Boo in Paris - The Rest

Here's a little round up of the rest of our recent Paris trip for Bel's birthday. 

It has to start with the finest cheeseboard I've ever seen in a restaurant, Chez Casimir's selection which was one of the culinary highlights of the trip.  We were left alone with it for about 10 minutes and did some serious damage.

 

Here we also had probably the sweetest service of the weekend here, they chaps really made us feel welcome.  Brilliant mains too, the iberico pork with polenta;

 

And the lamb shanks with vegetables served in individual casserole dishes.  We had 4 courses for €32, an absolute bargain. 

The confit fennel with citrus sorbets was the best received dessert, not too sure about the logo though...

We were all really eager to try L'as du Falafel in the Marais because everyone knows that they serve the best falafs in Paris.  They didn't disappoint and we all ordered the classic pitta special which for €7.50 comes packed full with falafel, aubergines and salad. 

 

The accompanying sauces are nice too providing an additional kick, red and green chilli to choose from.  It's really relaxed and they have a little window out front for take away orders. 

We had some nice food but surly service at Cafe Constant but I really enjoyed the ox cheek bourguignon with carrot and potato (€14), so I thought it worth a mention.  

The plate du fromage was laughable though, 2 huge hunks of the same cheese and they couldn't wait to get us out of there as we'd arrived pretty late (having struggled to find anywhere open on a Sunday night).

We also picked up some brilliant baguette from a little bakery on Rue André del Sarte (thanks for the recommendation Benj), had nice late night drinks in the conservatory of Hotel Amour to see in Bel's actual birthday and fell in love with the baked goods from Maison Kayser, the pistachio financiers are seriously good.

Chez Casimir

6 Rue de Belzunce, 

75010

8/10

Cafe Constant

139 Rue Saint-Dominique

75007

6/10

L'as du Falafel

34 Rue des Rosiers

75004

9/10

Boo in Paris - Septime la Cave

One of the most hyped restaurants in Paris right now is Septime.  Having not planned ahead we stood no chance of getting a table during our 4 day trip, so didn’t even attempt it, but we were lucky enough to have lunch on our last day at the newly opened Septime Cave.

The Cave, just across the road from the main restaurant is a little wine cellar with 3 stools at a bar, offering a small menu of wines by the glass and a few bar snacks.  We propped up the bar for a few hours ahead of our train back to London and were so impressed with the wines (bringing plenty home with us) and the food.  It’s not really marketed as a foodie destination, more a place to buy some good wines and perhaps crack open a bottle right there, or sample some others whilst grazing on some snacks.  

The place is stacked with wines from floor to ceiling, on each wall.  They also sell a bunch of other drinks and whilst it's a tiny room, they've really made the best of the space they have to work with.

We ordered pretty much 1 of everything between the 3 or us.  The toasted bread was replenished literally about 10 times without even having to ask.  

  

In this first picture is the foie gras with anguille fume (€10) which was great.  Even Art, not the biggest fan of fish, was taken with the smoked eel stuffed in the centre.  Great with the bread, from a local bakery.

Next to arrive was the saucisson salamino (€8) and the house smoked duck breast, magreb fume ici (€7).

Final batch of plates we ordered were the saint nectaire cheese (€8) the lombatello di cinta senese (€8) an Italian proscuitto type ham and, what was for me the best dish of the day, the ricotta anchois (€8).  The combo of anchovies with the creamy cheese topped with toasted bulghar wheat and plenty of Occhipinti extra virgin olive oil.  The oil was also left with us for regular top ups and I got a bottle to take away.  So good.  It’s from a small family run estate where some of the wines on offer are also produced. 

Onto the wines, the biggest hit of the day was probably the P.U.R BBQ 2011 which Bel took a few bottles of.  A full bodied red from the Chavanay region of France made with Syrah grapes.

