[Paris]Trip Report: Pouliche

I am finally getting back to writing up my trip to Paris from May. Finally finished up Day 3 which included dinner at Pouliche and drinks after at Le Syndicat. Here are those write ups.

Dinner on Day 3 was a dinner I had been looking forward to since I had booked my reservation. In my planning for this trip, I wanted to try places I had not been before and also make sure I went to a number of restaurants that are owned by female chefs. Pouliche, French for filly, and its chef Amandine Chaignot, came highly recommended.

The menu at Pouliche is simple. It is a prix fix menu for €62 with only a choice for the main (meat, fish, or veggie). There is no wine pairing, but the wine list is interesting and approachable.

Next came what I thought was a salad but also contained mushrooms and fish. A cup of soup also came with this course. For my main course, I had selected the meat, and a flavorful dish of veal and potato that went very well with the wine I had chosen for the evening (and Alsatian Pinot Noir) was brought out after the soup and “salad” was cleared away. After my main course, I went ahead and purchased one of Amandine Chaignot’s cookbooks that was on offer at the restaurant. As of now, I have translated a number of recipes, but have yet to cook any of them.

The meal continued with a cheese course (Saint-Nectaire, I believe) and then dessert. One dessert was a lovely, deconstructed passionfruit custard tart. The second desert was a hazelnut olive oil cake that while incredibly good, I did not finish as I was very full.

All in all, it was an excellent meal and a gorgeous restaurant that I will be happy to revisit on a future trip to Paris. Pouliche is open daily. Monday to Saturday: 12:15 - 14:30 and 18:00 - 21:00; Sunday: 12.15 - 3.30 pm (last order at 3.30 pm)

After wrapping up dinner, I went around the corner to Le Syndicat for a few cocktails. When I got there, it was absolutely packed. Le Syndicat, currently listed as the 84th best coktail bar in the world, has been slinging cocktails made exclusively of French liquor since 2014. The outside is very nondescript, and the inside is very compact, which makes the outside tables necessary.

The menu is very interesting. I put myself in the hands of my server who recommended the Gettin’ Milky with Nut. This cocktail was complex and surprising. If you thought Roquefort shouldn’t be in a cocktail, you would be wrong. It worked amazingly well.

Once a seat at the bar opened up, I moved there and put myself in the hands of the bartender. I had three more cocktails, all of which were very good. Paris is a very underrated cocktail city.

Le Syndicat is open every day of the week 6 PM to 2 AM.

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FYI, There is now a growing Women in Wine movement. I mention this since you have an interest in women chefs. I was recently at a tasting of three Chiroubles (a Beaujolais appellation using gamay grapes) that was very delicious. Domaine de la Grosse Pierre provided two of the wines.

Your description of the meal makes me wish I was there right now.

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Very nice! Also enjoyed clicking through to your blog and reading about your whole day and the three starter courses that did not make it into this review.

It was supposed to. I’ll edit. I got backspace happy.

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Nice report! I’ve only been to a few cocktail places in Paris, so it’s great to see a write-up of one. Thanks.

Well, I could not edit my original, but here is the missing piece. Got a little deletion happy.

These are the missing starters…

The meal started with three starter dishes. The first was white asparagus and burrata. The second was a beautiful eggplant dish. Pouliche definitely puts a spotlight on vegetables, and that was readily apparent in these first two dishes. The third starter dish was a tartare (fluke, I believe) with roe and green peas.

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