I love my meals at Pirouette, many good reviews of Tomy et Co. @Plragde is right about the new chef at Pirouette, good criticism in the French press.
While I like Aspic: the price value is incredible, I think at times the plates lacked of focus, I got the feeling a lot of ingredients were tossed together and got a bit lost. And there was a bit too much repetition of the same ingredients in each plate. I think this is more a problem of a young chef.
Montée, will be eating this week-end, will post back. I tried to google it up online, not much French press yet.
Looking at your choices, I recommended Quinsou - opened in Sep or October 2016, we had an excellent meal there, you can see the review here. If you like Clown Bar, I would recommend you try Saturne, much more refined, I had an excellent birthday meal last year. Or maybe AT, a bit different from most of your choices and more experimental (review here).
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If you like Clown Bar, I would recommend you try Saturne, much more refined, I had an excellent birthday meal last year.
[/quote]I guess I overlooked Clown Bar; for me it’s good, but not truly exciting the last couple of times I’ve been. As for Saturne, I had a marvelous meal there three years ago, then a mediocre at best one 2-1/2 years ago, and then a disastrous one last year with a friend who is an internationally-famous chef and wanted to go (he now agrees that it’s a permanent no-go).
I also overlooked l’Abri. I had no problem getting in for lunch by phoning a few days in advance last spring. And by 1.15, people could have walked in from the street and gotten a table. Definitely worth the effort to go – it was very impressive.
I think Fulgurances chooses chefs with a strong personal style, you won’t be left indifferent. If you like Vietnamese cooking, you won’t be disappointed.
I talked to the chef today, unfortunately this is the case. Montée will be closing for a month starting from end of Feb. Chef said he needs to enlarge the kitchen.
well, with a lot of maneuvering, looks like my dining schedule is set and im very excited. thanks to everyone for their input.
mon dinner - le grand bains (small plates-ish, new-ish, hip-ish)
tue lunch - le mazenay
tue dinner - abri or aspic (depends on if i get into abri…japanese-ish)
wed lunch - alliance
wed dinner - tomy and co
thur lunch - fulgurances (with new chef)
Yup a range of different choices, I heard a lot of interesting stuff about Abri, especially from Le Fooding.
Always get mixed up Le grand bains and Les Bains, which is also a newish place, very stylish in the 3e. All these “Bains”, they should stop taking bath now and get to cook, getting confused!
For some reason there is a fair amount of acceptable, if not very good, Japanese food in the 2e. The last three places were all very good, we actually found Kintaro because there was a huge line at lunch.
Most of these places are also convenient to the Louvre, the theatres (Opera Bouffes, Comedie Francaise, Olympia, Garnier, Edouard VII), and shopping (Galleries Lafayette, rue de Rivoli, Vendome) if you are visiting any of these.
In the 2e I also like Cafe de le Paix for a coffee and dessert or drink and snack (interior is worth it alone, but food is only average and expensive). We also like la Fontaine Gaillon, a Paris institution with another great interior, and a good 55 euro fixed price lunch.
I’m also pretty sure that none of these places, with the possible exception of Frenchie, are on the NY Times/Bourdain map of Paris.
From your list, you must like hearty good bistrot food.
I have been to Aki, lines queuing from their basement till the street level at meal times for their very good Okonomiyaki - Japanese omelette.
As for Guibine, I think I had a meal with my brother when he was visiting me in Paris when he was working in London. I don’t recall much of the meal it was like 14 years ago.
I don’t know Kintaro, I will give it a try next time when I’m craving for Japanese food. Thanks.
What do you think of the list from eater.com? My wife and I walked down rue Sainte-Anne once, and I remember being amazed by the concentration of Japanese places, with a few Koreans thrown in. But I didn’t remember where it was. Now it is starting to look like a “destination”.
From the list, I have been to the first one Kunitoraya, went a few times, their ramen were quite alright, not a lot of choice but they know what they are doing.
Most other places in Sainte Anne were okay, Okonomiyaki, ramen, grills. Some you have the feeling of local canteen, you need to get up and to fill your mug with the tea machine. Others places serve simple nice street food. Don’t come here to expect elaborate meal. There are a few more expensive places that I haven’t try out and no idea if they are interesting.
If you read about the history of rue Sainte Anne, it used to be a street where the gay gathered up until the 80’s, and starting from 2000, the Japanese restaurants replaced the gays (they go to le Marais now)… Slowly you see the Korean too.
If you like ramen, I recommended Ippudo, a new place opened last year, review here
When we crave for Japanese food, we usually go to Foujita 2, close to Tuileries. They have a bit of everything, sushi, noodles, rice, nothing particularly fancy but usually everybody is happy.
We usually visit Paris in a colder season to avoid the crowds, so hearty is good.
Also, when touristing we don’t always have the time for a long lunch. We will go to maybe one Michelin star place per visit, but that is two and a half hours done properly.
Finally, given a choice, I would much rather eat in Lyon than Paris. I think Bourgogne really has the best food in France. Provence, Alsace and Normandie are also good.
