Skip to content

2015

agnolotti pastificio passerini | parisbymouth.com

Pastificio Passerini

Address: 65, rue Traversière, 75012Hours: Open Tuesday & Wednesday 3:30-7:30pm. Open Thursday-Saturday 11am-1pm, 2-7:30pm. Open Sunday 11am-2pm. Closed Monday.Telephone: +33 1 44 74 67 84Website / Facebook We have not yet reviewed this shop, but you can read more about the concept here. You’ll find practical information about location and hours on this page, along with links to other reviews. Feel free to share your own opinion in the comments. In Other Words Table à Découvert (2016) “Quant aux recettes,… Read More »Pastificio Passerini

Copper Bay from FB | parisbymouth.com

CopperBay

The bright, expansive bar at CopperBay is a nice antidote to the cramped, dark speakeasies that make up much of the Parisian cocktail scene. It’s unpretentious and accessible, from the perspective of pricing – cocktails start at 10, which is far lower than most other spots of comparable quality – and of service. Before ordering at the bar, clients are given a deck of cards as the menu. Each one explains a beverage and breaks down the ingredients and flavor profile into a pie chart. Servers are easygoing and attentive. They care about the presentation, potentially too much, and you may find yourself being served a cocktail inside of a plastic bag that roughly resembles a bouquet of flowers, but it’s fun.

A recent favorite during this chilly winter was the “Hot Butterhead” of fragrant calvados, rum, Velvet Falernum, and liberal chunks of still melting butter, served warm in a mug wearing its own woolly sweater. The drinks menu has a good selection of pastis in all its forms, classic drinks, and CopperBay’s own original creations which are complex, multilayered and memorable (even if in the case of some, like the cauliflower-banana rum cocktail, perhaps for the wrong reasons). By way of eats, there’s a small menu of impeccable if typical products (burrata, rillettes). Although CopperBay appears to have gone through a few soul searching iterations since opening in late 2014 – the vaguely nautical bar no longer brands itself as “Mermaids & Magic Potions” for example – it’s hitting its stride right now.

Read More »CopperBay

pizza faggio from facebook | parisbymouth.com

Faggio

Practical information Address: 72 rue de Rochechouart, 75009 Nearest transport: Anvers (2) Hours: Closed Monday & Tuesday; Open Wednesday-Sunday for lunch and dinner Reservations: Walk-Ins Welcome Telephone: 01 40 37 44 02 Average price for lunch: 20-39€ Average price for dinner: 20-39€ Style of cuisine: Italian & pizza Website   Facebook Reviews of interest Alexander Lobrano (2015) “At Faggio, it wasn’t that anyone was unfriendly, but rather that no one was going to acknowledge that you’d had a long wait before being fed. And of course… Read More »Faggio

vin qui parle | parisbymouth.com

Le Vin Qui Parle

An attractive and likable cave in the Latin Quarter, but slick design can’t quite mask a partial dearth of bottles of particular interest. There are famous names here and there, but much of the stock is more puzzling than eyebrow-raising. The staff is generous (in that there are more of them than one expects in a place of this size) and friendly, but they’re clearly working from a supply chain unlike that feeding much of their more adventurous competition. The already-knowledgable can certainly find many things to drink here…but then, the already knowledgable are very likely shopping elsewhere. Still, a pleasant shopping experience goes a long way.

Read More »Le Vin Qui Parle

L’Etiquette

A shop full of natural, biodynamic, and organic wine doesn’t seem the likeliest candidate for a heavily touristed corner of the Île Saint-Louis. But while it’s possible that a fair number of visitors are baffled by the racks of unfamiliar wines, and at least a few of the rest are just popping in to ask for directions to Berthillon, uncannily affable proprietor and raconteur Hervé Lethielleux is a laid-back advocate for wines that often benefit from a little advocacy.

The selection’s pretty evenly weighted between acknowledged stars and semi-obscurities, and there’s an extant yet reasonable location-based premium, but what’s not to love about a store like this in such a prime location?

