The past week Colette and I hosted our two 10 year old grandkids and while they’ve both been to France a couple of times before, it’s always been with their parents. So we learned something about: (1) their tastes and (2) finding places near destinations.
The Breizh Café was our choice the first day because I thought it would break them into the French resto scene easily. Unfortunately, they were really jet-lagged and sleepy, having watched movies all night on the plane, so one had just a green salad (which portion was most generous but whose dressing had no character) and the other a crepe with Valhrona cocolate, which was quite good. Colette didn’t rave about her galette with Forme d’Ambert, pine nuts, grapes, honey and salad but I loved mine with raclette and pork poitrine and an egg. We finished with a crepe with caramel sauce and ice cream that was yummy. The bill with wine and coffee = 70 €.
Day 2 we went to Bofinger at the recommendation of an American in Paris who was dazzled by it when she first came. We hadn’t been in 20 years but it looked unchanged. It had a children’s menu, priced at 12.50, and a formula at 18.50 €. They shared a salmon plate which was cooked en papillote while Colette had OK mackerel in a pallid mustard sauce and I an OK onion soup followed by a gigantic pig’s foot (little protein, however) with fries. The girls ended up with two balls of vanilla ice cream while Colette had the café gourmand and I plain coffee; both of which were perhaps the worst of the century. Our bill was 71.20 €.
The third day (a third brilliantly sunny, warm one) we trekked out to Versailles and while I’ve eaten at the Trois Marches under Gerard Vie, the Veranda with Gordon Ramsay, l’Angelique and several of the fungible places sprawling along the Avenue de St Cloud, Colette didn’t want to take the time required to leave the grounds once we’d seen the Petit Trianon, which had recently reopened in time for the Sarkozy/Bruni marriage. Looking at the options within the grounds, I chose La Flotille by the Grand Canal. It has a lot, a lot, of covers and a huge menu and the kids quickly settled on and devoured all their chicken nuggets and some of their fries and salad. Colette meanwhile had a tolerable salade Nicoise with rice and I a not-terribly-interesting saucisse d’Auvergne, ditto fries and salad. The bill with wine and coffee was 77.20 €. A footnote. While Colette and the girls toured the palace I went for a coffee: just opposite the toilets, near the group entrance to the Chateau, is a café/tea salon/resto called the Café d’Orleans, where I plotzed for an hour. It’s not at all bad, uncrowded, good service and very bright.
Not far from the museum strip along the Avenue President Wilson is Noura, where we often get take-out desserts but haven’t eaten a real meal at in a few decades. Lately it’s been written up quite negatively and now I see why. While the welcome was welcoming, the olives and pepper amuse-bouches good and menu appealing, the dishes were uneven. The ladies started with what were called pizzas in both French and English, but consisted of a piece of pita cut in 4, with finely chopped meat and spices on top. One ate a 1/4th, the other 3/4ths but I finished them all and thought that they were the hit of the meal. Colette had three brochettes; one of lamb was perfectly undercooked, good product and terrific, the chicken one was OK and scarfed up by the girls but the beef brochette was terribly tough and unappealing to all. Likewise my beef schwarma was similar – just awful product, badly prepared with not enough spice to make it at all edible. We had no dessert there but still took some home for dinner (and they were terrific). With wine, 2 starters, 2 mains and 2 coffees our bill was 94.25 €, easily the worst price-quality ratio yet.
Sunday was our day for Lao Lane Xang 2 (which we’ve been frequenting lately). Like Ze Kitchen Galerie and Spring, I’m sure I’m getting a bit boring bragging about it. We reserved for 12h15 but were unexpectedly delayed and showed up at 13h50. There was a line inside and outside and I had a list of ten other “fall-backs” in the area and the Leon of Brussels nearby if I failed to plead my case successfully before the court. We entered; I pulled on my sparse forelock; “I’m a bit late, due to unforeseen circumstances” (in French; “Ahhh, je suis desolé…..ahhhh”), he “A bit late, I’d say very late” with a big smile, but here’s your table – past the legions of locals spilling out the door. Who says the French are rude, don’t stand up for old folk on the Metro, push in front in lines, and shove in front of you in watching videos?; not me. We ordered two brochettes of chicken for the kids (which we would never have ordered save for Christopher Haatuft, the Norwegian Chef, in January, who raved about them – he was right!) Also wonderful were: the pork caramel (not a true descriptor) with lemon grass; mussels with hot (not really by our standards) sauce, and lacquered duck with bok choy (also supposedly “hot”.) Colette liked her tapioca called coco and banana, the kids were fine with ices, but I thought my assortment of four Thai desserts was splendid. Bill (with wine and 2 coffees) 103.20 €.
Monday, now a cruel day for lunch restos in Paris, Le Soufflé was on our route in the 1st and a suggestion by two real Parisian critics for an ideal kids’ place. We entered to a bursting-full place and were treated like royalty. The kids and Colette had the Express Menu (25 €) that included wine or water and a starter and dessert soufflé as well as a very big, good salad. I ordered the Tout Soufflé menu for 31 €. All in all, we tried the salmon, Henri IV, forest, boar, apples with calva, chocolate, pistachio and raspberry ones. With two awful coffees, wine and a full bottle of Evian, our bill was 124 €. An extra point goes for the Beethoven Piano Concerto playing in the bathroom.
The last time we had the brood here, just before Colette and I arrived in Paris, they went to a Leon de Bruxelles and all loved it, so the Les Halles location was smack in the middle of our itinerary today and I took the two girls while Colette dealt with plumbing problems (as in tuyaux not urologie). We all three had the lunch menu with a nice mixed salad to begin. Then they had the mussels and penne and I had the fish (nice crisp cod I believe) and frites; we thus sampled pretty much the core of their offerings. The kids then had ice cream and sorbets and I the crème caramel, all of which were finished with pleasure. The bill with wine, soft-drinks and one coffee was 61.60 €.
Excuse me, I wanna know if I can take your picture of Le Soufflé. I want to write an article about it (really delicious), but I don't have a picture of the front.
Thx
Posted by: Erato | March 17, 2011 at 06:06 PM
With pleasure; just credit John Talbott's Paris. Thanks
Posted by: John Talbott | March 18, 2011 at 08:50 AM