Paris restaurants

bollocks - wd've been good but I haven't been keeping up with ilx recently and missed this. got drunk with french office colleagues on Monday at a murky bar in the 15th a. just under the peripherique and had a dismal Vietnamese on Tuesday.

hope you had a good time!

one more night in paris tomorrow (friday jan 2) if you're around still/again

anyone got any recent tips for places to eat, or just things to do? going for the weekend - mainly going to just relax pre-christmas but any recommendations for things to see or unusual sites of interest would be good. i've been to the big main things over the years.

i'm staying near pigalle metro.

Next time I go to Paris I'm going to visit the Church of Notre Dame de Raincy - 20s modernist concrete, looks incredible.

Our household is on a bit of a Bauhaus kick at the moment and would definitely be heading for the show at the Musee d'Arts Decoratifs which looks vg.

From Bauhaus to steak house

Good advice.

haha, indeed.

South Pigalle is a popular neighborhood right now. Have you been to the Musée Gustave Moreau? If you like À Rebours then this is relevant to your interests. It's in south Pigalle.

ah I've never read that - I probably should!

i'm guessing pigalle will have decent bars, like places with nice music or maybe house/techno? i am travelling solo but might still have a yearning for a bit of liveliness in the evening.

I don't know but I think so? I live just three metro stops away but I just moved to this apartment a couple of weeks ago. I haven't yet learned anything about the music scenes here

au passage was really good when i was there a few years ago & seems to still be? really fun vibe, great food & wine - http://parisbymouth.com/our-guide-to-paris-au-passage/

i havent been to clown bar (which is a restaurant) but i always see photos from it on instagram & makes me wish i still lived in europe - http://wendylyn.paris/eat-drink/city-guide/the-clown-bar/

I spent a very short time in Paris but Cafe Michel was a ridiculous dining experience and the food was great.

it looks amazing - think it might be closed at weekends tho.

i'm going to be near Arc de Triomphe / Champs Elysee this wkend (!?)

I could walk to Chez L'Ami Jean I guess? (Tho it will be cold and I am old)

Any other recs? (Euler?) It's so dispiriting trying to read between the lines of awful TripAdvisor reviews.

what sort of thing are you looking for? i found some good spots on the visit upthread.

Nothing too traditional - but still vaguely French - and not silly money - tho maybe just slightly irresponsible money. Around Champs Elysee it seems like either super fancy (and trad) or just sort of standard brasseries of varying quality, neither of which I'm really after

The best place I went to in my extremely limited experience was called La Cantine Du Troquet, but it looks like that's too far away (it's close to Montparnasse cemetary).

I'm going in a few weeks (to see the Bauhaus show mentioned upthread) - any recs from yr trip appreciated LG.

Around the Champs Elysees is not a good place to eat - full of expensive tourist joints etc. Luckily you're on a metro line that will take you to points east in a matter of minutes though

yeah I've never eaten over there. Batignolles / Porte de Clichy is "happening" now but that's probably further than you'd like to walk.

Yeah. I get in pretty late and want something close to my crash pad. I think I'll walk to Chez L'Ami Jean, it's only like 20 mins!

I will be in Paris for a couple of nights later in the month; we've lots of things planned by way of looking at galleries / architecture but we're trying not to be too precise about what we do when (it'll accord to what we feel like). Any recommendations for places to eat in any of the following categories? Generally speaking, with an eye to the exchange rate, places which aren't terribly expensive much preferred
1) for lunch in the 16th, roughly near Jasmin (though we're happy to walk within reason)
2) dinner anywhere we wouldn't have to book (ie we can decide to go there at the last minute if it makes sense, given we'll be mobile)
3) breakfast within sensible walking distance of Grands Boulevards metro

Happy to hear about anywhere any of you might particularly love though.

the XVIème is like a foreign country to me, out of my price range!

