We'll Always Have Paris

Restaurant suggestions. A few vintage menus. And a cookbook store you want to know about.

Since I’ve been on tour for The Paris Novel not a day has passed that someone hasn’t asked for Paris restaurant suggestions. I’ve written The Paris Novel Cheat Sheet for Cherry Bombe Magazine - it will be out soon - about all the places in the book you can still visit (including the most fantastic vintage clothing shop), but I thought you might be interested in restaurants that aren’t in the book.

Maison - I send all my friends to the serene restaurant where the wonderful chef Sota Atsumi turns out beautiful and extremely satisfying food. The prix fixe menu combines gorgeous French products with Japanese restraint. Expect some sashimi-like dishes along with superb patés, farm cheeses, and gorgeous desserts.  And hope that his superb pithivier is available; it’s a dish I dream about.
3 rue Saint Hubert, 75011

Pierre Gagnaire – There is no one like Pierre Gagnaire, who is constantly reinventing his cuisine.  The room is elegant, the food extraordinary and each dish arrives with an array of "satellite" portions until you are almost dizzied by the flavors. A long-time holder of three Michelin stars, Gagnaire was the consultant to the film The Taste of Things - which says a lot.
6 rue Balzac, 75006

Chez Georges –Chez Georges has been a Parisian institution since the sixties. Its traditional cuisine and service have made it one of Paris’ most beloved brasseries where the great classics are honored. You can’t go wrong here.
1 Rue du Mail, 75017

Septime – Everybody’s favorite contemporary French restaurant in Paris - and impossible to get into. But it’s worth trying to snag a seat at this casual prix fixe restaurant because Chef Bertrand Grébaut’s cooking is both personal and exciting.  The menu changes constantly, but you might find delicate dishes like mushrooms with oyster and foie gras bouillon, or seared tuna with raspberries and tomato water. Service is easygoing, the loft-like space pleasantly airy. And if you can’t get in, their sister seafood restaurant, Clamato, is right next door. They don’t reservations so if you’re willing to wait you’ll get a seat.  You won’t be sorry.
80 rue de Charonne, 75011

Soces - Way up on the Belleville hill, Marius de Ponfilly, who was the chef at the beloved Clamato, is serving a simple and delicious menu featuring mainly fish. You’ll probably find great oysters, along with dishes like tuna carpaccio, fried whitebait and interesting little salads made of raw cuttlefish and confit celery root.
32 rue de la Villette, 75019

Comice - It’s hard to imagine a more welcoming restaurant than this elegant little one-star run by a Canadian couple. The room is small but elegant, the prix fixe menu original. My last meal there began with confit kabocha with pomegranate and roasted lemon, went on to scallop carpaccio, veal loin with sweetbreads and ended with honey-roasted figs and chocolate soufflé.
31 Avenue de Versailles, 75016

Prunier_-There are few more elegant restaurants than this little jewel of Art Deco design where every single object is a thing of beauty. And few menus are more luxurious. Yanick Alleno has taken over this venerable fish restaurant and now it seems half the dishes include caviar.
16 Avenue Victor Hugo, 75016

Semilla - I first came here because Alice Waters recommended it. And I instantly understood: if you like Alice’s food, you’ll like Semilla. It’s a very relaxed place; nobody dresses up, the waiters soon feel like friends, and the food is fresh, simple, vegetable-forward and always a bit surprising.
54 rue de Seine, 75006

Huiterie Régis -This tiny little room near St. Sulpice has only 14 seats and concentrates on a single product: oysters from the Marennes-Oléron. It’s the most perfect place to try the coppery, unforgettable Belons and experience that flavor which is unlike any other oyster.
3 Rue de Montfaucon, 75006 

L’Ami Jean – One of my favorite places in Paris for straight ahead great food in a raucous atmosphere. It’s the kind of place where strangers are likely to lean across the table and offer you a taste.  I’ve never had anything here that I didn’t love, which is why I set one chapter of my last novel, Delicious, in this rollicking room.
27 rue Malar, 75007

Chartier -A superbly ancient bouillon—basically a soup kitchen for the working poor—which has been turning out thousands of meals a day since 1896. With its brass, mirrors, and faux red leather banquettes it is picture-perfect, as are the brusque,  grumpy men  who jot your order on paper tablecloths with stubby pencils.

