[Paris] Some thinking about our last meals and French food scene

Lovely meal, thanks for sharing. I like the tartare dish, the poulpe looked good too.

Has anybody ever been to la Condesa in Paris 9? What do you think of it?

We haven’t been yet, but are planning to go in November.

Beat you! We will be going in October. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

So I’ll be eager to read what you thought!

Although a bit of hesitation between la Condesa, l’Arcane in the 18e and Mumi in 1er.

We were less enchanted with La Condesa during/after our second visit. Food seemed to have less soul/ethnic foundation and more simply good/decent modern French. Clientele almost all American if not all.

L’Arcane has more of the chef “on the plate” with adorable personal service.

This I agreed, good modern French, the ethnic side was there but not very evident. Since I only ate once, couldn’t compared. Food were good, but no wow effect.

We reserved our table at 19h30, the place was rather empty with 2 - 3 tables of tourists (American) on Saturday night, the (young) French arrived after 21h.

Apologizing for thread drift, the young Mexican woman, Mariana Villegas, cooking at Fulgurances until late December, is serving up extremely creative and delicious dishes that show her native roots as well as her international (NYC) experience. All good, and some revelatory. Certainly recommend if you are in Paris during her stint. Fulgurances, as most of you know, changes young chefs every 6 months or so. I’ll miss having Mariana’s food.

That seems like a judicious amount…

Half way there already.

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Made it to 64 or 65. Three were grilled, do they count? And one was bad, so I spit it out. Does it count?

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That’s really problematic. If someone new to bivalves gets a bad oyster/clam/mussel will it turn them off to shellfish?

Where did you have those 64 or 65? :yum:

Pleine Mer, Le Vent d’Armor, Baron Rouge, Bar à Iode.

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It’s the first time it ever happened to me, but my wife got a bad oyster last year in Paris. She hardly touches them since then.

@bcc

When you have time, please talk more about the good (or bad) meals you had in Paris, very interested to know! :grin:

I’ll put it up tomorrow!

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So here is the rundown of our Paris eating. The places we enjoyed the most were L’Arcane, Le Vent d’Armor, La Condesa, and Alliance. i already wrote about Condesa. L’Arcane still delighted us, but not, perhaps, as much as last year. The first visit was mind-blowing; the second had to contend with the memories of the first. In any case, we and the friends who accompanied us are all looking forward to a return visit next year. Le Vent d’Armor was fabulous. I had 3 starters: oysters, razor clams (couteaux), and ormeaux (abalone). They were all fantastic. Two of the friends we went with are regular visitors, so we were received with much warmth. Alliance served us a delightful lunch, everything perfectly cooked. We wanted to revisit Montée, but we couldn’t get a reservation.

We tried Chinese dumplngs in a number of places: M + Y Savor, Hang a Li, Le Temple Celeste, 21G, but the best by far were at Les Délices de Shandong, identified by their sign at the entrance as Traiteur de Shandong. This was really excellent Chinese cooking, as good or even better than much of what we had in New York.

We enjoyed the yakitori at Le Rigmarole, but my wife was put off by the way all our clothes smelled afterwards. And we enjoyed the oysters and the friendly wine prices at Bar à Iode.

Places that we visited but were not wild about: Coretta, La Ferrandaise, Baieta, Sellae. They were all good, but not exciting.

Good standards without excitement: Saveurs d’Asie Gao Thom and Le Petit Pontoise.

Disappointing: Hugo & Co. Hugo has two seatings, 19:00 and 21:15. If the seven o’clock guests are not quite finished by nine fifteen, Hugo does not throw them out. This is entirely correct. But it means that the nine fifteen guests have to wait outside until the tables are free. This is not correct. The business with the two seatings is ridiculous. Aside from that, the noise level was high and we did not especially enjoy the food.

Sandwiches: We tried sandwiches at ChezAline and Bagnard. We were disappointed. At ChezAline there was a line of people out the door. So we waited for about 10 minutes until we got in. I took a sandwich with veal tongue and sauerkraut, my wite took one with feta, carrots and guacamole. We didn’t especially like either one. But I gave the repackaged half of the veal sandwich to a beggar in the area, and he was glad to receive it.

Bagnard was another story entirely. We tried to go to the Saint-Augustin location on a Saturday. It was closed. There was a sign saying that we should visit the location on rue Saintonge. Open Mo-Fr. So we went on Monday. It was closed on Mondays. We returned a few days later and had their tuna pan bagnat. We were underwhelmed. On the day we left we bought a tuna sandwich at the boulangerie at Maubert - Mutualité to eat in the train. We enjoyed it more than the special pan bagnat at Bagnard.

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From the few comments I gather, everybody was not excited with Hugo and Co. Tomy and Co seems a better deal and no 2 seatings. I remembered reserving the 19:30 service years ago with another restaurant, and was rushed by the restaurant the whole meal. (Friends arrived late at 20:30 because of work etc, no fun at all.)

Thanks for the head up for Le Rigmarole and Les Délices de Shandong (But wait, NY is not a standard of comparison, you should choose a Chinese city!).

Bar à Iode has been on my list, but which one 5th or 11th?

Sellae, I will only go if I want a budget lunch and was in the area. LOL. I don’t remember who raved about Coretta, I guess those CH guys.

For the French restaurants, one remark, most of the more satisfying places you have visited, they got 1 star: L’Arcane, Alliance and Montée. I think Condesa will get it next year.