This was the most profoundly disappointing meal we had in our three week stay in Paris. The waitstaff were pleasant and enthusiastic, but their enthusiasm was more focused on moving us swiftly and efficiently through our meal and out than on attending to our comfort or anticipating our wishes. The back dining room was cramped in a way that these days only the ones catering mainly to tourists seem to be … just a bit tighter than some of our favorite places but there’s a line between feeling that one is building a ship in a bottle when being seated and having more sense of what one’s neighbor is saying than of one’s partner across the table. The food was a very short menu and competently prepared (one dish was even excellent, a simple pork chop plainly cooked, wonderful because the meat was perfect even even without any discernible seasoning or jus; and the gratinee may well have been the best onion broth I’ve ever tasted, and the cheese melty and flavorful, but it wasn’t gratinee at all, just a sort of ill-defined malleable golf ball of cheese drifting on top of bread that had mostly absorbed the broth…for anyone old enough to recall the last days of Les Halles’ salamander-crunchy hockey puck of cheese atop a miraculously still-crusty slice of baguette atop a hearty rich bowlful of broth it was pretty sad). But the problem with the food was its assembly-line quality … great bistro fare somehow remains vital and fresh while this seemed kinda rubber-stamped.
Quite literally everyone in the room was speaking English and that got me to thinking about what’s wrong with that…it wasn’t that they (we) were loud or loutish…we were no worse than an effusive local throng. In fact, the problem with a restaurant geared to tourists is that there’s special magic about a place that is cooking for, and filled with, regulars rather than one that knows it will basically not be seeing any of tonight’s guests again. It affects the menu, the preparation, the relation between waitstaff and diner. The best places can somehow capture that spirit and make everyone feel like a regular. Places aimed at tourists are like turkey legs at Disneyland … surprisingly good to eat but institutionalized, routinized. There are some places that can take cooking for tourists and turn it into the sort of evangelical experience that Steve Jobs and Guy Kawasaki created for Apple computers in the early Mac days, an approach to retail that Kawasaki identified with the Nordstroms department stores and that in restaurants is the way that hospitality gets expressed … that’s vanishingly rare these days, though, and was sadly missing here for us.
What a pity. Based on many of the other comments, i may be just a crank. But so many other suggestions here have been superlative that I’d approach this one with caution.
Thank you for your recommendation. We booked a table here for dinner tonight. The last time we were in Paris was 1995, a very long time ago sans kids. Also, so very looking forward to eating all those unpasteurized cheeses which we are also diligently going back and reading your posts.
Could you please throw in any other off the top of your head recommendation at this time of the year? We are here for a few days then off to Lyon, then driving down to Nice and finally back up to Dijon before making our way back to Paris. (We also made your Poulet a la moutarde the night before leaving the U.S. to get us all in the right frame of mind!)
Thanks for the information, David. I understand the dilemma they are faced with. I might also add that when I was moved to another table, the table next to us was occupied by 6 young ladies from New York and behind us were 5 Frenchmen, and they keep their conversation to a reasonable level.
Great recommendation, fantastic food and service. I would like to suggest that the young staff which offered great service, request loud American customers to lower their voices, I had to request to be moved to another table and was seated next to another group of young Americans, and they spoke in lower voices. Once again many thanks
All sounds delicious. One thing I wanted to pass on to you is if you plan another trip to the States . If you go to Costco I highly recommend the large bag of delicious walnuts. Great price and I use them in your fruit and nut bars and, also, in a spring mix salad with dried cranberry and feta. Delicious stuff. I always keep a bag of Costco pecans in the freezer but the walnuts are equally delicious.
Regarding cheese from Isigny Ste. Mere - I just bought a Double Cream Brie, (Made in Normandy) from there at Costco. It’s a 600 g wheel and is delicious! Next time you’re in San Francisco give it a try. They always seem to have it.
One dish after the other in this post drew me in ... .. the most classic of French foods..... but, the icing on the cake is the fan-damn-tabulous Chartreuse selection .
