[Paris] Day 5-6: Le MaZenay, Les Canailles Pigalle, Montée

[k_man]

Third (and final) part of my 6-day trip to Paris, as a solo traveler. You helped me with a lot of very nice suggestions, so here’s how it all turned out.

I’m struggling a bit with this last report and it has to do with Le MaZenay (which was my least favorite meal) and Les Canailles (which was one of my favorites). In both cases, I find it hard to explain why that is. I guess it’s just a matter of liking that particular dish, feeling comfortable in that particular place, feeling a connection with that particular waiter.

Le MaZenay
My lunch on day 5. I arrived at about 12:50, finding the place completely empty - there wasn’t a single guest, apart from me. So I settled at my table, wondering why nobody was there. And then, in the next 15 minutes or so, people kept coming and coming, until all but two table were occupied. Apparently all their reservations were for 1 pm?

Anyway, I had the lunch menu, with a main and a dessert and I didn’t like it all that much. Maybe just unlucky choices on my behalf. The main was ‘pork shoulder from the lagast mountains roasted with saté, coconut milk sauce’. Three large slices of meat, which came with some cauliflower. The cauliflower wasn’t very interesting and I didn’t really recognize the saté.

The dessert ‘white cheese mousse and Corsican clementines, Breton shortbread’. I thought this sounded interesting, but it wasn’t. The cottage cheese didn’t have much taste of itself and nothing had been done with the clementine, except peeling it and putting the segments on top of the cottage cheese. I found that quite disappointing. I can peel a clementine, I don’t need a chef for that.

Les Canailles Pigalle
In my mind this place is quite similar to Le MaZenay, but I liked this a whole lot better. It’s not on an attractive street, and the place itself doesn’t look very special either. I really had my doubts beforehand, I was even thinking about not going there at all, after it took them more than two days to confirm my reservation. On the other hand, reviews seemed to all be quite positive and it was only a 5 minute walk from my hotel.

I really liked the staff. I guess it’s the difference between being friendly, cause your profession requires you to be, and being a genuinely friendly person, who really wants to make an effort and be sure his guest is having a pleasant dinner. In my mind, all three waiters at Les Canailles were in that last category.

I also liked the food, a lot. Started with the foie gras, then the sirloin of beef and finally the chocolate fondant. Classic dishes, but done so well.

Montée
I said Les Canailles de Pigalle was one of my favorites, Montée was the other. Had lunch there on my final day in Paris. There were only three guests, including me. I guess a 7 course lunch on a weekday, isn’t for everybody. But it’s a small restaurant, so even with only three guests, it didn’t feel deserted.

I loved every course. The taste of course, but also how they looked. Little pieces of art.

0. Cheese cookie and paprika chip
   

   

1. Beets, yogurt, parsnips
   

   
   
   ‘Mix before you eat’, I was told
   
   

2. Scallops, nasturtium, celeriac, black olive
   

   
   
   Such a prefect looking plate, loved how this looked (and tasted)

3. Cod, almond
   

   

4. Red mullet, mint, potato
   

   

5. Quail, foie gras, grapes
   

   

6. Additional dish: Comté cheese 2019
   

   
   
   Sorry, I took my first bite before I remembered to take a picture

7. Pineapple, meringue, coconut
   And then I completely forgot to take a picture, which is a shame, cause this looked really pretty. A bowl of meringue, filled with pineapple and coconut. Very fresh, but with a little ‘sting’ too, in a good way.

8. Caramel, popcorn
   

   
   
   It tastes like popcorn, but the texture is nothing like it. They are very little, fluffy flakes, that melt on your tongue. ‘Eat slowly’, I was told. And also, ‘the chef is a bit crazy…’.

X. Coffee, marshmallow

[sfcarole (Carole)]

Great report and photos, K_man, thank you!

The first time we went to Mazenay in Sept. 2017, we liked it a lot. In October the same year, some dishes were good, some just okay. The last time we were there in June 2019, we didn’t like anything we were served. The filet de boeuf was nice and saignant, but very chewy. And I’ve always found the atmosphere a bit somber although it seems to draw a lot from the neighborhood. I know some on HO like Le Mazenay, but we haven’t been back although it’s close to the apartment we rent.

Les Canailles Pigalle looks great! It was on our list, but the week we were set to go the menu online wasn’t exactly what we were in the mood for. So we went to Flocon instead and saved Les Canailles Pigalle for the next trip.

Montée is definitely a place we have enjoyed many times - more for lunch than dinner. But the chef is very slow in changing out the menu so we haven’t been since Spring 2019. Your photos tell me that it’s time to check it out again.

