If you think food tastes better in a beautiful room, then you’ll love Le Mini Palais, where refined and playful cooking meets high design in a Paris landmark setting.Eric Fréchon of the Bristol is the consulting chef, present in spirit only, and the menu is as cosmopolitan as the crowd. Book a table on the terrace when weather permits. Open every day, all day.
Chef Wim Van Gorp, a Ducasse and Vongerichten veteran, brings his skills to bear on classics like oeufs mayo, pot-au-feu, chicken with morels, boeuf bourguignon, and riz-au-lait.
Hélène Darroze is one of the only women to have a Michelin star, which is an interesting sociological fact, if not necessarily a reason to eat at her eponymous restaurant. Darroze hails from southwestern France, and her cooking is strongly accented with flavors from that region, here elevated to one-star levels in a modern, luxe dining room, as well as the less formal “salon,” where small plates are available. Menus from 52€ (lunch) to 125€.
Once upon a time, Olivier Magny ran wine tastings and classes out of his own apartment. Now he’s opened a vast, slick wine bar near Les Halles with a list of about 500 bottles and 40 glass pours.
Un Dimanche à Paris, run by Pierre Cluizel of the renowned chocolate-making family, is many things. It’s a boutique, selling gorgeous chocolates and pastries; it’s a cocktail lounge and salon du thé; it’s an event and teaching space, offering cooking classes; and it’s an elegant restaurant, where chocolate finds its way into everything, sweet and savory.
A salade landaise served as a spring roll, mini croissants with truffles and ham, sardine rillettes, crisp polenta with smoked duck: This new address from Julien Duboué of Afaria serves up a lengthy list of creative tapas for gourmand grazing.
If the walls at Lasserre could talk, they would tell stories about white doves, Marc Chagall, ortolan, and Audrey Hepburn, stories of glitterati and résistants taking their truffled macaroni under the retractable roof.
On the one hand, this really is a café, open all day long starting at 8 am. But it’s the natural wines and simple food that keep this place busy. The terrace doesn’t hurt.
From the team behind Glou comes Jaja, a contemporary bistro featuring top notch organic products, a serious wine list, airy urban decor, and…hot dogs. Open every day.
Join the rest of the neighborhood here on Sunday afternoons for a post-market glass of wine (direct from the barrel), a plate of cheese or charcuterie or, in winter, a dozen oysters. Bottles to go, too.
The old Chez Maitre Paul space has been given a fresh coat of paint by a new team who seem keen on pleasing the old faithful clientele of Paul while broadening their culinary horizons with oyster “bon bons” and other twists on an otherwise classic menu. The three-course, 21€ lunch is a good place to start.
This Sentier address offers a streamlined menu of contemporary cooking, with global accents, and (comme il faut, these days) natural wines.
It’s pizza by the kilo (and don’t leave without trying the truffle version) at this Roman-style spot. Bright lights, high stools and cheap wine by the carafe. Locations in Oberkampf and the upper Marais.
“Cook globally, source locally” could be the motto of Les Grandes Tables. Chef Fabrice Biasiolo’s menu draws from world traditions, but the ingredients are French, organic, sustainable…you get the idea. The reviews are mixed. Quirky historical bonus: Le 104 (a cultural center) is housed in what used to be the public morgue.
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- La Tache 1962 on Our Guide to Paris: BigarradeNot in 2012, but I promised to do so when they have the Coutume coffee. Which they will be tasting monday I...
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