I preferred the Bourgogne Aligote from Naudin-Ferrand, a fruity and smooth white.  Glasses of these to drink in range from 5-8 Euros and the bottles can be purchased for around 7-15 Euros.  And that is really all I should say about wine, because I know so little, but everything we tried was excellent.  So cheap and it really was the best way to spend the final few hours of our trip.  I had a cider too for €3.

I can’t think of anywhere similar to it here in London, it’s a brilliant idea.  There was a steady stream of visitors coming in to pick up a bottle or 2, and the lovely lady working there that day was so sweet and helpful.  It's a casual vibe and really ended our holiday on a high note.

Septime La Cave

3 Rue Basfroi, 75011 (Charonne)

Paris

8.5/10

Boo in Paris - Le Chateaubriand

No exaggeration, I've been trying to dine at Le Chateaubriand for about 4 years. My previous visits to Paris always coinciding with their summer and Christmas closures, so this time, the girls and I were determined not to miss out.

This and this report of how to bag a table came in really handy as we'd not managed to make a reservation. So we took up residence in sister restaurant Le Dauphin and kept an eye on the queue situation to ensure we were able to be relatively close to the front.

At Le Chateaubriend, the first sitting from 6pm allows organised diners to book in advance. As the tables turn, those who queue are able to try the tasting menu on a first come first served basis. There is no all night queue, it forms from about 9pm to reduce potential waiting times which seems like a much better way of doing it than the constant queues we see here in London.

We waited inside at the bar from just gone 9, drinking champagne for about an hour. Tables of 2 were seated ahead of us, bigger groups will need to wait for longer.

Once we were seated, we enjoyed the best meal of the whole trip and I now see what all the fuss is about and why for many Le Chateaubriand is still offering some of the best food that Paris has to offer.

There is a set tasting menu only, which changes on a daily basis and costs €60. A wine matching menu is also offered for €120 but we were already pretty merry.

First up came the amuse bouches.

 Cheese puffs - not particularly memorable, and we spotted some nearby diners

being served 2 each.  Only 1 each for us, boring start.

 Liqueur de tomates. Almost like a bloody Mary, a salty cold liquid with a 

chunk of avocado in the centre. This was seriously impressive and 

I annoyed everyone by banging on about how much I loved it.

 I still can't decide what fish this was but I think it was

monkish with horseradish and walnuts.  Nice textures.

 Octopus salad with asparagus and yoghurt. Another wow dish.

 Amuses done, a celery soup palate cleanser which was way better than it looked.

Some nice bread and butter arrived at this point along with the starter of boudin noir, choux de pointoise (cabbage from a suburb in the Northwest of Paris) and pimentón (paprika). This was the dish of the day for all of us who agreed that we would never have ordered it, but were thoroughly blown away by the combination. The boudin noir was the nicest blood sausage I have ever tried and the additions of grapefruit pulp and cabbage were genius. LOVED IT.

 Next up was our least favourite dish. Monkfish with carrots and bitter leaves. 

The sauce was a bit wishy washy and it lacked the flavour present in all the other dishes.

 Guinea fowl with squid cubes and beurre noisette. Another really brilliant dish. 

Lovely cooked meat with a nice tang from the onion and herb topping. 

Pre dessert of mandarin ice cream with rum soaked raisins. I didn't expect to 

like this but it provided a nice freshness and the raisins really packed a punch.

We shared 2 cheese plates and had an extra 2 desserts as concino del ciolo cannot be shared. How do you slice a runny egg yolk?! These split the table really. The Spanish sweet dish of pastry with toffee sauce topped with an egg yolk. Eaten in 1 mouthful the yolk pops and is only slightly sweet, blowtorched sugar forming a hard top and resuting in a gag reflex from half of our table. Certainly fun to eat.

The fromage, I forget which as the menu didn't specify, was a fine selection.

More bread was delivered with it.

To finish, we were given a plate of mango pieces topped with cumin and fennel seeds with what could have been other candied seeds but I can't be sure (the colourful balls pictured). We shared a bottle of red through the meal and by this point we were all flagging slightly having been on the 7:30am Eurostar from St Pancras that morning. A 1:30am finish to the meal took its toll on us and I was struggling to see straight!

