du Top 50.”

Saturday/Sunday, in Bonjour Paris, Margaret Kemp had an article on l’Hostellerie Berard 45 minutes from Marseille and John Talbott had an article on “The Louvre is where we want to eat.”

April’s WHERE had three restos reviewed by Alexander Lobrano – La Truffiere, La Truffiere, La Bigarrade + l’Arome.

Enichi - A non-sushi exclusively Japanese place in Montmartre.

4.6 Enishi, 67, rue Labat in the 18th, 01 42 57 32 14, closed Wednesdays, is another place “discovered” by Caroline Mignot of, of course, “La Table a Decouvert.” It is within walking range of my apartment, so it constitutes a perfect “last night before the airplane/after the joint is clean” place.

It was/is a wonderful warm (70º) evening, and I was seated looking out the window at the scene of couples passing hand-in-hand, many multi-ethnic, some male same-sex, no females same-sex, but all entranced in the late, sunny, early summer evening. (If one needs proof of this part of Montmartre’s “happening” status it is the new high-end Tunisian bakery and fresh and frozen VN-Thai-Japanese- Chinese-etc food emporium on the Rue Ramey.)

The restos tables and chairs are stark black modern, only one woman appears to speak passable French (but hey, my Japanese, even after two months, is lessful.) I am in a position to watch the difference between folks coming in here vs the Tokyo across the street; bottom line, they were lining up here and not going in the other.

The place has sushi, sashimi, tempura, etc., but I chose my old fave, the tonkatsu. It came with two “amuse bouches”, a salad with tasty cucumbers, tomatoes (yes) and seaweed, plus many herbs and Western lettuces; and a dish of pickled turnip (?) and green beans. Then came a cup of custard with fish stuff that was sublime.

Finally they brought the tonkatsu with its sauce and an astonishingly good potato salad but there were several differences from its Japanese and American incarnations – the crust was crisp and almost like that of the 1970’s era KFC and the sauce was less thick but equally tasty. In addition, given the high price of rice today, the bowl presented was most generous.

The soup was presented with the main – as it is in Japan not the States.

The clientele initially was all Japanese or Japanese/French but later turned more French. With a glass of very reasonably priced wine (starting at 12 € a bottle) and the “menu” one easily got out for 30 €.

Go? If in the 18th, with its days open, for sure

*My last meal was April 25th, fully paid for.

L'Agapé - A whiff of Arpege, the resto not the perfume.

4.8 L'Agapé, 51, rue Jouffroy-d'Abbans in the 17th, 01.42.27.20.18, closed Sundays and Mondays, lunch menu at 39 euros, dinner 77 euros and “carte blanche” menu = 110 euros, and finally a la carte is about 70 euros. When Colette and I had cruised it a month ago, the plates listed on the lunch menu in the window (no longer so displayed) just didn’t appeal to us, but since then, all my friends and eGullet colleagues as well as all the Paris food critics have gone and all, without exception, have loved it.

As I’ve noted elsewhere, it is run by two l’Arpege refugees, Laurent Lapaire, ex-director in the front and Bertrand Grebaut at the piano. The produce comes from folks such as Alain Passard’s veggie source, Annie Bertin; meats from Hugo Desnoyer, etc.

I truly entered with an open mind; my last three meals at l’Arpege were fine, full of talent, albeit too much salt, but fine. From the start, my friend sensed pressure.

(Backstory: I had been warned by an eGullet loyal that in discussing me and the Society with the staff, they noted that I had reserved for today*, so maybe they were just trying hard.)

We too had the 39 € lunch menu which has a fixed 1st, choice of fixed fish or meat, and choice of fixed cheese or fixed dessert. The veloutées served as an amuse bouche and 1st course were light and consisted of – let me see here in my notes – ah yes, fennel and orange, then parsley root. Both were light, or did I say that already?, airy and, is there another synonym for light – ah yes, ethereal.

Then we shared a lamb cooked properly rare and a wild merlan cooked properly as well. The product was indeed excellent but halfway along, my friend said – “I don’t get what the fuss was all about, do you? It’s good product, nicely prepared but has no outstanding character.” No, I said, but there’s dessert.

We again shared it: a cheese plate (fixed) Brilliant-Savarin, Tomme de Savoie and a Portuguese cheese I didn’t hear clearly and a blood orange ice on a bed of fresh chilled carrot.

Our wine was recommended by the member of the staff my companion sensed pressure from, who went on and on about it, but was deemed by my wine-knowledgeable friend to be, once again, (you’ve got it) “light.” It was also, despite being young and unfiltered and un-needing aeration, decanted into a trophy glass decanter, which simply seemed pretentious and about which object the sommelier went on about at more length than necessary.