I went to L'Ami Jean. It was fantastic! Very home-style stuff. Dessert was particularly amazing. Also it was Very Expensive. Mains for like 40-60 euros. Wayyyyy out of my price range. But it was great :) Shabby tables, diner style service, but very attentive, the staff all incredibly salty - "Can I have another carafe of water?" "No" *wink*

Last night we went to Le Sot L'y Laisse which was just astonishing. A Japanese chef doing French food, basically. It was out of this world. We had a long comical moment with the staff where we couldn't decide which wine to get - there were 5 of us - and she kept bringing out different bottles, putting a taste in each of our glasses, we'd try it, she'd push us to try another.. I think we tried 5 different bottles! Everything was bold and fresh and good. No heavy rich sauces. There was pigeon and veal and sole. I really recommend it. In common with Chez L'Ami Jean the interior and decoration were perfunctory, slapped together, as if it had been inherited from whatever the previous place had been. Didn't matter. It felt like a privilege to get to sit and eat there (and it was).

http://lefooding.com/en/restaurants/restaurant-le-sot-l-y-laisse-paris

jealous

was there also a prix fixe menu at l'ami jean? i think thats what we got

might depend on where you're staying, tim, but i ate at a place called ambassade auvergne one of my evenings, it was v traditional but enjoyable, i had aligot and sausage, nice atmosphere, amazing chocolate mousse. another evening i went to a place in montmartre called mascotte montmartre, gigantic bowl of mussels with frites. i guess as a solo traveller and someone who hadn't been in paris for a while i was sort of looking for the classics done well, both of these places fitted that bill.

xpost

in my neck of the woods there's a place called En Vrac which sells fabulous wines "en vrac", that's to say you fill up your own bottles (like growlers for beer in the States). the wine is excellent & inexpensive since you do the bottling; they also have a lovely selection of already-bottled wines, mostly natural, as well as some spirits en vrac as well. You can eat there too and have wine by the glass.

Thanks all of you. Now I want to go to all of the places you mention. Euler, en Vrac sounds fab (I really like the sound of these caves with limited but good menus; do you think I'd struggle there with very limited French? (I mean, I can roughly mke myself understood but I'm still well short of decent conversational French, shamefully.)

To be fair it's pretty hard to learn a language!

At En Vrac they talked to my brother in great English.

We didn't make it to En Vrac this time, hope we do in the future.

We did go to Le Sot L'Y Laisse, which we enjoyed as much as Tracer did: the food was spectacular throughout without being flashy (a bit of judiciously-applied foam was the closest it got to being techniquey), and the room was a pleasure to be in: the staff were so ridiculously nice and everyone in the tiny place seemed to be having a good time. Us included. It's not often I go to a restaurant and think that it isn't really like any other restaurant I've been to (at least, I rarely think that in a positive way) but this place seemed really unique.

Other places we enjoyed this weekend: Au Passage, which is the familiar (for London) concept of small plates, which (in London) can involve a lot of mediocrity inbetween a few really good things; not so here, where everything was delicious and the staff seemed very happy to accommodate my terrible French and slip comfortably into English as soon as they needed to. We were very pleased with the place.

We also walked into a place called Racines for a late lunch after our train arrived too late for us to wander about, largely because it was super-close to our hotel and I had half a memory of reading a good review. This too was delicious, I had some lamb dish which seemed more or less perfect, J was just as pleased with her sole PLUS the wine we drank, after having asked for a glass of house white, was probably the best thing we drank all weekend. That's in a weekend which involved tremendous cocktails in Pas de Loup and The Red House amongst others.

I'm pretty sure the Parisian food and drink trade is much, much more tolerant of bad French than it was 20 years ago.

(The concrete church in La Raincy which I mentioned upthread is an absolute marvel, by the way, and justified the trip on its own, but that's off-topic I guess.)

I'm pleased to say this was overall the best weekend in Paris I've had, even in the cold and the wet. Well done Paris.

OURRA!

Hi all, I'll be in Paris for a few days in mid-late May with my wife. Does anyone have any good recommendations for a nice romantic dinner? Where I can still get a reservation for a Thurs-Mon in a month's time? Willing to travel a bit, but I'll be staying in the Marais if that helps :)

Any suggestions would be very welcome! For a reference point, I tried to get a table at 'Frenchie' but sadly couldn't get anything on the days I'll be there (it looks great and the reviews are pretty stellar, so I'll throw that out there as a rec for the thread). Also doesn't have to be French cuisine either.