To say we enjoyed this experience would be an understatement. The service and atmosphere was lively and fun. We paid €90 each and left full and happy, all boudin noir converts and I will certainly be back next time I'm in Paris. The wait we had feared was a non issue and the food some of the most innovative and interesting I've ever had.

Le Chateaubriand

129, Avenue de Parmentier

Paris

70011

9/10

Boo in Paris - The Rest

Other meals in Paris were a mixed bag, the okay - Le Coq, Bouillon Racine and the bad - Le Castiglione.

One thing you can always count on in Paris (apart from places you really want to visit being closed for Christmas/summer) is quality bread and butter. Everywhere offers lovely dinner rolls and the most amazing creamy butter to start your meal. Obviously there are plenty of superb red wines too!


Our visit to Le Coq came about following a last minute request to our hotel's concierge so we had no idea what to expect. The decor was a tad gauche but the food was mostly solid and the service was lovely.

Fois gras to start, lobster spaghetti for me and steak for Thomas, were all good. Dessert was a disaster, a sweet omelette hiding some warm flat champagne with a couple of raspberries thrown in for good measure. Absolutely foul and overpriced at €14.



A chance lunch at Le Castiglione was disappointing. Great frites and peppercorn sauce but one massively undercooked piece of steak for me, and a second smaller overcooked piece, though Thomas' was correctly cooked to medium rare. A stop off at the conveniently located Pierre Hermes on Avenue Paul Doumer, close to our hotel in the 16th, just about made up for our dining disappointments. Well, that and more red wine.



Dinner on our final night was at the quaint Bouillon Racine in the 6th. A lovely little brasserie with Art Nouveau decor. It feels very grand upon entering but it's actually very relaxed and casual. We fared well here with the food , until I wanted cheese for afters and they didn't have any. Grr. And the wine (beaujolais) was far too cold.


Decent onion soup, scallops and dauphinoise potatoes but sadly none of that amazing butter with the bread. We were sat by the door and it was freezing each time the door opened and slowly closed.

So, in all, we didn't have much luck eating out on this trip. As I mentioned, many of the recommended restaurants we'd hoped to visit were closed for Christmas and it was too cold to explore much on foot. Thankfully our hotel was excellent and we had a near constant supply of macarons and nutella crepes.

Le Coq
2 place du Trocadéro
75016 Paris 16er
6/10

Le Castiglione
235, rue Saint-Honoré
75001 Paris 1er
4/10

Bouillon Racine
3, rue Racine
75006 Paris 6er
5/10

Boo in Paris - L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon

I spent Christmas in Paris last year. Having previously visited the city in August 2009 I was disappointed to find many of the places I would like to have eaten at were closed for the holiday period, as many also are during the entire 8th month of the year.

Gladly L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon was open and I booked us in for lunch on Christmas day at 2pm. Having never dined at a Robuchon restaurant before, I really had little idea of what to expect. I'd attempted to browse their website but it's one of those annoying restaurant flash sites so I found the email address I needed to book a table and left it at that. Fortunately the UK website for the London venue is infinitely less irritating than Joël Robuchon.net.

So unlike most meals out, I had not read any blog posts or viewed the menu in advance of this one, as it was Christmas I wanted it to be a relaxed occasion, whilst being almost certain that we would surely love the food of a chef whose global empire has amassed a total of 26 Michelin stars.

This turned out to be true and the food was exceptional. The lasting memories I have of the meal however were more to so with the service. Having arrived 5 minutes early we were told to wait in the lobby of the adjoining hotel, at a small bar. This is not unusual and we were actually glad of the time to enjoy an aperitif. But the guy who welcomed us ushered us through and then back out of the restaurant without giving an estimate of how long we might be left there and without taking our coats. We received and finished a glass of champagne, whilst sat at an unmanned bar, for 25 minutes when we finally went to find the chap who had welcomed us. He came to take our coats just as the barman returned so he couldn't see what our issue was.