In fact, in retrospect, my guest declared that the whole lunch seemed to be mainly about “show” rather than substance. We had no bottled water, pre or post dinner drinks or coffee; the bill was 105 €.

* Last meal April 25th, fully paid for.

Go? As my friend said “I don’t get what the fuss was all about?" I guess we're simply unrehabilitated peasants.

The Maison de Verre in the 7th. Been on my "life list" for quite a while.

A few years ago Alice Steinbach, in researching her 2005 book, "Educating Alice: Adventures of a Curious Woman," went to the Glass House in Paris and the verbal and written description of her visit then made a lasting impression on me. So, it's been on my "life list" for some while.

Then, my heart sank when I read the New York Times article by Nicolai Ouroussoff a while back implying that the new owners (Stéphane and Robert Rubin of NYC) were restoring it and I gave up hope of ever visiting Pierre Chareau’s 1928-32 masterpiece. The NYT photo link (that is actually from “La Maison de Verre” published by Thames & Hudson) is so much better than mine you should go to the link.

In any case, a few weeks ago a wonderfully thoughtful, informed and kind architectural historian friend, Guio by name, wrote me that he wanted to visit it; did I wish to accompany him? Oh man!

He was somewhat reluctant because he said that not all the rooms were visitable, the guided tour was brief and it was very dear - 40 Euros. Hey, in for a dime, in for a dollar.

It was one of those breakthough Spring days in Paris, brilliantly sunny and suddenly warm after a lousy March and April. After lunch we and 4 others only met our guide, Mary Johnson, who is ironically (along with Rubin) also a "mature" graduate student. Between Guio and Ms Johnson, I had quite a tour and thoroughly enjoyed what may be a house with "cult status" but that I found very intriguing.

We weren't allowed to take photos inside and since pictures are worth more than any of my words, to grasp its unusual beauty, go the NYT's slide show at the link above. Suffice it to say that not all is original; for instance my photo above and the NYT photo of the front glass wall shows replacement panels but the photo below is of those in the back which are originals.

As a physician interested in patient privacy, I was fascinated by Chareau's methods of ensuring that his patron Dr. Jean Dalsace's Gyn patients in his ground floor office were accommodated and separated from the living space. And, as a food nut I loved the dining room table, chairs and vista from the dining room. Unfortunately we didn't see the cuisine.

Ordinary citizens may visit Thursdays at 2 PM, but one must reserve well in advance (Telephone 01.45.44.91.21); only 10 persons are allowed per visit.

A La Petite Chaise - Had to eat around the Maison de Verre in the 7th.

4.2 A La Petite Chaise, 36, rue de Grenelle in the 7th, 01.42.22.13.35, open 7/7. My architectural historian friend Guio and I had a 2 PM rendezvous at the Maison de Verre and so both of inquired about and I walked around places in the immediately vicinity.

Oddly enough, Paris’s oldest (1680) restaurant was in none of the guides except the Zagat which implied that it served French comfort food to annoying American tourists. Well, comfort food it may be, but there was no English being spoken, indeed the downstairs room was full of French geezers, so we fit right in.

We both had the 3-course, 32 € menu (the 23 € one gives one 2 courses, 1 glass of wine and coffee). He started with grated celery that was not over-mayo’d with two types of ham; I had a salad nicely dressed with 4 leeks and proscuitto – both good product and production. Then Guio had the salmon unilaterale which came with a ton of vegetables and I had the joue de boeuf in an intense dark black sauce with potatoes that wasn’t the best I’ve ever had but neither was it the worst.

Finally both of us had the special dessert of the day a banana entremet with dark chocolate sauce that was very good. Our bill (with 2 coffees included, plus ½ bottle of Bordeaux but no bottled water) was 78 €.

Go? If in the same circumstance, yes!.

Le Bis-tro Vin Sobre - Another great “find”; how will this month end?

5.2* Le Bis-tro Vin Sobre**, the second such Vin Sobre in town, Bis-tro, get it, at 35, ave Duquesne in the 7th, open 7/7, took over the former Calmont space (some doors inside still recognize that) a while back and got rather good reviews right off the bat.

I saw its awning saying wines by Bernard, which I thought was cool, but not knowing any Bernard except M. Pivot, proceeded with caution – but the awesome chalkboard of wines, which runs from 16-70 € and has the Saint-Nicolas de Bourgueil from my favorite wine couple in France – the Bretons - so, hey.

The place is glowing and gleaming, full of polyglot UNESCO suit-types and serves up HUGE portions of food (the Cote de Boeuf ten feet away with frites and salad flowing off the plate put Durgin Park to shame).