But they have nothing on the maitre d’, who manages the line at the entrance with smug authority, popping out periodically to sing out “Cinq!” From behind us, a party of five detached itself from the crowd and walked in, smiling. “Quatre!” he shouted, and more people from behind us went in. When we saw how hard it was to get a table for two we joined forces with the couple in front of us. But when the maitre called “Quatre!” and we presented ourselves he shook his head pompously. “Non, non, non, you are a fake four,” he said, moving on to the group behind us.

Having finally gained a coveted seat in the dining room, we found that we still had the waiter to contend with. Could we order? When he had time. How about some wine? When I get to it. And when the kitchen ran out of the blanquette de veau I had ordered, he was absolutely unapologetic. “Fini,” he announced lugubriously, “choose something else.”

But once it arrived, the food was very good. Leeks in vinaigrette were exactly what they should have been, and the shrimp with mayonnaise were perfectly cooked. There was a fine salad, good roast chicken, wonderful steak tartare. And, although I hate to admit it, Chartier is not only the city’s best bargain, but also great fun.
7 Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, 75009

Le Bistro Paul Bert - When the restaurant first opened in the 11th arrondissement it was a pioneer in a  neighborhood which has since become a bastion of interesting restaurants. Now it’s become everybody’s favorite little bistro, a place to come for the classics: a famous steak au poivre, sole meunière, roast pigeon.
18 rue Paul Bert, 75011

Le Baratin -When we produced Gourmet’s first Paris issue in 2000 we featured this restaurant where the Argentinian chef, Raquel Carena was creating very personal dishes out of mostly overlooked cuts like beef cheeks. I fell in love with her cooking, and my mind has never changed.
3 Rue Jouye-Rouve, 75020 

Cafe des Ministeres -This is where young chefs go to savor really great contemporary versions of classic French dishes.
83 Rue de l’Université, 75007

FOOD SHOPS

Poilane Long before it became trendy this family of bakers was doing its best to preserve the glory of France. When French bread started going downhill, restaurants all over Paris proudly trumpeted that their bread was baked by Poilane. Today Apollonia Poilane, the third generation, continues to maintain high standards. There’s a reason why so many suitcases return from Paris packed with Poilane loaves.
8 rue du Cherche Midi, Paris 75006

La Maison de la Truffe Looking for truffles and the drinks to go with them?  This is the place to shop.
19 Place de la Madeleine, Paris 75008

Pierre Hermé is one of the most famous pastry chefs in France, the first to display his cakes as if they were jewels and to create “collections” to show off new fashions. He’s been called the "Picasso of pastry,” and he pretty much started the macaron craze.  He also offers croissants, tarts, cakes, and even breakfast.
Many Paris locations.

La Maison du Chocolat These people are serious about chocolate! All their chocolates are made by hand in their atelier in Nanterre, on the outskirts of Paris. Each texture is poured and smoothed out by hand on special marble tables, cut with precision, delicately enrobed and decorated piece-by-piece with a cornet or fork. You can literally taste the care that goes into their creations.
Many locations.

E. Dehillerin Long time specialists in kitchen equipment, the house's motto is “Helping modestly to promote French cuisine.”  It’s a paradise for food professionals, which is why restaurant owners, pastry chefs, butchers, and caterers all shop here. The shop is more than two hundred years old, and I wouldn’t think of going to Paris without stopping in.
18 et 20 rue Coquillière, 75001

Cedric Grolet specialities in trompe l’oeil fruit: hyper-realistic recreations of lemons, mangos, nuts and more are exquisitely rendered. It’s amazing stuff, and there’s always a line.  You can order online; it you want to eat here, book a table at least a week in advance.
35 Avenue de l’Opera, 75001

La Goutte d’Or
The 18th arrondissement is also known as Little Africa; I find it utterly irresistible. We have nothing like it in the United States, and as you wander these streets you encounter spices, fruits and vegetables you’ve never seen before.  Baobab juice! Various markets specialize in the flavors of a single country, making this a fine place to learn the distinct cuisines of different regions. The many fabric stores sell the wonderful wax fabrics of the continent; I usually buy a few bolts to make into tablecloths.

