Archive for the ‘restaurants’ Category

Are We the First Anglophones to Review the New Restaurant La Rotonde?

Monday, August 15th, 2011
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La Rotonde

La Rotonde
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net

Are we the first Anglophones in Paris to review the new restaurant La Rotonde? We like to think so! While other reviewers are away at summer camp or lounging on the beach, Discover Paris! is here in the city doing what it does best: discovering Paris!

La Rotonde is located in a newly-renovated rotunda that once served to house administrative offices of a tax wall that had been built around Paris.

Read our review at the following link: http://www.parisinsights.com/restaurants.php

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In This Month’s Le Bon Goût: Sakebar Youlin

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011
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Kenji Kuribayashi, Chef — Youlin Li, Owner
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net

Sakebar Youlin is a tiny restaurant located on rue Valette, just down the hill from the Pantheon. We recently dined there and then met the owner and chef to learn more about the inspiration behind the Franco-Japanese cuisine that is served there. Read our review in this month’s Le Bon Goût.

Click here to read a brief summary of the August issue, and here to enter a subscription.

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In This Month’s Le Bon Goût: Les Bistronautes

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
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From left to right: Benjamin Loiseau, Chef
Cyril Le Gauffey, Manager, Barman, and Co-owner
Sylvin Herrera, Co-owner

Located near the southwest corner of the Luxembourg Garden, the handsome restaurant Les Bistronautes opened its doors just eight months ago. Read our review of this establishment in this month’s Le Bon Goût.

Click here to read brief summary of the July issue, and here to enter a subscription.

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Chef Tsukasa Fukuyama of A & M Restaurant

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
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Chef Tsukasa Fukuyama
(c) Discover Paris!

Chef Tsukasa Fukuyama hails from Osaka, the third largest city in Japan. At the age of thirteen, he became aware of French cuisine while watching a television show on the subject. This became his passion, and after formal training in a cooking school in Japan, he traveled to France, seeking work in the restaurant trade.

After working at a number of restaurants in Paris, he was eventually asked to join two other chefs in a partnership to open A & M restaurant. Chef Fukuyama has been the head chef there since the year 2000.

We recently enjoyed dining at his restaurant and have written an extensive review of our experience there.

Access to the review is by paid subscription to our newsletter Paris Insights. Click here to read a brief summary of the April edition, and here to enter a subscription.

Bonne lecture!

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Tasting Tapas at La Table des Anges

Wednesday, May 4th, 2011
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La Table des Anges
(c) Discover Paris!

One of the advantages of writing about restaurants is that I occasionally get invited to restaurant openings. On the evening of Friday, April 29, La Table des Anges hosted such an event for journalists and my partner and I attended.

Although the formal opening took place that night, the restaurant has already been open for about five weeks. At the opening, we had the occasion to speak with Jacques-Henri Strauss, one of the partners in the enterprise. He told us that the restaurant plans to serve three types of cuisine: vegetarian (inspired by Indian and southern French foods), traditional French (leg of lamb, beef-carrot stew, and eventually ham on the bone from Eric Ospital, whose company is renowned for its pork products), and what he called “discovery” (food from the Middle Ages and earlier times, molecular cuisine, foreign cuisines such as Indian curry…).

Inside, the restaurant displays bare-stone walls; a light-toned wooden-plank floor and wooden tables; figurative, semi-abstract art on the walls; and fabric-covered benches. The dining room and bar are located on the ground floor. An open kitchen and two large tables for dining are located downstairs. Jacques-Henri told us that tapas will be served downstairs, whereas traditional dining will take place on the ground floor.

The Kitchen of La Table des Anges
(c) Discover Paris!

While we conversed with Jacques-Henri, we were served four kinds of tapas. One was a triangular-shaped brick pastry folded over goat cheese and spinach. Another was a crescent-shaped pastry that contained sweetened ground meat. The third was a breaded ball containing cod and potato; and the fourth was a cube of Spanish tortilla containing egg and potato. All of the tapas were appetizing. We noted, in particular, that the cod in the breaded ball did not have a fishy taste, attesting to its freshness.

For the wine accompaniment, we were served first a glass of Picpoul de Pinet – Domaine Val Grieux, a white wine from the Languedoc region. Following this, we were served a glass of red Zinfandel from Agnes’ Vineyards in Lodi, California.

One of the four partners in this enterprise is Denis Robin, CEO of the restaurant chain Pain Quotidien, a restaurant at which we have had the pleasure to dine on several occasions. Based upon what we saw and experienced Friday evening, we believe that La Table des Anges has great potential for becoming a restaurant for informal dining on fine fare.

The restaurant is located at 66, rue des Martyrs (metro: Pigalle, lines 2 and 12) and is open from Monday to Saturday from 9:00 a.m. until midnight. Open for brunch on Sunday.