Tastings every Saturday, all day, though at any given time there’s usually something open.

Read More »L’Etiquette

Les Caves du Marais

Piled wooden cases bearing the name of many a famous winemaker form the narrow passage to this equally tiny shop. Inside, you’ll find those bottles from those famed names, plus plenty more not quite in evidence, to find which you’ll want to strike up a conversation with the extremely knowledgable proprietor Jean-Jacques Bailly. It’s a classicist’s selection, and you won’t find the cartoonish ephemera of the natural wine scene here, but neither is it doctrinaire. And there’s this, too: Les Caves du Marais is the sort of place people imagine when thinking of the prototypical and increasingly legendary caviste, yet in actual fact such places rarely exist except to sell either natural wine or indifferent commercial banalities anymore. Shopping here is like finding something you always imagined existed.

Read More »Les Caves du Marais

cave grande epicerie | parisbymouth.com

Cave at La Grande Epicerie de Paris

This grande dame of comestible retail has expanded rapidly and somewhat chaotically over the last few years. As a consequence, the once well-controlled wine shop has moved to the basement, leaving confusion in its wake.

As ever, there are a lot of well-known labels, in all price ranges (though carrying a not-insignificant markup; one doesn’t shop at Le Grand Epicerie looking for bargains). There’s a rare wine room, flashily-displayed champagne (sadly, largely devoid of its once-extensive grower-producers and now heavily weighted towards big négociants), a Bacchanalian surplus of magnums, and a fair selection of foreign wine and spirits that can be hard to come by elsewhere.

But that’s assuming one can find anything. Wines are wrapped around columns, shoveled under the occasionally-staffed registers, and laid to rest in coolers where one has to squint at tags to know what lies behind. For all its treasures, this is not a store that encourages unfocused browsing.

Read More »Cave at La Grande Epicerie de Paris

La Robe et Le Palais on November 18 - photo by Michaël Dandrieux

What life was really like during the week after the Paris attacks

Contrary to most news reports, Paris is not on lockdown. The city’s residents, and especially those of us who live, work and play on the city’s east side, are shaken up. But together we’re getting through it. Here is an incomplete attempt to show what that looked like during the week after the attacks on November 13th. Read More »What life was really like during the week after the Paris attacks

Beaujolais Nouveau 2015

The imminent annual release of Beaujolais Nouveau – no longer a media firestorm in the best of circumstances – may seem, in the wake of last Friday’s Paris terror attacks, about as pertinent as a rubber duck.

In such troubled times, who needs wine? Who needs cured ham and cornichons? Who among us needs to gather with friends and loved ones? Who can bring themselves to purchase inexpensive bottles of glimmery young gamay and share it liberally with neighbors? Who wants to support Paris’ liveliest tradition-minded bars and bistrots when their business has been threatened?

Well, perhaps quite a few of us. Beaujolais Nouveau, ordinarily an occasion for slightly meaningless fun, can become, in 2015, an occasion for slightly more meaningful fun. Read More »Beaujolais Nouveau 2015

le mary celeste red cross cocktail | parisbymouth.com

Havens of hospitality: Small acts of heroism during the attacks

“Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise,” is painted above a doorframe in the bookstore and café Shakespeare & Co. It’s a motto that the iconic address certainly took to heart on Friday evening when Paris went into lockdown following the most deadly attacks on French soil since World War II. Shakespeare & Co’s staff sheltered roughly 20 people during the lockdown, many of whom ended up spending the night among the bookshelves and coffee machines. Owner Sylvia Whitman, however, is reluctant to be singled out as a hero. “This wasn’t exceptional,” she insists. “There were many places that closed with customers inside.”