[VaPaula (Paula)]

We loved Les Canailles - glad to hear it was one of your favorites. I’ve never seen citrus served like that in a restaurant! They’re usually in supremes. Weird. Thanks for another great report!

[rrems (Robert Rems)]

We tried Mazenay last fall and were totally unimpressed. Very little choice, same garnish on every dish (in this case butternut squash which I hate). The food was so ho-hum.

Canailles sounds great. The menu offers a good number of choices. Going on my list for September.

By the way, I love your posts, Carole. Very informative.

[plragde (Prabhakar Ragde)]

I’ll piggyback on this thread for my last report from our June 2024 trip, an update on Les Canailles Pigalle. My partner got approval to host the two chairs of international standards committees she liaises with (normally remotely, but they were all attending the same meeting) for a dinner. There was no set budget from her nonprofit org but they don’t have deep pockets, so I thought a dinner menu would make the most sense. I would go along, but my share wouldn’t be covered. Les Canailles was close to the meeting venue and thus to the hotels the two chairs were staying in. An alternative would have been the related Comptoir des Canailles, just a few doors down the street, but that room is perpendicular to the street and thus darker, while Les Canailles has two rooms running along the street, with large windows, some of which (like the one by us) were open. The early reservations had a two-hour limit, so we chose to arrive at 20:00, and in the end left at something like 22:15, but that way we didn’t have to think about time. Reservations can be made online (that was true for all of our choices, quite appreciated).

You will notice some resemblance of the menu to the one that @k_man posted above. I concur that the atmosphere was really convivial and the servers quite pleasant. I particularly liked the “sommelier”, who looked, acted, and spoke like the working-class hero of a 1960’s black-and-white French comedy. I enjoyed not only interacting with him, but watching him interact with diners at other tables.

Because there were three of us drinking wine, not just me, I could look at the bottles list with more than casual interest. I noticed “Attention Chenin Méchant” in the whites. By coincidence I had looked this up at lunch, since I saw a bottle on the bar at Eunoé. It seemed a good choice. But what arrived did not have the name in large block letters on the front label, which is what let me look it up from my Eunoé table in the front corner of the room. Instead it was a special label for the Olympics. Sort of.

Label whimsy aside, it was a good choice for our entrées, and was low-alcohol enough for my partner to have a glass, which is rare in Parisian restaurants. She and I both had the white asparagus, while the chairs had the ceviche and the tongue carpaccio.

Having just met our dining companions, it would have been inappropriate for me to ask for tastes of their food, but they proclaimed it good. Our asparagus was also quite good, though the chorizo didn’t really add anything.

We finished the first bottle, and I asked for the wine list. While I was perusing the reds, the sommelier tried briefly to upsell me on a 70€ Faugères, but mindful of the budget, I went with something more modest, which proved to be still quite good.

This is from Corbières, but doesn’t carry the appellation (just VdF), I think because it is 100% Carignan, single parcel, naturally fermented, unfiltered.

My partner and I very rarely eat beef at home, and not often in restaurants, but we went with the faux filet, as did one of the chairs, while the other chose the fish.

Note the difference in presentation from the identically-described dish above. This was a serious amount of meat, at least twice what I needed. Honestly, it got a little monotonous near the end, because there wasn’t enough jus, mushroom sauté, or potato puffs to balance out the meat. I could have used a vegetable or two, and maybe a sharper knife. But it was prepared properly, and tasted good.

For dessert, I chose the Grand Marnier soufflé, my partner and one chair the feuilleté aux fraises, and the other took the crémeux au citron. The soufflé was not only a great success in terms of rising, but had a pronounced and pleasant flavour.

It’s sometimes fraught having a first meal with people you don’t know well, but our dining companions proved to be good conversationalists, and I think they appreciated the setting and food. It was also a representative last meal out in Paris, not a blowout, not at all touristy, a solid choice. An address worth keeping in mind.

Thanks to all on HO who helped us make our choices, and I hope my reports, while not breaking any major new discoveries, help clarify things for future visitors. Looking forward to our next trip.

[Carmenere]

Fond Cyprès, good choice. Excellent natural Roussillon wines for a reasonable price. A few in AOP Corbières and the rest in Vin de France. I tend to prefer the whites, which are both mature, balanced and incredibly fresh.

[plragde (Prabhakar Ragde)]

Unknown to me before this, but was the somellier’s second choice to pair with our beef (after the Faugères) and the dude knew what he was talking about!