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J’aime Paris by Alain Ducasse

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011
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There are numerous restaurant guides available for the Paris-bound traveler to consult before making that dream trip to the City of Light, but the one that I have found that best describes the city’s culinary scene is the soon-to-be-published J’aime Paris: Mon Paris du goût en 200 adresses, by Alain Ducasse (April 2011, Alain Ducasse Edition).

J’aime Paris is a heavy book, weighing in at 4 lbs! It contains 596 pages, and is illustrated with sumptuous black-and-white and color photographs. Co-written with Frédérick E. Grasser Hermé, it is a lively account in words and pictures of some 230 establishments in Paris. While most of the places described are restaurants, the authors also include numerous marketplaces, kitchenware shops, specialty food shops, bars, bakeries, pastry shops, cheese shops, butcher shops, cafés, and more. The book is a veritable treasure-trove of information on the vast and varied world of gastronomy for which Paris is famous.

Although the brief accounts of each establishment are written in French, in my opinion, an understanding of the language is not necessary to enjoy and to learn from the book. It is amply illustrated with hundreds of photographs. The images by themselves effectively convey the passion that motivates Parisian restaurant and food shop owners, and the rich culture and traditions of the French gastronomic experience.

J’aime Paris by Alain Ducasse
Alain Ducasse Edition
Photographer: Pierre Monetta
Appears in bookshops in April 2011 – 35 €

A full review of J’aime Paris is available to the subscribers of our monthly newsletter Paris Insights.

Access to the newsletter is by paid subscription. Click here to view the announcement of the newsletter that features the book review. Click here to enter a subscription.

Bonne lecture!

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Le Bistro T—In the Spirit of Fine Brasserie Dining

Friday, March 4th, 2011
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Left to right: Mahamdou, Christian Béguet, Estelle Bassalert, Roger Ridez
(c) Discover Paris!

The other night we happened down a side street in Paris and came upon a restaurant called Bistro T. After dining on the delicious cuisine served there, we learned that the restaurant was operated by Estelle Bassalert, wife of the late François Bassalert. Mr. Bassalert was the fourth generation of a family of restaurant managers who made a name for themselves at the famous Thoumieux brasserie on the other side of town. To learn why we heartily recommend dining at the Bistro T, read our review in this month’s Le Bon Goût, a feature of our newsletter Paris Insights.

Access to the newsletter is by paid subscription. Click here to read a brief summary of the March edition, and here to enter a subscription.

Bonne lecture et bon appétit!

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Millefeuille at Brasserie Lipp

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
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Millefeuille at Brasserie Lipp
(c) Discover Paris!

Founded in 1880 by Léonard Lippman, the Brasserie Lipp is famous for its Hareng Bismark (pickled Baltic herring), its Choucroute Lipp (sauerkraut with sausages, pork, and ham), its Pied de Porc Farci Grillé (stuffed, grilled pigs’ trotters), and its exquisite millefeuille. The latter is furnished by Delloyau, a renowned Parisian pastry and chocolate maker.

I recently had the occasion to taste the millefeuille at Lipp during a presentation by Pierre-Yves Jaslet on the history of the restaurant and the neighborhood.

The serving was generous, comprising two layers of thick vanilla-flavored custard cream sandwiched between three layers of puff pastry. The top was dusted with powdered sugar and embellished with zigzags of caramel.

The delicate pastry is difficult to eat, because the pressure of the edge of a fork on top of the pastry squeezes it down, causing the cream to ooze out. I finally made careful cuts with a knife, but even then the pastry almost collapsed in the plate.

I found the custard to be somewhat pasty, but that is the way it is supposed to be. I would not normally choose this dessert in a restaurant, but this was a special occasion to try it at the historic Brasserie Lipp!

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Le Casse-Noix—Old-time Parisian Hospitality and Food at its Best

Friday, February 18th, 2011
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Chef Pierre-Olivier Lenormand
(c) Discover Paris!

In response to numerous requests for a review of a true off-the-beaten-path restaurant, we dined at Le Casse-Noix. Located in a area that tourists are unlikely ever to come upon (and yet lying not too far from the Eiffel Tower), this old-time bistrot serves up great food with friendly service.

We interviewed the chef, Pierre-Olivier Lenormand, and learned that he once worked for the President of the Republic at the Elysée Palace!

Access to the restaurant review is by paid subscription to our newsletter Paris Insights. Click here to read a brief summary of the February edition, and here to enter a subscription.

Bonne lecture!

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Chef Yves Camdeborde

Saturday, October 9th, 2010
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Yves Camdeborde
Owner and Chef of Le Comptoir du Relais
(c) Discover Paris!

Brasserie during the day, fine-dining restaurant at night, Le Comptoir du Relais is owned and operated by Chef Yves Camdeborde.

So popular is his restaurant that one must reserve months in advance to get a table for evening dining! We had the opportunity to talk with him and learn about his philosophy of eating well.

Read our review in this month’s Le Bon Goût.

Access to the article is available to paid subscribers of our newsletter Paris Insights. To enter a subscription, click here.

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