I started with the croustillant of jamboneau with red pepper and if I hadn’t ordered it myself I’d have thought it was a phyllo wrapped brik of shredded chicken with onions, it was so tasty. I had trouble finishing it and then I was confronted with the daily special – a cote de cochon – huge, with zucchini and sliced-thin red peppers mixed in with a thick sauce of beets – again very good.

Good bread and an “’Antidote St Baume des Terres Promises” wine (any wine from the Promised Land sounds good to me) made the meal even better.

Go? To another hellova meal, no and’s, if’s or but’s about it if I lived/worked nearby - you bet!

*A word about my ratings:
folks, including my precious wife, Colette, ask why I rave about a place and give it what she thinks is a mediocre mark – say a 5.x. Well I:
- think a five is just fine.
- have the scale in my head and however fickle, try to stick to it, and
- am a hard grader, just ask my residents or authors or friends.
** What is the origin of a seeming oxymoron – Vin Sobres? Well, the website of the Village of Vinsobres says it “….probably originates from the Latin words "vin sobris" or "vin sobrio" meaning "wine and work" and indeed it is completely devoted to the making of wine.”
*** My last meal was April 23rd and fully paid for (I was recognized, spoken English to but not comp’d.)

Grannie: Chez Naolo - Another French place with a Japanese chef. What’s up?

5.7 Grannie: Chez Naolo, 27, rue Pierre Leroux in the 7th, 01.47.34.94.14, closed Saturday noon and Sundays, is yet another place Francois Simon “found” that few others have reported on. March 9th he bemoaned the fact that the restaurant was nearly empty while he felt the food was quite good, inventive and creative while building on his Bardet and other training and he worried that the guy was earning less than the SMIC and might therefore return to Japan.

I have little to add to that; same thing today, my neighbor and I were the only diners and the food was way above average. Like Simon, I cannot figure out why (my neighbor posited that it’s the old key to retail sales – location, location, location. It's tucked off way behind the Hopital Necker and Bon Marche.)

In any case, the food is not only good it’s a bargain; 23 for 2-courses at lunch and 3 for 30 €, wines at 15 € a carafe. They started us off with those Japanese cocktail snacks that were no different than one gets in Asian stores, but still, it was a nice touch.

My neighbor ordered a terrine of rabbit and eel that I thought was an incredibly strong pairing and delicious. I had an equally good risotto with shrimp – me who scoffs at any risotto made more that 50 km from Modena.

Then she had morels with other vegetables whose sauce she found strange but I thought was great. I had a rollatine of rabbit stuffed with some sort of forcemeat and pistachios, again quite tasty. It came with incredibly wonderfully-full-tasting asparagus.

Neither of us ordered dessert – me because I was truly stuffed and satisfied and why push our luck? We did have coffee, but no bottled water; thus two formulas and a carafe = 66 €.

Go? I join Simon in imploring you to go so we don’t lose this fine talent because he can’t fill the place, although my dining partner chatted up the waitress and she said things were busier at night.

Opus Vins - Precious, simply precious; and good food and wine too.

5.5 Opus Vins, 72, rue Vasco de Gama in the 15th, 01.42.50.14.91, closed Saturday lunch, Sundays and Monday nights has a 20 € 3-course meal at lunch and with cheese at night it runs 30€. Except for Caroline Mignot and Hostellerie magazine, this place seems to have escaped everyone and that’s a shame, because it’s really quite good. I’d read about it in/on Mignot’s blog and kept waiting for confirmation from another source but finally gave up and went.*

It appears tiny (20 covers in the front room and 10 in back – much like its neighbor Le Beurre Noisette) but it manages apparently. There’s a small ardoise for food (4, 4, 4) but an enormous wine list (vide the name). I started with a pasta with a Calabresi sauce that had capers and grated cheese and what I swear she said was dried fish eggs but they were sliced as if from a roll – delicious.

Then I had a sizeable grilled whole bar (good product esp for the price - 12 €), with great sautéed mushrooms which really set the fine quality of the bar off (although the crushed/diced tomatoes and broccoli added nothing).

I ended with an homage to Colette – a pre-prepared ile flottante, again delicious. The bread was so-so, the coffee superb – so why just 5.5? Well, I dunno, it’s unfair I suppose, but given the nearby competition – Beurre Noisette, Autour du Mont, l’Os a Moelle, etc, it’s got to compete against them for my heart.

But it goes to the top of my list for back-packing relatives; think about it – 20 for 3 courses and a glass of wine for 3.80 = 23.80 €.

Nice, good, affordable – what’s the hitch? None

* My last meal was April 21st, fully paid.