I hear you, @ParnParis. I didn’t of course mean that true Parisian bistros can’t offer anything new or exciting to us New Yorkers. I meant merely that more and more bistrot-ish restaurants in NYC are introducing trad French dishes beyond stereotypical fare like Steak and Frites. Chou Farci, for example, wasn’t on any menu here even a couple of years ago. But now I see it popping up as a special in several places. But your suggestion on trying dishes that I typically may not find here is a great one, and one I am aspiring to.
Aux Crus de Bourgogne is already on my list as per your earlier suggestion, and I have been eyeing Café des Ministères too (though I read that a reservation is hard to come by). Not sure it’s in the same category, L’Assiette also looks interesting.
@onzieme in the 9th, I think I am definitely going to make it to Perception and Petrelle. Not sure of only-in-paris experiences in the 17th and 20th (I see Des Terres from the NYT story is in the 20th). Will take suggestions!
Wow, you’re a lot younger than I though you were, Parn, given you encyclopedic knowledge of a French restaurants, the current claim of only having had boeuf bourguignon twice and your previously mentioned every 11 year boeuf bourguignon meal coming up in a year or 3. That would make you at most, let me see, umm… 32
Try Coretta in the 17th, Sadarnac in the 20th. If you go to the former, it’s worth your while spending some time in the Batignolles quartier where it’s located. If you go to the latter, it’s worth your while spending some time in the surrounding Charonne area.
Andy aka Monsieur Wicked, I’m now 40-something. I didn’t have my first boeuf bourguignon until my mid-20s and second time in my late 30s. It’s something that reminds me of school lunches but I have no memory of it when I was younger and it’s not really a part of the usual parisian diet in any case. Lots of surprisingly good daubes d’agneau/ lamb stews, blanquette de veau, and chou farci for school lunches though and, at least at my schools, hardly any of the kid/ teenage food that seems so common in the US and elsewhere. But that’s just BTW.
Re Des Terres/ NYT pick. For me, a quandary. I like the food—and even more, the prices— at Des Terres but the location in a relatively uninteresting and occasionally forlorn part of the 20th makes it difficult. I love a before and after and, in the immediate vicinity, very few options for that. I am also usually more drawn to perhaps more unique Grand Bain on street-art-paradise rue Denoyer for my hip Belleville jaunts. Although difficult to fairly compare one meal at Des Terres with multiple meals at Grand Bain, the cuisine is better at the former but the latter wins for overall experience and enjoyment. Ah, the sweet anguish of Paris’s restaurant “embarrass du choix”.
I’m glad to hear that the food (& prices) are good at Des Terres, since our rental apt this coming May is at that end of the 11th (near where Voltaire intersects with rue A. Dumas), only a 10 minute walk away. Hopefully, the area will be less forlorn by spring but, if not, we’ll walk halfway back after dinner and have drinks at Fulgurances wine bar.
Sadarnac seems very interesting. Will have a look at Coretta too. My shortlist is turning into a very long list. The only solution is to visit Paris more often I suppose.
Btw, I really liked the look of Jeanne Aimee, but anyone visit post shift to no-choice menu during dinner? And is lunch not as good?
I’m the one who learned (through experience) of the change at dinner. I haven’t been back since, but the lunch menu posted on the website indicates that the lunch format is now the traditional two or three courses from entrée, plat, dessert.
Last November we enjoyed a memorable lunch at Le Clarence, also in the salle à manger Pontac where the wood paneling is incredibly beautiful. And I think I drank one glass of wine and two half glasses (my limit!). I never even looked at the wine list but left the choices to the som.
For a romantic dinner check out Les Climats in the 7e. And maybe Jake @Deuxchevaux can chime in on same. And I don’t think the current photos on their website reflect the warm ambiance of the restaurant. They also have a killer lunch deal btw. That all said Petrelle looks quite inviting. I haven’t been, but plan to visit this November.
I’m certain the food remains exceptional! And if you have stomach to go at lunch, I think that is the way I would go, if I could. I think maybe @onzieme went for dinner in the new era, and said the food remained excellent. I think I am just pouting some because I’m not a huge fan of no choice menus (often something I just don’t like on the menu, I find). That said, there are plenty of restaurants with “surprise” or no choice menus that I have loved over the years. I think I wouldn’t be going back as often as I was going back to Jeanne Aimee in the last year. And I kept going back because I loved the cooking so much. Sure when I see a menu that is really appealing (and actually the current one really is, but I have had some of the dishes before), I will jump on it!