Sadly, she’s right – it wasn’t exceptional. Many shops, restaurants and bars ended up sheltering patrons for hours on end. What was exceptional were the actions of staff who went above and beyond the call of duty on Friday evening to ensure that guests were taken care of.Read More »Havens of hospitality: Small acts of heroism during the attacks

Patrick Roger: Sculpture with Taste

The Rodin Museum re-opens today after a long renovation, its lobby featuring a sweet new installation: A copy of the sculptor’s famous Monument to Balzac, standing nearly 4 meters high, and made entirely from chocolate.

maison plisson photo via FB | parisbymouth.com

Maison Plisson

Address: 93, boulevard Beaumarchais, 75003Hours: Open Monday 9:30am-9pm. Open Tuesday-Saturday 8:30am-9pm. Open Sunday 9am-8pm. Telephone: +33 1 71 18 19 09Website / Facebook / Instagram This sprawling 500m² space on the edge of the trendy Northern Marais does double duty. On one side, it’s an upscale market, boasting fresh fruits and vegetables, high quality cheeses, charcuterie, and deli items, as well as a bakery, an excellent selection of wines and a range of luxury local and imported grocery items. On… Read More »Maison Plisson

dairy bar fromagerie goncourt | parisbymouth.com

Fromagerie Goncourt

This fromagerie is a welcome addition in the 11th where there’s an abundance of quality restaurants, but a serious lack of places to buy great cheese. Don’t miss the fresh dairy bar by the door where you can buy fromage frais, ricotta, and housemade cervelle de canut (a tangy cheese dip from Lyon flavored with fresh herbs and shallots) in bulk. Clément Brossault did a Tour de France of fromage on his bicycle to meet and build relationships with artisanal cheese producers before he opened his beautiful shop near Goncourt. The trip paid off and the shop is stocked with a wide variety of competitively priced cheeses.  Raw milk, which can be hard to find due to its short shelf life, is delivered here from Normandy twice weekly.

— Catherine Down, September 2015Read More »Fromagerie Goncourt

fig tart laurent favre-mot | parisbymouth.com

Laurent Favre-Mot

Between the chocolate mustache-topped sable sandwich cookies that resemble an inside-out Oreo, the “f*cking dark” chocolate tarts topped off with chocolate skulls, or a lemon cream in between sesame madeleines disguised as a hamburger, this pastry shop can feel a bit too self-consciously cool. Thankfully, the sweets mostly deliver, and the tattooed and bearded eponymous pastry chef is present most days, and gracious. The deconstructed cheesecake inside of a Camembert box is an interesting take on a ubiquitous dessert, and the fresh fig tart with dragées rich with an intensely vanilla cream in a crisp, not-too-sweet shell. Pastries taken to-go are packaged in reusable plastic pencil cases adorably slapped with a robot sticker. In yet another departure from his peers, Laurent Favre-Mot will be offering a limited savory lunch and brunch in the back room of the pâtisserie.

— Catherine Down, October 2015 

Read More »Laurent Favre-Mot

madeleines at gilles marchal source FB | parisbymouth.com

Gilles Marchal

The giant madeleine door handle and the tiny seashell shaped sweets printed on the wallpaper are a good indicator of what lies within. The classic childhood treat is here elevated to a work of art in a variety of flavors. Delicately perfumed with crisp, buttery edges, the lemon glazed and salted caramel were particularly excellent. Madeleines were invented in Alsace where pastry chef Gilles Marchal hails from, and, while his are more expensive than most, they’re superlative within their category. It’s no surprise given that Marchal was the pastry chef for a number of years at Le Bristol, Plaza Athénée, and La Maison du Chocolat before striking out to open his own neighborhood bakery.  The madeleines might be the stars of the show, but there are numerous other options including breakfast pastries, after school snacks, an ice cream cart in summer, and artfully presented tarts, such as a piquant lemon tart garnished with meringue cigarettes. There’s even occasionally a solid gluten-free option in the form of a “sacher cake” which resembles a chocolatey tiramisu. There’s no space to sit so plan on taking your pastries to-go and snacking on the steps of Sacre-Coeur.