For the best introduction to the area, stop in at Little Africa Village and talk to owner Jacqueline Ngo Mpii who is doing her best to educate travelers about African culture in Paris through walking tours and cultural events.
6bis Rue des Gardes, 75018 Paris, France

Just before Covid hit I went to Paris to do some research for the book. My last meal of the trip was a lunch at Le Grand Restaurant, a little jewel box of a restaurant that seemed like the perfect place to say au revoir, when what you most want is to return. This is what I wrote.

Every object – from the beautiful glass ceiling to the plates on the table and the gorgeous Venetian glass decanters – is a gift to the eye.  You stroll past an open kitchen where the chefs call out a cheerful “bonjour” and into the soothing quiet of the restaurant.  The service is impeccable: walk in wearing jeans, a sweater and a dripping umbrella and the entire staff treats you as if you were a Duchess clad in jewels.  It is clear they want you to be happy.

And it is almost impossible to be anything else here.  Children are cosseted, catered to, taken off to visit the kitchen.  The sommelier is solicitous. And the chef is among the most talented of the new modern chefs: his food is delicate, inventive, gorgeously conceived and always surprising.

First there is a long parade of amuses bouches that just keep arriving, one more inventive and delicious than the next.

And then the meal begins. Caviar is cooked with seaweed inside a huge yellow beet. When the lid of the casserole is removed the aroma swirls around the room in the most enticing fashion. The result is caviar raised to a new and even more seductive level.

White truffles are shaved, and shaved - the aroma rising, swirling, growing ever more intense - over an omlette souffle so light it has become a cloud of dreams.

Langoustines are barely cooked, so that they tremble on the fork.

An intermission: the most beautiful bowl arrives with an intense vegetable stock dotted with bits of meat, with cepes, with…. So that each bite is different.

Yellowtail, cooked in that sherry-like vin jaune of the Jura, topped with cepes and arranged so beautifully it might be a piece of jewelry.

Simply the best, simplest sweetbread I’ve ever eaten has been cooked over smoking walnut shells, then topped with crisped salsify. So soft, so delicate, so tender.

Blue lobster cooked with marigolds, in an intense sauce matelote, the claws tucked into little crisps and served raw.

Dinner ends with an avalanche of desserts, but this inside-out floating island, filled with crème anglaise, was my favorite, along with those beautiful chocolate-dusted herbs.

As we left the chef came running out, horrified that we had managed to sneak away before before he had a chance to bid farewell. For him, it's personal.

It’s a perfect restaurant experience: all about you.  You float out the door feeling like the most privileged person on the planet.  For a few precious hours you have been held in a delicious bubble where a group of talented people have set out to make sure that you are very, very happy.

These menus are from a trip I took to Paris in the early nineties. The top menu is from Joel Robuchon’s restaurant, Jamin. I remember that meal with such pleasure, remember thinking that it was so technically perfect it was hard to believe the food was made by human hands. And that caviar gelee with cauliflower cream? I still dream about.

If you’re curious about prices… At the time the franc traded between 5 and 6 to the dollar. So the 1200 franc meal would have been about $200 a person.

The next menu is from Guy Savoy. I went there in the eighties for the first really fancy meal I ever had as a solo diner and I was extremely nervous. The waiters were so kind; that they gave me the courage to eat alone at other high-end spots. This menu is from that later visit in the early nineties.

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If you’re looking for an unusual French cookbook, may I suggest one of my all-time favorites? French Cooking in Ten Minutes (it has appeared in English under various titles) by Edouard de Pomiane, is one of the most delightful cookbooks ever published. There are many different editions in both French and English; these are just a few from my own library.

If you’re interested in Pomiane, you need to know about a unique French culinary publishing house, Fretin. A foodlover’s fantasy, they republish tomes of historic interest like The Pleasures of the Table by Édouard Nignon, the most famous cook of the early 20th century as well as their own quirky culinary books like The Japanese Restaurants of Paris.

In addition, they have brought back Pomiane’s Radio Cuisine. Pomiane was a doctor and scientist with a big heart (he worried about the suffering of lobsters), and an extraordinary ability to simplify cooking. His books are wonderful, but I’ve always wished I could listen to the radio show he produced on Friday nights from 1923 to 1929.

And now we can! This was probably the first cooking show ever broadcast. What a thrill to travel through time and listen to a show that is almost one hundred years old!