|
By Manos Angelakis.
Caveat Emptor, Paris 2006
The culinary experience in Paris, always varied, varies even more nowadays from the sublime to the ridiculous.
 On one hand you have the classic and classy neighborhood bistro that serves good food and wine at logical prices; on the other you have the tourist traps that serve abominable food at highly inflated prices. You also have the “temples of gastronomy” that serve great food at outrageous prices; the local restaurants that serve solid bourgeois food at fairly logical prices; and the ethnic restaurants whose food quality varies from great to non-edible. What is a person to do, given all those options?
The best is to have friends that live in the city and can guide you accordingly. Unfortunately, not everyone has that option. Another would be guides such as Zagat’s or the local edition of Where Magazine or, for the better restaurants, the Michelin Guide or the Gambero Rosso. My objection to Zagat is that the ratings are based on individual reports that most times are not reliable as far as food quality is concerned, though I find their price guiding to be fairly accurate - just keep in mind that all descriptions and pricing are at least a year old. Where Magazine’s information is more current and reliable, though sometimes, I suspect, influenced by the advertising the establishment places in the publication. Michelin and the other guides are accurate as long as the featured chef remains with the restaurant.
For the few days we were in Paris, we roamed around and ate mostly in bistros and brasseries, establishments we felt offered the possibility of a good meal. Actually it turned out that our success rate was less than 50%. (With a Gaelic shrug; c’est la vie!)
Please note that the food at the different museum’s cafeteria’s was quite acceptable, though I find it rather absurd having to pay anywhere from 2.30€ to 3.90€ for a cup of coffee in a cafeteria! Also, please note that Parisians love their dogs so much, they take them wherever they go, including museums and restaurants.
Etoile du Liban. 16 rue Notre Dame de Lorette. If you are in the 9th Arrondissement and you crave Middle Eastern food, this is a very small neighborhood restaurant, across from its parent establishment, a Middle Eastern grocery store. Authentic Lebanese food, tasty and logically priced; they offer a nice arak and the dessert menu includes good baklava and excellent lokum (Turkish Delight).
Le Paros. 28 rue St. Severin; located in the Saint-Germain-des-Pres area (6th Ar.), off Blvd. St. Michel where an amazing number of “Greek” restaurants have sprouted offering grilled food, and music and dancing in the evening, including plate-braking for a price. Most, with the exception of the original Les Argonauts that maintains food quality, have terrible food; do not waste time and/or money in these tourist traps, Le Paros was one of the worst offenders.
 However, nearby is Le Comptoir, where Chef Yves Camdeborde, formerly the guiding light at La Régalade, now runs this tiny bistro/brasserie in the Hôtel Relais Saint-Germain, 9 carrefour de l’Odeon. Le Comptoir is a brasserie by day, serving simple food and drinks, and a petit gastro bistro by night with crystal and white linen tablecloths. During the day, the hearty fare is served at the bar or the bare tables. The evening’s menu is set, five-courses that change daily. No choices are given, you eat what Chef Camdeborde wants you to eat. Space might be at a premium, but the imaginative food with tastes intense and delicious makes one disregard such quibbles. The price of the meal is reasonable for the quality and worth every penny. No reservations are accepted for the brasserie; reserve well in advance for the evening’s gastronomic extravaganza.
Café Palais Royal. 202 rue St. Honoré. A typical bistro, good for an almost leisurely lunch. The Charcuterie was nice and the Croque Monsieur acceptable. The waiter ‘by mistake” added a 7.00€ dish we had not ordered to our bill. It pays to carefully examine the bill.
Petit Pont. 1 rue du Petit Pont. A street-level, outdoor cafe with a view of the Seine, the Notre Dame, and the throngs of tourists roaming the Left Bank. A piano player entertained the patrons with such standards as “La Vie en Rose” and “Bring in the Clowns”. The food was decent and the beef tartare very good, though when we lingered too long over coffee we were rudely asked to vacate the table. Iced tea was 4€ and each of the tartare elements of choice, sauce and potatoes - french fries in my case, was billed separately, though not indicated so on the menu. Another place to be avoided as a tourist trap. One of two establishments we found in this Paris visit, where the staff still maintains the attitude “we are doing you a favor serving you our food”. I guess, some things never change.
Ribe. 15 Ave. de Suffren, near the Eiffel Tower. Another nice bistro with a few sidewalk tables. Good, classic bistro food, fairly priced. I have not had Rognon de Veau (Veal Kidneys) for many years and I savored the dish. A half bottle of a nice Loire Valley red topped the evening. A Kir Royal and a Pastis set us back 4.60€ each; an unfair price for smaller than normal drinks.
 If you miss the antics of waiters in New York City’s Lower East side restaurants that used to throw your order on the table and would not serve what you ordered, if they did not think the dish was “right” for you, take heart. Paris has a traditional bistro where that type of “service” is practiced, and is written up in most guides as a low-priced possibility. Chartier, 7 rue Fauburg Monmartre in the 9th Arrondissement. It opened in 1896 and is listed as a historic monument. The restaurant takes no reservations and you have to queue to be seated, with the line filling the large courtyard and spilling into the pavement and around the corner. The description “eating hall” may be far more accurate. A large hall of industrial proportions; dilapidated elegance of days past, with deco light globes shining through the century-old windows; this is one large space optimally arranged into long tables in crowded rows. Tables are set for 4 persons, so they will seat other people with you. The food was barely edible, and that’s all that can be said about the quality of the cooking. The vin ordinaire was exactly that, very ordinary, probably a very cheap Beaujolais or a bulk wine from Southern France. The waiters still calculate your tab by writing on the butcher paper used as a tablecloth.
Finally, Restaurant La Giberne. 42 bis Ave. de Suffren (for a more detailed description see the Destinations segment). The food was very good, nearing excellence and if it was not for the attitude of the “patron” the evening, our 37th wedding anniversary, would have been perfect. I found in the wine list a bottle of 1999 Château Vieille Église, a Grand Cru wine, that was a perfect pairing for the Magret de Canard we had as our main course, Barbara with an orange sauce and I with a green peppercorn sauce. The escargot starters were plump and nicely garlicky. Dessert was not particularly memorable. But the attitude!
© November 2006 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
|