— Catherine Down, September 2015 

Read More »Gilles Marchal

Gravity Bar source FB | parisbymouth.com

Gravity Bar

Practical information Address: 43 rue des Vinaigriers, 75010 Nearest transport: Jacques Bonsergent (5) Hours: Closed Sunday & Monday Reservations: Not Accepted Telephone: 06 11 84 21 76 Average price for a cocktail:12€ Average price for dinner:10-19€ Style of cuisine: Small plates Facebook Reviews of interest Le Figaro (2016) “Un comptoir arrondi derrière lequel des barmen à casquette s’affairent à préparer des mixtures bien dosées, à base de gentiane notamment (12€ le verre). La clientèle de jeunes barbus et belles bohèmes apprécient… Read More »Gravity Bar

Edible Montreuil

Don’t get excited: Paris has no Brooklyn. Due to short-sighted urban planning in mid-century, Paris is cinched into its ring-road, le péripherique, like a dress it wore sixty years ago and never removed. The sheer impracticality of crossing this eternally congested ring-road has long prevented, in les banlieues, development of establishments Parisians might consider destinations. For Parisians, you’re either within city limits, or you’re way, way out. Read More »Edible Montreuil

Une Glace à Paris ice cream | parisbymouth.com

Une Glace à Paris

The  ice creams and sorbets here are made fresh, on-site, each day from quality ingredients, and they’re some of the best in Paris. That’s no surprise given that Emmanuel Ryon is a Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF) glacier, a title that indicates outstanding achievement in an artisanal trade. There are creative surprises like blackcurrant with cinnamon and mint, the shockingly good carrot with orange and ginger sorbet, or Medovick, a flavor inspired by the Russian buckwheat cake sweetened with honey and Ryon’s background as the chef pâtissier at Café Pouchkine. Vanilla here isn’t boring and comes in three varieties, as does the chocolate, and both classics are available in ice cream flights. It’s a glace to rival Berthillon and, unlike Berthillon, it stays open late on the weekends and in August when you need it most.Read More »Une Glace à Paris

Hakata Choten

While the focus of this cheap and cheerful Japanese franchise is ostensibly the authentic tonkatsu ramen, the real highlight is the gyoza with a thick, crisp, seared crust and a juicy pork filling. The parent restaurant won the Prix du Concours National of Gyoza in Japan in 2004, and the dumplings truly are winners. The dining room is busy and the lines can be long, but the steaming bowls of ramen come out fast and are worth the wait. The counter seating on the bottom floor makes this a nice option for dining alone.

— Catherine Down, September 2015

Read More »Hakata Choten

Crus et Découvertes

The rue Paul Bert – home to acclaimed restaurants by Bertrand Auboyneau and by Cyril Lignac – also contains this beloved, insidery natural wine shop, opened in 2003 by former wine agent Michael Lemasle. The narrow, slipshod space is perpetually overrun with new deliveries and Lemasle’s loyal clientele, who endure the proprietor’s relaxed, almost narcoleptic pace for the sake of his soft-spoken and well-considered wine counsel. Lemasle specialises in the more extreme fringe of natural wine, including many small-production wines vinified and bottled without the addition of sulfur. The well-priced selection is heavy on wines from the Loire, Beaujolais, and the southwest, while wines from marquee regions like Champagne, Bordeaux and Chablis are rather scarce on the shelves. One last draw: Lesmasle is among the rare Parisian cavistes who perform the true duties of the role, cellaring wines for years at a stretch at either of his two off-site locations before returning them to the sales floor when the wines have matured. Crus et Découvertes accordingly remains a source of fun discoveries even for the most jaded natural wine aficionados. Read More »Crus et Découvertes

ob la di affogato cafe in paris | parisbymouth.com

Ob-La-Di Café

Ob-La-Di might be the most Instagrammed café of the 2015 rentrée, but there’s real substance at this stylish spot in the Haut Marais. Most of the baked goods are made in-house, and many of them manage to be vegan and gluten-free, and still actually taste good. Coffee is expertly prepared with Lomi beans by Lloyd, formerly of Boot Café, who also curates a killer playlist most days. Creative offerings include an affogato made with cookie dough ice cream, horchata, a… Read More »Ob-La-Di Café

Arpège restaurant in Paris

Arpège

Alain Passard spins turnips into gold at this vegecentric (but not vegetarian) three star restaurant.

