Thanks to you all! The EASY PART of my upcoming Paris trip’s eating itinerary…bistro, steak, seafood, cheap eats… etc is now completed. For those of you who are interested, our final picks will come from the following:
L’Ami Jean
Josephine Chez Dumonet
Sacree Fleur
Chez Fernand
Le Comptoir de la Gastronomie or Le Petit Canard ( for Foie Gras (seared) )
Eels
Enfants du Marche
L’As du Fallafel
Comptoir de Mers or Sea Bar Paris Perche ( Fish soup )
Seulement Sea or Le Crabs Marteau ( seafood for me, Crab for my companion )
Now comes the HARD PART…Michelin One Star Restaurants!!
Our evaluation/selection criteria hope to centre on highly rated eateries featuring good value tasting menu with creative and delicious yet not too ‘overly-funky’ food. We have left out ’ Septime ’ since we knew the former sous-chef Daniel Hadida in person and had been eating a lot of this ex-Septime Alumni food here in Toronto. The other omission is ’ Auguste ’ due to recent, very inconsistent rating which made me feel quite unease.
So far, my short-listed choices for 1*, which I need to pick either 2 or 3 for both lunch and dinner are:
Montee
L’Innocence
AT
Pertinence
L’Arcane
La Condesa
Alliance
Based on all your experiences…any ’ stand-out ’ must eat amongst my short list or can I just close my eyes and pick any three at random?! Right now I am leaning towards Montee, L’Innocence and La Condesa. My hope and rationale being… try to pick ‘up & coming’ chefs who might gain additional Michelin stars in the future…like I did with eating at L’Arpege years ago, when Passard just got his one star and the rest is history!..or David Toutain when he was just a one star!
As for 2*-3*, we are hoping to put in a couple of side trips to Reims ( Assiette Champenoise ) or down south to Burgundy ( Lameloise, Trois Gros or La Cote St. Jacques… ). In my opinion, these ‘outside-of-Paris’ destinations provide better value when comes to multi-star experience?!
Thank you again and looking forward to another round of interesting exchanges!
My parisian upper lip is curling with disdain at some of your typical tourist choices for your food crawl. For many of the dishes you are seeking, Chez Monsieur, Aux Crus de Bourgogne, La Grande Bistro, Bouillon République, etc would seem to be better choices than the ones you have made.
For your one-stars, Montée is currently starless but deserves to have its star returned. L’Arcane is less enjoyable than it used to be but the food is still starworthy. La Condesa is both enjoyable and starworthy. Alliance deserves to be on everybody’s short list.
Granite seems to be startling omission… why?
For a rarified experience, lunch at 2-star Le Clarence is also a relative bargain.
" Aux Crus de Bourgogne, La Grande Bistro, Bouillon République etc "…in fact they were are my initial list! But I removed them, at random, since the list was getting too long! May be I’ll recheck their menu and re-insert the interesting ones, trying to avoid too many dish-replication in the process?!
BTW, did your comment on ’ better choices’ based on taste and food execution or other factors?..like less touristy and better value?!
Lastly, thanks for the ‘Granite’ and ‘Le Clarence’ recommendation. Will check out menu and make decision…too many choices, too little time!1 Sigh!!
I think both Joséphine Chez Dumonet and Chez Fernand Christine were chosen for the boeuf bourguignon, no ? How many beef stews do you you want ? And neither are cheap. Just because I loathe the geriatric and claustrophobic yet somehow tourist-pleasing Joséphine, I’d choose Chez Fernand Christine (and careful there is another more run-of-the-mill Chez Fernand in the 6th).
And I’m mystified that a local bistro Sacrée Fleur in a rather dull and not altogether aesthetically pleasing part of the 18th is chosen as a destination resto for steaks. It’s not in Montmartre but is in walking distance of Sacré Coeur and gets a lot of tourists but is the trek worth it ? Les Provinces in the vibrant Aligre quartier doesn’t appeal ? Or there haven’t been enough English-language reviews to persuade you to go for the superior steaks and other meat ?
My choices are made on quality of the ingredients, execution/ made from scratch, and authentic parisian vibe. If I were making choices solely based on the price/ quality ratio, I’d choose Bouillon République, Bouillon Julien, Petit Bouillon Pharamond, Bouillon Pigalle, Brasserie Bellanger, Brasserie Dubillot, etc.
L’Innocence, Pertinence and Alliance are among our regular repeats. And I would add Automne in the 11th.
Last October we had no complaints with our lunch at 2-star Le Gabriel in La Réserve. I’ve also heard great things about Parn’s suggestion Le Clarence and would like to try it as well.
Oooh Pertinence is in a great location for a meal for my May trip, but I can’t find a menu online. Do you know if you can order ala carte for lunch and dinner, and if so, since we don’t eat seafood, would this be a good spot for us?
For the record, I dumped Le Train Bleu from my list due to a friend’s recent bad dining experience.
Trish, I wouldn’t focus on menus because 1) they change regularly and you probably won’t get the menu you saw on-line in any case and 2) any competent chef in Paris will improvise a no-seafood tasting menu if you specify your preferences at the time of booking. Usually on the booking form there is a demandes particulières/ special requests section.
Probably… and far fewer English speaking visitors in Paris to write reviews. The tourist radar usually has a huge time-lapse and tends to favour the lowest common denominator rather than quality.
Although Ptipois and I used to regularly cross swords on Chowhound, we both agreed that Le Clarence was our favorite 2-star by far. So that’s more than ample confirmation of its excellence, I think. And it’s the only multi-star that pennypincher moi would ever go to without an expense account. It’s that good !
I had Montée and AT for lunch and l’Arcane and Condesa as dinner. I would say Montée and l’Arcane are quite close in style. While AT and Condesa both have a distinctive style. I like my l’Arcane’s meal the best but it was before their price change. But it’s possible, I will recommend le Clarence’s lunch, worth every penny, with endless number of small plates.
They (Pertinence) used to offer à la carte at both lunch and dinner. Not sure at the moment since their website just lists a blank carte. But the chef is very responsive to emails - even in English - so just ask him. The tasting menu does include a fish course. The lunch menu is 3 courses and in the past we have had fish or meat, but I don’t recall whether there was a choice each time. But as Parn said just “specify your preferences at the time of booking”.
We’ve eaten there several times. Once or twice we chose a menu, and other times my wife and I had different choices. At our last visit in January with French friends, we all took a lunch menu. To my mind it’s the best restaurant I’ve ever eaten in.
