RE Bofinger, the extraordinary decor can go a long way to boosting the experience above just-adequate food. (Disclosure: I haven’t been to Bofinger in probably 20 years, but in the proper circumstances, I would go, especially given what Parn has said about it).
I haven’t yet figured out how to quote and other HO options, sorry.
Re Paris by Mouth, we elected to try the Northern Marais…there’s some meat, not just sweets. I know people who rave about it.
Re sweetbreads being like foie gras, that is very helpful. I love foie gras. Not sure I could handle foie and sweetbreads at the same meal, however lol. Appreciate the explanation!
Re different palates, decor etc, I understand that my mileage may vary. I always turned to CH for places I don’t really know because I believed most poster genuinely care about the food. Maybe more sophisticated palates (not that I’m so sophisticated but I would not recommend an Olive Garden) while some Trip Advisor travelers may think that’s fine dining. When we go out with other couples I usually choose the place because I care while the others just want to socialize and hardly notice the food.
My daughter would actually like to see some sites in Paris too lol, not only traipse from restaurant to restaurant lol. We will try to match up our touring with the recs made by you fine people and that may factor into the equation or where we ultimately go. She doesn’t like doubling back if we’ve been in an area on the morning to then go across the city for dinner.
As an aside, I once dragged her from the Vatican to some pizza place in Rome that was a very expensive and long taxi ride, based on someone from CH raving about it. She’s now the coordinator of time and locations!
We will be taking the Chunnel to London and I hope to bring some baguettes/cheese/wine with us for the ride. Hoping there’s some decent options near Gare du Nord, or Bastille by our hotel.
Once again, thanks all for taking the time to reply, I’m thoroughly enjoying reading them all!
I am a huge fan of Cafe des Musee. Unfortunately have not been since 2019. I am on their email list and during the pandemic they would send some of the recipes out to try for home cooking. Hope to get back this year. If you get a table by the window on the right side you can watch the world go by while having a wonderful tartar. The remains of my last meal there at the window table. I never remember to take a picture of my food before I start eating. Only after I finish do I think damn, I should have taken a picture. 
Chez Denise portions are just too much for me. I swear the tartar portion there is at least a kilo. I do adore the never ending frites though.
If you like foie you should absolutely try sweetbreads. Make sure you have it at a place that does it well though. When it’s good it’s divine, when it’s not it’s a mealy mushy mess.
Chunnel - that’s a term I have not heard in forever. Sign of someone of a certain era.
I first had sweetbreads in Boston in the late 70s and never looked back. Unfortunately, when I moved to the west coast in the 80s, I found them very rarely. At their best they are creamy inside and croustillant on the outside. The taste is very subtle. I love them, but I also love lamb brains! Do you like oysters and fried clams with the bellies?
I was trying to think of the right word for the ambiance at Amarante and onzième hit upon it: triste. Very moody, somber, even dreary at times. We last went there in 2019 and the braised agnelle that Christophe Philippe prepares so beautifully was as tender and delicious as usual. But everything else was mediocre. Service lackluster, although we have had better service there in the past. We didn’t return there in 2021.
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Bkeats- I love saying Chunnel:wink:
Parn, I love the flavor and if the shrooms are big enough I’m ok. When I make it at home of course I omit them.
As often the case, the side conversations of this thread are the most illuminating. Two of my most revered dining mates write about experiences far different from ours. The case of the three blind men feeling up the same elephant. All perfectly precise in their descriptions, each having a different perspective.
Vis a vis Amarant. We walk into a room decorated in Middle French Mr. Bricolage. Greeted by what we later deemed the quintessential Parisian waiter. Ramrod straight and slender and stiff as a wooden spoon. Shown to our table(s). He reads our table, we understand his professional stance. He and we somehow connect. We order, he pretends to love our selections… The food is everything we expect: classic innards, plats well sourced and executed.
When my entree appears, I tell him it is enough for 4 people; he cocks his head, looks at it and responds, “No, madam, only 2,” We are off to the races. He then looks ever so slyly at the adjacent table where two men are attacking sides of cow and whispers, “For 10”. He continues to check our table to make sure we are well tended. The food is well prepared and what we expect. The tab was minimal. We parted with meaningful smiles.
It is far from fine dining. But it created memorable vignettes we treasure above many more ambitious rooms. Will be one of our first returns.
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Exactly. And our part of the elephant was that we went to Amarante for a leisurely lunch with Ptipois, who had been there before & was more than willing to share many dishes with me while Ginny got non offal based food that she liked. I felt like someone had invited me into a recently converted butcher shop and that the lack of the usual “restauranty-ness” was not a meaningful absence. And I loved the food, which I cannot get at home (nope, not even in NYC).