Thank you! I might try Jeanne Aimee for lunch then.
On Le Clarence — yes, my wife and I plan to have a couple of wines by the glass, or split the pairing at the most, so am not too worried about the sky-high bottle prices there. But anyone have a view on their 3-sequence (130e) vs 4-sequence (180e) lunch menu? The 4 sequence worth the premium, or overkill?
Les Climats, where we had dinner in July, may have been our best of six or seven visits there. On this occasion the atrium was closed for a private party, and so for the first time we dined in the main room — in the middle under the mirrored wall/ hutch, where we had fabulous views of the lovely setting. Service was better than ever.
We will happily return. Before then, however, we will book at Le Clarence, despite the one negative secondhand report we keep reading about on this site.
The main difference between the 3-sequence and 4-sequence menu at Le Clarence is that the latter includes both the meat and the fish courses. We had both last year because we wanted to sample as much of what the kitchen offers as possible. But I wouldn’t hesitate to go with the 3-sequence. Either way it’s a lot of food! Your idea of small bites at a wine bar in the evening is a good one. The small plates and conviviality at Frenchie’s wine bar remain one of our favorites.
I’m not sure that lunch at Les Climats could be described as romantic. And VERY expensive for dinner. Dinner at Petrelle is a much better choice for the required romantic ambiance.
And just a thought for an only-in-Paris romantic evening. Dinner cruise on Don Juan II. Incredibly romantic and classy. Michelin-star quality cuisine. But expensive and so maybe you’d have to cross off Le Clarence as your only-in-Paris experience. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be one of the “usual suspects” in the Hung On world and little feedback on this site. https://donjuan2.yachtsdeparis.fr/
Ha, Don Juan does seem absolutely lovely, but the cost as well as my proclivity for motion sickness mean it’s not quite the right choice for me.
Think am set on Le Clarence for the splurge lunch.
For dinners, will most probably try the HO favourite Perception, and Petrelle.
I have two lunches left:
The first one I have to choose between making the trek to Sadarnac, or trying Jeanne Aimee.
The other lunch I want to do a Japanese-chef-in-Paris experience: HO favourite Eunoe, Maison Sota, A.T., or L’Alliance (the 75e for three courses/95e for 5 course don’t seem crazy, said this New Yorker who has lost all sense of value for money).
And I have one dinner left: Hemicycle (would love to hear more if people try it), Aux Crus de Bourgogne, or L’Assiette.
Small bites/tapas/wine bar options for dinner (if at all) after Le Clarence lunch: Frenchie wine bar, Bouche, Bar Chaumont cocktail bar, anything else?
I agree, lunch at Les Climats would never qualify as a romantic venue. Too many gray suits casting judgmental eyes on diners not discussing spreadsheets. But how is dinner “very expensive” at 110 € for their four-course dinner, if I am reading the website correctly? And all those wonderful burgundies available by the glass… (Just don’t order the cheese course, which is exorbitant).
I was surprised nobody mentioned La Tour d’Argent for a romantic dinner, but having just looked at their new menu, the prices would kill any idea of romance… I enjoyed the place when I lived in Paris!
We’ve had great small plates at Le MaryCeleste in the haut Marais. We went to frenchies pre Covid and were surrounded by Americans which I know is rather hypocritical since I’m also an American tourist but what can I say. Wine bar now may be less frequented and the hordes have moved onto another spot. There’s a oyster bar that Parn has recommended that we never got to that I think has other small plates offered. Maybe called Istr?
I’ve stayed away from this discussion since we never do extremely fancy or tasting menus but in May we did enjoy Kubri in the 11th and Parcelles in the 3rd. Have a wonderful time.
You touch on a point that hasn’t really been addressed, the tension alluded to in the title of the thread - are “fancy” and “romantic” compatible? It depends on who you are romancing, I suspose - your dining companion or the food. I posit that they are completely orthogonal concepts: a “romantic” meal can be simple or fancy.