Little Breizh creperie in Paris | parisbymouth.com

Little Breizh

Practical information Address: 11 rue Gregoire de Tours, 75006 Nearest transport: Odéon (4, 10) Hours: Closed Sunday & Monday; Open Tuesday-Saturday for lunch and dinner Reservations: Book a day or two in advance Telephone: 01 43 54 60 74 Average price for lunch: 10-19€ Average price for dinner: 10-19€ Style of cuisine: French, Breton & Crêpes Facebook [slideshow_deploy id=’58080′] Reviews of interest David Lebovitz (2014) “This friendly Breton café offers crêpes and buckwheat galettes that are delicious, and generous. I had an… Read More »Little Breizh

Boulangerie Bo

Address: 85 bis rue de Charenton, 75012Hours: Open Thursday-Tuesday 7am-6pm. Closed Wednesday.Telephone: +33 1 43 07 75 21Website / Facebook / Instagram Boulangerie Bo won 3rd place in our Five Great Paris-Brest competition. In Other Words Table à Découvert (2016) “Quand j’ai eu fini, la première chose que j’ai pensé, ça a été : c’est peut-être mieux que la Boulangerie Bo soit un peu loin. Les prix, comme je vous l’ai déjà dit, sont bien raisonnables, gâteaux à moins de 4… Read More »Boulangerie Bo

Le Moulin de la Croix Nivert | parisbymouth.com

Le Moulin de la Croix Nivert

Address: 39, rue de la Croix Nivert, 75015Hours: Open Thursday-Tuesday 6:30am-8:30pm. Closed Wednesday.Telephone: +33 1 47 83 30 10Facebook This bakery came in fourth place in our Five Great Paris-Brest competition. In Other Words 1st prize in the Paris-Brest Trophée de la Meilleure Pâtisserie Francilienne 2015.

Sebastien Degardin Paris Brest

Sébastien Dégardin

Practical information Address: 200 rue Saint-Jacques, 75005 Nearest transport: Luxembourg (RER B), Place Monge (7) Hours: Closed Monday & Tuesday Telephone: 01 43 07 77 59 Website   Facebook Reviews of interest 5th place in our Five Great Paris-Brest competition Table à Découvert (2015) “Voici le Paris-Brest de la maison. Gargantuesque, défiant les lois de la nature en dose de praliné, il n’est pas à mettre dans toutes les bouches tant il est copieux. Une pâte à chou fraîche, des éclats de… Read More »Sébastien Dégardin

L'Ambroisie Restaurant in Paris | Paris By Mouth

Special Report on Haute Cuisine

Between September-December 2014, we anonymously tested all nine of the Paris restaurants that hold three Michelin stars, along with seven others that are considered to be shining examples of haute cuisine.  In total, we spent €7150 in tasting 200 individual compositions during more than 65 hours at the table. You can learn more about how and why we did this by reading Behind the Curtain: Examining Haute Cuisine in Paris.  Here are the articles that have come out of this: HAUTE FOOD PORN If you simply want… Read More »Special Report on Haute Cuisine

The 20 Best Bites of Haute Cuisine in Paris

Haute cuisine is not exclusively about what’s on the plate. Elaborately choreographed service, the spectacular number of dishes, the depth of a wine cellar and sumptuous surroundings – these are arguably the elements that separate restaurants with two and three Michelin stars from their starless competitors. If we look exclusively at the food, however, ignoring the chandelier that twinkles overhead and the plush pedestal propping up our handbags, there is still much to celebrate in haute cuisine.  In total, during our anonymous visits to sixteen restaurants that specialize in… Read More »The 20 Best Bites of Haute Cuisine in Paris

Behind the Curtain: Examining Haute Cuisine in Paris

More than 100 years ago, a tire company named Michelin began telling people about their best options for eating while motoring around the country. Travelers wanted to know what was worth a detour or a special journey, and that’s still the case today. The question I’m most frequently asked by our readers is where to go for a special blow-out meal. You want to celebrate a birthday, an anniversary, a victory. You want to seal a deal, whether business or pleasure. You’re willing to drop some cash, but you don’t want to feel like a fool.

