Hello all! I just returned from a 12 day trip to France (a mix of business and pleasure). I lurked on this board quite a lot as I was planning the Paris portion of the trip, so I thought that I would write up a quick report while everything is (relatively) fresh in my mind. Many, many thanks to those of you who have provided previous reports, and special thanks to those of you who regularly offer suggestions and advice.
Our trip this time was not focused in Paris, but took us to Normandy (for a conference), Burgundy (to visit family), and Roanne/Ouches (outside of Lyon) to celebrate a very special anniversary at two Troisgros family restaurants (Le Central and Le bois sans feuilles) - I’ll try to write up a separate post about these two places, but will just say here that they were both wonderful. The Troisgros family is truly extraordinary.
Despite having what felt like far too few days in Paris, we managed to squeeze in four dinners and one lunch. Just as a note, my husband and I are pescatarians and my husband much prefers tasting menus (he hates having to make choices, which is a little weird, but I’ve learned to just go with it). I’ll add that even though we don’t eat meat, we’re not super strict about it (for example, we are fine with meat-based broths or sauces).
Perception - This was dinner our first night in Paris. We had the (8?) course menu with wine, and they were lovely about substituting things for the couple meat-based courses. Really delicious cooking and very engaging staff. Interestingly, all the Paris friends we saw during our trip have also dined here and liked it. Worthy of the love it gets on this board and also a fantastic value.
ChoCho - We had lunch here on a Monday, the day after returning from Lyon. I picked it in part because it is open for lunch on Mondays, but I also wanted something more fun after a weekend of Very Serious Eating. I had made reservations, but the restaurant was fairly empty and a few people walked in and got tables on the spot. We ended up going with their tasting menu, but honestly, it was largely what we would have chosen had we ordered a la carte. We also had the paired beverages, which we really enjoyed - I particularly liked that they included a couple non-alcoholic things. The food was fun and adventurous - if we lived in Paris, I’d eat here all the time. A couple notes: I did think that the servings were a bit large - I was absolutely starving when we arrived, but I walked out feeling incredibly full - and I couldn’t even finish my dessert. I also think that I would want to come back for dinner as the lunch crowd was a little quiet; it would also be fun to sit at the bar and watch the chefs work here.
Au Boeuf Couronné - Okay, this was our one big fail on this trip. We were meeting several friends at a piano concert at the Cité de la Musique and wanted to take them to dinner afterwards. When planning, one of our friends suggested either the restaurant at Cité de la Musique (to which they’d never been) or Au Boeuf Couronné, which they described as “the classic post-concert place”. I looked at the menu and knew that there wouldn’t be many choices for us as non-meat eaters, but there were definitely things we would eat. Au Boeuf seemed like a more fun choice to me, so we went with that. There’s really nothing to say except that every single thing about it was. . .not good. Every single order was cooked incorrectly and even the ice cream was bad. In some ways it didn’t even matter, as we still had a lovely evening with our friends. I considered not even posting about this, but I’m curious as to whether anyone has been to the restaurant at Cité de la Musique or has other suggestions for post-concert dining in the area, as we will likely be back in the autumn.
Brion - our last dinner in Paris before heading to Normandy was at Brion, a fairly new restaurant in the 9th(?). We really enjoyed this and had the 4 course tasting menu (74 €) + wine pairing at 36 €. I knew that we would have a good evening when we saw that their house champagne was Laherte Freres Extra Brut D’Assemblage, which is what we drink at home. Service was very welcoming - and they were eager to chat with us about wine. I will add that this is the only restaurant in Paris we dined at this visit where we did not hear any other diners speaking English.
Pétrelle – For our last night in France, I picked Pétrelle, as I wanted someplace romantic. We were totally blown away by how good this was. Delicious food and utterly charming dining room and service (in this regards, second only to the Troisgros restaurants). We took 5 courses (adding on an extra fish course to share, which I think was Dover sole). Terrific from start to finish.
Not a restaurant, but our friends we were staying with pointed us towards the marché at place Aligre (officially marché Beauvau, I think). We had a wonderful morning strolling both the indoor and outdoor vendors and picking up things for lunch and to make a dinner for our friends. Very fun.
Thanks again to all for your posts - they were very helpful.
