Pierre-Sang Oberkampf
For the Sunday night dinner back in Paris from Barcelona, we returned to a place we’ve been several times (usually on a Sunday night). We always find it fun.
It’s French with some Korean and other Asian influences.
One of their “things” is that they don’t tell you about the dish until after you’ve eaten it.
I don’t remember exactly what was in the amuse; it was cucumbers on top of some type of creamy sauce.
First course was smoked salmon with a lightly pickled cucumber and feta. Not bad
The next course was cauliflower with kimchi. Really interesting
The main (for meat eaters) was duck breast with hoisin sauce and corn and green beans over barley. Very interesting, and at least for me the barley made it a bit different. For vegetarians, they substituted tofu with mushrooms for the duck.
The meat itself was not as high quality as in other restaurants. Since the duck was served between rare and medium rare, my wife asked for the tofu she noticed another diner had gotten when her duck breast wasn’t as cooked as she’d asked for it. She generously gave me some of her mushrooms.
The mushrooms elevated the duck substantially. Before the mushrooms, I thought it was a very good dish, with the barley – something we rarely see in the U.S., and I’ve not seen much in Paris – making for an interesting dish. With the addition of the mushrooms, I had without doubt the best (half) course of anyone in the restaurant! One of the top 5 dishes I had this trip.
The cheese course was Cantal (the one constant in almost all our meals here)
Dessert was figs done two ways with an interesting grain. Above average.
Pierre-Sang Oberkampf is just plain fun, and the food menu a great bargain at 44E. OTOH, the wine pairing (5 ungenerous pours for 60E) is not nearly as good a deal, for mostly inferior wines compared to the other pairings (for the same or not much higher cost) tried on the trip, although the wine with the dessert was nice.
Didn’t do lunch the next day. Then my wife wasn’t feeling well, so I went to our 1 star dinner alone.
Granite
Granite is in the same location in the 1st that we – being American tourists 
– had been to and enjoyed previously when it was Spring.
I had the 150E tasting menu, plus the wine pairing.
As a solo diner, I was seated in the basement at a table right near where two of the sous chefs were prepping several of the dishes, including both desserts.
A nice broth to start
Two of the amuse bites were particularly nice: a watermelon jelly on a cracker with some mild cream, and a veal tartare and anchovy on another cream. The 3rd bite was a shrimp cream canapé.
The next amuse: tuna tataki (barely seared) in a tomato and basil oil sauce. Pretty but on the bland side.
Barley sourdough bread and homemade butter - each very good.
The Tomatoes dish - all I can say, with apologies to Mme Mangeur 
– is Wow! . The middle red is tomato ice on yet another delicious sauce, plus 3 small tomatoes surrounding.
I won’t comment on most of them, but the first wine in the wine pairing was made with grapes they use for Armagnac, and was quite interesting.
The Sardine - I didn’t love it initially. The generous amount of not-too-salty caviar is what made it pretty good. When I removed most of the skin from the sardine, I liked the dish much better.
The Blue Lobster - very good.
The Arctic Char - The fish itself was very good, but the sauce and accompaniments were borderline “wow”. Two pics so you can see the accompaniments underneath.
The pigeon was not my favorite, but when the pigeon itself was eaten in small quantity as flavoring to the rest of the dish (eating only about half the meat total), the result was quite good. Appropriate as it was years ago at this location at Spring when I first truly learned the lesson to eat all the elements on the plate simultaneously with a different pigeon dish.
The pre-dessert palate cleanser was a madeleine with rose foam and sorbet - very refreshing!
The blueberry - beautiful presentation.
The Chocolate - “burnt” prune, Early Grey sorbet, chocolate foam, wrapped with chocolate. Very good.
The mignardise to finish were also really good. A peanut thing surrounded maybe by chocolate, and crisped rice and caramel on ice cream.
They also gave a couple cookies as a “take home” reminder.
Overall, a very nice experience, with a couple things truly outstanding, and enjoyable wine pairing. It’s not inexpensive, so not necessarily a must return, but I’d certainly recommend it to anyone interested in going.
Chez Alain Miam Miam
Lunch the next day was the other extreme - “just” a sandwich.
The sandwich was as good as advertised. The stall inside the Marché des Enfants Rouges was closed the Tuesday we were there, so went to the shop down the street, and thus didn’t get the “show” of watching the sandwich being made.
One large sandwich fed two of us, so quite a bargain.
We were there at 11:40 AM with just 1 person ahead of us in line. By the time we left, the line was probably 45 minutes (they do not bring out each sandwich very quickly - not a U.S. fast food joint). The counter in the Marché being closed likely affected the size of the line.
Before getting to dinner, a plug here for Du Pain et Des Idées. The mini pavé in particular are spectacular (we thought the spinach and dried tomato and chèvre ones the best), and the chocolate pistachio escargot was also very good.
Origines
After a tasting menu the night before, wanted to eat a la carte here. Despite that, the number of courses served was similar to a small tasting menu. I asked the sommelier for pairings with my starter and main, and ended up getting a glass with dessert as well.
The small bites to start were fine, but nothing memorable.
The amuse was tuna w/cucumber. Tasty but not innovative.
The cepes starter was very good , with an excellent wine pairing.
The main course of veal with mushrooms, onions and walnut was excellent, though I thought the wine pairing was just good.
The fig dessert with ice cream was very good; the French “port” wine pairing was excellent.
The mignardises were fine but unremarkable.
As noted, we ordered a la carte but received several pre/post dishes, and service was star level. They’re clearly going for a Michelin star. I liked the food better at Les Parisiens, but I think this place will get its star first, and certainly the service here was notably superior.
The vibe of the place was fine, in fact somewhat similar to Les Parisiens when we went for dinner. Value was fair. For a reason I cannot entirely put my finger on, however, where my overall impression of KGB, say, was higher than that of each individual dish, here for some reason my overall is lower than my evaluation of each dish. I’d certainly go back, but am not likely to rush back, I think just because I thought other places offered a bit better value.
We skipped lunch the next day.
Le Grand Bain
Went to another Parn suggestion a few minutes walk from our 11e apartment.
I think the French tapas description I’ve seen is fairly accurate. We ordered 5 dishes, and enjoyed all but one.
- tempura kale - very good, nice sauce
- celeriac with really nice sauce
- pumpkin, stracciatella with chestnuts and honey - really good
- lightly smoked haddock - didn’t sing to either of us
- gougeres with lardo - house specialty, good but not great
The place is definitely very good value. Five dishes plus two glasses of wine for about $60; no dish we ordered cost more than 11E.
The vibe is young/hip, though surprisingly there were multiple people there on our visit older than we were. OTOH, given her attire, if I included a picture of the striking young Russian woman seated next to us, this post would be NSFW!