Finding a reservation for a nice dinner someplace is no problem. For an "event" restaurant, though, I have no idea. My favorite restaurant in the Marais is Chez Nenesse but it's only an event in terms of having the best frites in Paris, if you make it for Thursday lunch. Otherwise it's a local stalwart, where everyone seems to know everyone.

Cool, thanks for the rec. Best frites sounds good! I'll add it to the list.

I was able to get a reservation at Verjus which sounds nice http://verjusparis.com/ but would gladly take any other recommendations in addition to the ones upthread.

not a restaurant, but i recommend cocktails in the bar at hotel maison souqet in pigalle. some of the best cocktails i've had - i was a guest so you may need to book, but it is extremely nice.

not romantic, but really fun and delicious and a good deal:

https://www.relaisentrecote.fr/

got a few recommendations from a couple of winemakers. haven't been to any of them yet, but will be in Paris in January probably, so will aim to check one or possibly two out:

Les Arlots, r. du Fauberg Poissonière (came v highly recommended)
Bistrot Paul Bert, and the nearby cousin, specialising in fish, L'Ecailler du Bistrot, both on r Paul Bert
Le Clown Bar, r Amelot

Those are all ones I’ve heard of but haven’t tried. Maybe I’ll try les Arlots over the vacances, that one sounds particularly nice and I live pretty close by.

L'Avant Comptoir (wine bar) is a little too popular but I always have fun every time I go. They opened a seafood centric version right next door (quieter, but they have some seating). I also really like Le Verre Vole for a super casual lunch (great selections of natural wines). There is also La Cave Paul Bert, but the vibe is a little too off for me. Les Campagnie des Vins Surnaturel (there is also one in NYC) has a lot more seating and also has an excellent wine list, some small foods, boho furniture.

Also, I feel like the Thai food is better in Paris than NYC. That could just be me though. For a bucket list splurge, I do think L'Arpege is worth it (the lunch cost especially).

I was there a month ago and Pottoka was really, really great.

Where do you go for Thai in Paris? I’ve never had it here though I nearly decided to go to a place on the canal for lunch today (made yaki udon at home instead cuz I got lazy). On Thursday I’ll be in the 13th most of the day so I was thinking of a Thai place down there too.

There are a several really good ones around where all the bars are in Place D'Italie. I also think Mme Shawn is fine (plus they have tofu if someone needs a veg friendly place).

yeah the 13th is probably where I gotta go. I teach there one evening a week but I’m rarely there for lunch

Oh wait, I am thinking of the wrong stop. Place D'Italie is too big, this one is smaller and had the spigots of natural water that you can fill your water jugs.

Maybe I am thinking of Corvisart nearby, but the general area is right. Also, Mme Shawn has a couple of locations.

Going to be in Paris early December for a few nights, some really interesting recommendations from this thread (Les Arlots, Bistrot Paul Bert), anything else taken anyone's fancy since the last post?

I had a good experience at La Cave de Belleville this summer after hitting the Raviolis Nord Est. I am adding both to my set list of places I always go while in Paris.

This is probably lame, but the sushi is really mediocre where I live so we do go to the Matsuris in Paris and Lyon all the time, especially because of the La Fourchette 40% off deal. I love conveyor belt sushi.

Cool, I didn’t know we had conveyer belt sushi here! Are any of the locations in particular easy to get a seat at?

I find them all easy to get a seat at. But I also eat kind of early. I usually try to do 30 minutes after the lunch or dinner service starts so there is more stuff out on the belt. But you can also just order from the menu whenever. I think they all have slightly different menus.

I have absolutely never seen one full, but they also don't have the 30-40% off at primetimes I guess. You can see on la fourchette times when it's available.

Went to a place called Baieta (think it was in the left bank?) this summer and it knocked my socks off. Pricey but awesome. And another place called Petite Keller that was more boho and Asian fusion. Excellent as well.

La Fourchette is a great tool these days. I feel a little bad using the discounts at the Eritrean restaurant nearby, but on the other hand the discounts are how I found the place.

Yeah, i usually get embarrassed about groupon discount types of things but Matsuri is too pricey for the quality without it otherwise. And they are always really seamless in just putting the discount on. We used it to try an ethiopian restaurent near Jaures last time too.