We ordered another glass which after 5 minutes did not materialise and then we were led to our seat. Comparing this to the service we experienced at The Ledbury a month before, it's difficult to believe they have the same Michelin classification. What made it more difficult to swallow was the fact that the absent barman tracked us down inside the restaurant and handed us a bill for the drinks. We refused to pay (well Thomas did, I of course, would have just paid despite my dissatisfaction) and a discussion ensued with 2 waiters and eventually the manager who reluctantly agreed to settle the drinks tab whilst arrogantly proclaiming that we would no doubt love the food and explaining that it is their policy to not hurry diners to leave (or indeed state upon booking that the seats must be vacated within a given amount of time, something which I appreciate and actually admire) especially on Christmas day. I totally understand that but we would merely like to have been informed that this was the case when we arrived. As it was we felt quite negelcted.

Bad start aside, the manager was right, the food was some of the best I had in 2010 and having not researched Robuchon's L'Atelier concept I was perhaps unprepared for the more casual style of Michelin dining offered here. Still, as has been discussed elsewhere recently, service is a major factor in deciding whether you will or will not be likely to make a return visit.

Back to the food, we opted for the €150 tasting menu and a bottle of rosé.

L'amuse-bouche - Jerusalem artichoke soup served cold with artichoke crisp. I really liked this, Thomas found the consistency a bit 'sick like' (his words).


La saint Jacques - scallop ceviche with sea urchin. This was my first try of sea urchin, I was surprised by it's vibrant colour and soft texture. Very good.


Le caviar with smoked mackerel, potato and horseradish cream


Le foie gras with white beans was my favourite dish


L'œuf - Poached egg in a mushroom broth with girolles. The perfectly runny egg made for an interesting mouthful once the yolk was pierced. Again, Thomas thought texturally this was a little sickly.

The lady dining next to us found a hair in her egg dish. She sent it back, there was no apology and she was presented with an entirely different plate of food (which she took with good humour) 10 minutes later when she enquired where her replacement L'œuf had got to, by which time her companion had finished this course.


Le rouget - red mullet with olives, tomato and capers. I adored this too, unusual I thought to combine such strong flavours with fish but the mullet was more than a match for the trio.


La Caille - my main course (from a choice of three) was the quail stuffed with foie gras with truffle mash. Brilliantly cooked and very decadent.

La joue de boeuf - Thomas' main. Beef bourguignonne with mini carrots and onions and the creamiest mash.


Les Parfum des Iles - passionfruit granita with lime, refreshing and pretty.


La Pomme - royal gala apple with caramel sauce and salted caramel ice cream.

We also had a starter of oysters to share from the specials which were excellent. Good rye bread was served as well as the typical bread basket and creamy butter which is visible in the picture at the head of the post.

Seating is very compact, we were in a corner so were granted some privacy but to our right there was (before the hair in the egg lady arrived) a diner who was all elbows.

That said, it's always a joy to watch chefs at work, here from the bar style seating circling the kitchen and in all this was a great special occasion meal let down somewhat by the careless front of house service. Were it not for this blip, I would likely be raving about the place and eagerly anticipating a trip to the Covent Garden site.

L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon
5 Rue de Montalembert
75007 Paris, France

7/10

Boo in Paris - Le Marché des Enfants Rouges

On our final day in Paris, feeling more than a little sore headed following a late night Chez Jeanette we set off for brunch via Marché Bastille. This market is Jo's local, open every Sunday, it also happens to be David Lebovitz', here is what he has to say about it.

The sheer size of it is amazing and the variety of food on offer is remarkable. Here is one stall with enormous pans full of traditional beef bourgninon and paella. The aromas and buzzing atmosphere of the market were enthralling, had I not felt so fragile I would happily have spent the entire day wandering about there.