Having just returned from Paris, I was happy to read this post. We ate very well--not as “fancy” as this place, but we were generally happy with our restaurant selections. Love razor clams, and your wine selections and that dessert all sound delicious. Hope you had fun! 🇫🇷
This was the most profoundly disappointing meal we had in our three week stay in Paris. The waitstaff were pleasant and enthusiastic, but their enthusiasm was more focused on moving us swiftly and efficiently through our meal and out than on attending to our comfort or anticipating our wishes. The back dining room was cramped in a way that these days only the ones catering mainly to tourists seem to be … just a bit tighter than some of our favorite places but there’s a line between feeling that one is building a ship in a bottle when being seated and having more sense of what one’s neighbor is saying than of one’s partner across the table. The food was a very short menu and competently prepared (one dish was even excellent, a simple pork chop plainly cooked, wonderful because the meat was perfect even even without any discernible seasoning or jus; and the gratinee may well have been the best onion broth I’ve ever tasted, and the cheese melty and flavorful, but it wasn’t gratinee at all, just a sort of ill-defined malleable golf ball of cheese drifting on top of bread that had mostly absorbed the broth…for anyone old enough to recall the last days of Les Halles’ salamander-crunchy hockey puck of cheese atop a miraculously still-crusty slice of baguette atop a hearty rich bowlful of broth it was pretty sad). But the problem with the food was its assembly-line quality … great bistro fare somehow remains vital and fresh while this seemed kinda rubber-stamped.
Quite literally everyone in the room was speaking English and that got me to thinking about what’s wrong with that…it wasn’t that they (we) were loud or loutish…we were no worse than an effusive local throng. In fact, the problem with a restaurant geared to tourists is that there’s special magic about a place that is cooking for, and filled with, regulars rather than one that knows it will basically not be seeing any of tonight’s guests again. It affects the menu, the preparation, the relation between waitstaff and diner. The best places can somehow capture that spirit and make everyone feel like a regular. Places aimed at tourists are like turkey legs at Disneyland … surprisingly good to eat but institutionalized, routinized. There are some places that can take cooking for tourists and turn it into the sort of evangelical experience that Steve Jobs and Guy Kawasaki created for Apple computers in the early Mac days, an approach to retail that Kawasaki identified with the Nordstroms department stores and that in restaurants is the way that hospitality gets expressed … that’s vanishingly rare these days, though, and was sadly missing here for us.
What a pity. Based on many of the other comments, i may be just a crank. But so many other suggestions here have been superlative that I’d approach this one with caution.
Thank you for your recommendation. We booked a table here for dinner tonight. The last time we were in Paris was 1995, a very long time ago sans kids. Also, so very looking forward to eating all those unpasteurized cheeses which we are also diligently going back and reading your posts.
Could you please throw in any other off the top of your head recommendation at this time of the year? We are here for a few days then off to Lyon, then driving down to Nice and finally back up to Dijon before making our way back to Paris. (We also made your Poulet a la moutarde the night before leaving the U.S. to get us all in the right frame of mind!)
Thanks for the information, David. I understand the dilemma they are faced with. I might also add that when I was moved to another table, the table next to us was occupied by 6 young ladies from New York and behind us were 5 Frenchmen, and they keep their conversation to a reasonable level.
Great recommendation, fantastic food and service. I would like to suggest that the young staff which offered great service, request loud American customers to lower their voices, I had to request to be moved to another table and was seated next to another group of young Americans, and they spoke in lower voices. Once again many thanks
David. You sure get around. Paris NYC etc.
all those hard working days paid off.
Good for you and Happy Thanksgiving from Lambertville NJ.
All sounds delicious. One thing I wanted to pass on to you is if you plan another trip to the States . If you go to Costco I highly recommend the large bag of delicious walnuts. Great price and I use them in your fruit and nut bars and, also, in a spring mix salad with dried cranberry and feta. Delicious stuff. I always keep a bag of Costco pecans in the freezer but the walnuts are equally delicious.
Fun review. Do you have a recipe to recommend that uses beef cheeks for boeuf bourguignon? Thanks!
Regarding cheese from Isigny Ste. Mere - I just bought a Double Cream Brie, (Made in Normandy) from there at Costco. It’s a 600 g wheel and is delicious! Next time you’re in San Francisco give it a try. They always seem to have it.
One dish after the other in this post drew me in ... .. the most classic of French foods..... but, the icing on the cake is the fan-damn-tabulous Chartreuse selection .
Having just been inParis with my tribe I was sorry not to have had this address. We ate and drank well but…it rained for the entire time.
Oh, the variety of Chartreuse!!!! Swoon!
Having just returned from Paris, I was happy to read this post. We ate very well--not as “fancy” as this place, but we were generally happy with our restaurant selections. Love razor clams, and your wine selections and that dessert all sound delicious. Hope you had fun! 🇫🇷
I love the information you provide about Paris restaurants and keep my ever growing list for visits!
I can't stop drooling over those photos. Everything looks and sounds amazing. Thank you
Great article! Thank you so much for your tips and recommendations! Love seeing your newsletter in my inbox!
Can’t figure out how to make a suggestion Re the sticky glue. Try lighter fluid with a razor to scrap it off.