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While I am an offal hound, I haven’t found fraise du veau on any other menu on our travels.
And that used to be all the things we loved about it too. Indeed it was Ptipois who steered me to the agnelle one night. But there are so many other places we seem to enjoy more. I even loved his eponymous restaurant Christophe in the 5th when we would be the only ones there on a rainy night.
Here’s a menu from 2017 with both the agnelle and the fraise de veau!
I have never had an enjoyable meal at Amarante or its previous incarnation Christophe in multiple visits (usually not of my own choosing but because friends wanted to go). The ambiance is indeed “triste”. Nor have I ever experienced the sort of personable service that Pilgrim talks about and I’m usually quite good at softening the formality obliged by our norms of politeness. I have liked some dishes a lot because I’m an offal lover but, for me, the food on the plate is only a part of equation. And the last time there to sample the very hard to find and new to me fraise de veau was a total bummer. I now know why so few restaurants have fraise de veau on the menu.
Among other things, I have had ris de veau at Amarante … it’s very good but not better than many other places, including my own particular favourite for sweetbreads, Le Cornichon which comes with a great vibe and very neighbourhoody buzz (completely lacking at Amarante).
I take Pilgrim’s point. A simple human interaction with a waiter with whom we click can transform a meal into something memorable. “La politesse” and good manners oblige us French to be extremely formal with strangers (especially waiters and customers) and the dance towards something less formal and more human is delicate. Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t find Americans to be especially good at the non-verbal signals and the almost flirty charm that are so important in this delicate dance almost always led by the customer. Obviously, Pilgrim is an exception and can deploy her charm to great effect. But I have also seen a waiter whose charm and personality elevated my meal to a memorable experience treat a neighbouring table with well disguised disdain and glacial formality because they transgressed the French norms of politeness.
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Re Paris by Mouth food tours, good choice. The once trendy South Marais is a now a neighborhood of mostly tourists and suburbanites and the shops reflect that. There are of course exceptions. The Haut Marais or in ParisbyMouth-ese North Marais, is far more foodie, “local”, and more easily represents the vibrant parisian food culture. I believe the tour ends on the rue Bretagne market street which will give you the opportunity for a little variation in your routine of cutesy trad restos by browsing the 7 or 8 mini-restos and deli counters inside the Marché des Enfants Rouges (historic covered market dating from the 17th century) for a lunch there or, if the weather is good, takeaway for a picnic in the Square du Temple (charming park across the street).
And a quick note about many Paris parks: Humans used to be banned from lawns and grassy areas but are now allowed from May to October but then become off-limits for “recuperation” until, depending on the weather, sometime in May.
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Much well said. It is this delicate pas de deux that is often the highlight of any restaurant meal for us in France. What makes it more special for us is that we are totally outside the demographics of the kinds of restaurants we frequent. We’re American; we’re always 40 years older than the mean age of other diners; our low profile makes us close to invisible. But we get across our appreciation through small gestures of delight that good waiters read.
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Comforting to hear Northern Marais is a good choice! Thank you.
I’d like to ask about the politesse, or manners or whatever I can glean to have a positive experience in whatever places we decide on.
I’m a friendly person, I smile and say hello to waitstaff. I ask opinions but don’t always follow them. I say thank you a lot. I usually defer on wine selections because I know what I don’t know. I do ok in US. But I’m not a thin person, don’t dress French style (I would dress up for a Mich star place) and wear comfortable walking shoes aka sneakers. Pretty much anything else I can adapt to.
So I guess my question is, if I show my delight in something am I dooming myself to silent ridicule? I know Americans ask for way more special treatment as a matter of course (light on the cheese, xyz on the side, etc) but I’d try to adapt in France. Are the sneakers a deal breaker?
The most important word in the French language.
Sneakers are ubiquitous in Paris these days, even in upscale restaurants.
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I think that if you go to places that I’ve been to, you will inevitably be a step up & favorably compared. 
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Le Cornichon is one of our all time faves for a traditional meal. I almost mentioned it earlier but the OP was looking for something close to the Marais. But it’s more than worth the 20-30 minute metro trek.
Couldn’t agree more about the special magic that sometimes occurs when you take the time to smile, converse and simply be polite with others you encounter in France. When we visit Paris, we have so little opportunity to interact with people who live in Paris, except in cafés, restaurants, shops, and even in queues outside museums or at a shared a table, that it becomes an opportunity not to be missed. It all adds immeasurably to the pleasure of the trip when it becomes a sincere interaction, even if for a brief moment.
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To be fair, I need to say that sfcarole is the master at this. When on rare occasion we find a cool dining room, we just say, “Carole sent us”. “CAROLE! They’re friends of CAROLE!” Literally echoing through the dining room. She has paved many ways with her quiet but contagious charm.
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