Finding Rose Bakery closed (quelle suprise) we head over to another market, Le Marché des Enfants Rouges, to have brunch. This market is much smaller in size and less traditional in that they offer a selection of Japanese, African and Greek cuisines. We ate in a small corner of the market at a restaurant named L'Estaminet du Marche. This place prides itself on being unfussy and traditional. They are well known for their Sunday brunch.

The concept of brunch seems an entirely different affair to what it is perceived as here or in the US. The menu offered a meat or fish brunch. I went for the meat option. What arrived was a plate with a hell of a lot going on, to be honest it was a bit much for me in my hungover state but I quite like the concept of there being a little bit of everything.

To be honest this was a bit struggle for me to eat with a dicky tum but looking back the selection is great and so typically French, I am so glad to have tried it. The cheeses were mighty and pungent and possibly not the wisest place to begin. There was salami, brawn, salad, yoghurt, scrambled eggs, fruit salad and a scone! It took me some time to work my way slowly through this and about 5 baskets of baguette but looking back I loved it. It's good to not have to limit oneself to meat or cheese, sweet or savoury when ordering but for veggie Jo, yet again there was little for her on the menu. Some cheese and baguette.

Paris resident Tori had the fish brunch and cleaned up, she had previosuly been sceptical about the French take on brunch but is now a convert. Jamie had the most adventurous offering on the menu, a tripe sausage, or Andouillette. This was served with salad and new potatoes.

It was obscured from my view thankfully by the salad leaves, I think the sight of it would have pushed me over the edge but Jamie seemed more than satisfied with it. I would like to have tried it were I feeling better.

Brunch and foodie conversation over (they have horse and donkey butchers in Paris, who knew?) we head out into the market and picked up a few bottles of Beaujolais (wine of choice for the weekend) for a very reasonable €7 each.

Another notable find over the weekend was a fig and walut boursin, correct me if I'm wrong but I'm not sure we get that here, I've never seen it. The French do know their cheese. I loved this weekend in Paris and am itching to get back there as soon as possible.

L'Estaminet du Marche
Le Marché des Enfants Rouges
39, Rue de Bretagne
75003 Paris
7.5/10

Boo in Paris - the great macaron hunt

Weekend in Paris = no brainer, a day seeking out the best macaron France has to offer was called for. I've been dying to try Pierre Hermé since reading Gisele Scanlon's rundown of macaron makers in the Goddess Guide, she rates Hermé as the best.


So on Saturday morning, we set off for 72 Rue Bonaparte, the flagship store, on bikes, the Parisian bicycle scheme is amazing and it was the perfect weather for cycling around and taking in the sights.

Sadly Pierre Hermé was closed, as were many places, I had no idea this would be the case but many shop owners and restaurateurs up sticks for the entire month of August and close for business. Anyhow, I was able to track some down eventually at the Rue Cambon shop, smaller but still the real deal. The verdict? Hermé's are the best. I had a strawberry and pistachio which was quite exquisite and Thomas and Jo both plumped for the olive oil and vanilla. Experimental flavour combinations and delightfully crisp yet soft mouthfuls of sweet chilled meringue sandwiched together with ganache. I don't think it gets much better than this. I promptly snapped up a box for the Kid.

The previous day Thomas and I had sampled some delights at Parisian favourite Ladurée, which of course we are fortunate to be able to do at home in London at the Harrods tearoom and at Burlington Arcade.

Here I had a pistachio and raspberry meringue and Thomas had a vanilla slice. Both agree the Pierre Hermé macarons are superior. Jo prefers Gérard Mulot but once again we were scuppered by the "Fermeture annuel" and were not able to try them.

We also tried some pastries at Maison Kayser which were brilliant, the chorizo bread here was particularly good. In between our visits to Pierre's we stopped off at Mosque de Paris which is worth a mention for the mint tea in the beautiful terrace. There is a fantastically aromatic dining room, beyond the entrance and front counter, housing a stunning array of baklava and other sweet treats. Out back there is a Turkish bath and spa which I am keen to visit next time. Definitely worth a look.


There is such an amazing wealth of Pâtisseries in Paris that for tourists it is hard to differentiate between the standard and the extraordinary ones, without sampling them all. Fortunately for us, Jo knows and we also visited Polaine and marvelled at the breads and biscuits on offer. I took some home for Noy, they are so buttery and melt in the mouth crumbly. Once more we fell foul of the August closures, we had hoped to have lunch at the neighbouring Cuisine de Bar, 8 rue du Cherche-Midi alas, next time perhaps. I've found out since returning that we have Polaine in London too so, for that at least, I needn't wait until my next visit.

Mosque de Paris
2, Place du Puits de l'Ermite
75005 Paris
http://www.la-mosquee.com/index.htm

Boo in Paris - Derriere

I've been back from Paris for a week now and not done a single post, hectic week etc. but now for the Bank holiday weekend, beef rendang bubbling on the stove, time to blog at last!

Jo selected Derrière as our venue for Saturday night. Karine joined us and we were seated at one of the quirky tables, each different (upstairs one is a bed), arranged on the ground floor around a ping pong table. There are individual lamps to light each group creating a relaxed, somewhat unusual, and intimate atmosphere.

Derrière is owned by Mourad Mazouz, owner of Sketch and Moro in London, having read many less than complimentary reviews of Sketch over the last months I was pleased to find the food we had at Derrière to be very good indeed.

We began things with a couple of starters between us, the cucumber and the tomato. Each dish is named after the key ingredient, with the emphasis being vegetarian, sadly for Jo the same cannot be said of the main course offerings, but more on that later.


The cucumber was served with cottage cheese which was not at all how I recollect ever eating it. I tend to feel it has a dieting connotation and have never seen it on a menu in London. I was most pleasantly surprised. It was rich and cheesy, not chalky in the typical way and was the perfect warm up to the main event.

Cucumber is cucumber, there's not a lot more to say about it but the tomato dish is stunning in its simplicity but is packed full of taste with a vast array of varieties, served in their natural state with a sprinkling of sea salt and good olive oil.


The starters were accompanied by some bread which was good quality and onto the mains. I ordered the whole turbot but was actually presented with fillets of seabass. I was enjoying the good company and fine bottle(s) of Beaujolais a little too much to even notice at the time. Anyhow, the seabass was divine, succulent and tender, served with roasted vegetables and creamy polenta. I loved it, and didn't even think of the fact that it wasn't turbot until days later.


The pesto sauce was seriously good stuff and the side of polenta is just visible at the bottom of the picture above, this has forever changed my opinion of polenta and I now am a big fan, this version was cheese laden, gooey inside with a crisp golden top.

Perhaps the winner of the evening was Karine's Beef cheek casserole which was served up in an impressive cast iron pot. Though Karine had serious food envy and seemed less pleased with it herself!


The beef cheeks were incredibly tender and the portion size was enormous, fortunately we could all have a try! Except for Jo who doesn't eat meat, the solitary vegetarian main course option was gazpacho, more of a starter I'd say. It's certainly a struggle for Jo being a veggie in Paris where they love their meat but she said that the gazpacho was very good.

Thomas' main course was pork tenderloin with wild mushrooms. He was disappointed that the thin slices of pork were not more tender but the accompanying mushrooms were enough to make up for it.

We all skipped dessert as we were running late to meet Jamie. It was 12 by the time we finished. The service was a little slow at times but tap water was provided and the food really was great. I love how dinner seems to be much later than here in London, everyone heads home after work and then back out later to dine rather than heading out straight from the office which is more common here. I like long and lingering evenings, it's no surprise to anyone that the Parisians take their food a lot more seriously than we tend to.

I loved Derrière and would love to return on my next trip, which I'm hoping will be fairly soon, I totally fell for Paris last weekend.

Derriere
69, Rue des Gravilliers
75003 Paris
8/10

http://gogoparis.com/paris/derri-re-3129

Thanks to Karine for the images!