Until now, I’ve had a hard time answering this question. I know well the landscape of the city’s classic bistrosmodern French restaurants, and food-loving wine bars, but this class of two- and three-star tables is a different terrain entirely. There’s an obvious barrier to understanding these restaurants: the staggering, outrageous, almost immoral price of a meal. Prior to this project, in which I anonymously tested every three-star restaurant in Paris over a period of twelve weeks, I had only visited a handful.

Read More »Behind the Curtain: Examining Haute Cuisine in Paris
Michel Rostang Restaurant in Paris | Paris By Mouth

Maison Rostang

Address: 20, rue Rennequin, 75017Hours: Closed Sunday; Open Monday & Saturday for dinner only; Open Tuesday-Friday for lunch and dinnerTelephone: +33 1 47 63 40 77Book Online / Website / Facebook / Instagram In 2019, this restaurant was purchased by restaurateur Stéphane Manigold (Substance, Contraste) and changed its name from Michel Rostang to Maison Rostang. Maison Rostang in Pictures In Other Words Critique Gastronomique (2012) “On pourra visiter le restaurant de Michel Rostang si l’on s’intéresse à l’histoire de la… Read More »Maison Rostang

Le Pre Catalan Restaurant in Paris | Paris By Mouth

Le Pré Catelan

Practical information Address: Bois de Boulogne, Route de Suresnes, 75016 Nearest transport:  La Muette (9) or Avenue Henri Martin (RER C), then a 5-minute cab ride or half-hour walk Hours: Closed Sunday & Monday; Open Tuesday-Saturday for lunch and dinner Reservations: Book a month or more in advance Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 14 41 14 Average price for lunch: More than 100€ Average price for dinner: More than 100€ Style of cuisine:  Modern French, Haute Cuisine Website [slideshow_deploy id=’61884′] Reviews of interest L’assiette dans… Read More »Le Pré Catelan

le syndicat bar paris | parisbymouth.com

Le Syndicat

Oh, that papered over and possibly abandoned storefront? That’s Le Syndicat. Cleverly hidden in plain sight, it doesn’t consider itself a bar per se, but rather, an “Organization in Defense of French Spirits,” where Romain Le Mouëllic and Sullivan Doh (last seen at Sherry Butt) are revisiting and reviving old-fashioned French spirits as the base for unusual cocktails aimed at a fashionable, younger audience. The bar is pegboard and concrete warmed up and made gritty-glamorous by the addition of gold… Read More »Le Syndicat

Lulu White cocktail bar in Paris photo via FB | parisbymouth.com

Lulu White

Start your Pigalle bar crawl off at this intimate absinthe-focused speakeasy named after a legendary New Orleans madame. This signless spot, from the team behind Little Red Door, joins Dirty Dick and Glass on the increasingly bar-lined rue Frochot. It’s an elegant space in which to explore a variety of absinthes, whether in cocktails or in a flight of three served with water or seasonal syrups. The frozen Carmen Miranda with Four Roses bourbon, strawberry cordial, and Pernod absinthe whirled together in a slushy machine was a hit. The bartenders are unpretentious and friendly, and will make you an off-list cocktail without the green fairy if you are so inclined.

-Catherine Down, January 2015

Read More »Lulu White

glaces glazed photo facebook

Glaces Glazed

Glazed started out as an ice cream delivery service and food truck and, thankfully, have finally branched out into their own retail space in Pigalle. Cheeky names like “Pussy Griottes” (sour cherry with bits of cassis), “Cococaine” (coconut with pomelo) or “Black Sugar Sex Magic” (chocolate with wasabi and ginger) make it clear that this isn’t your average ice cream shop. A seemingly basic flavor like raspberry sorbet is laced with sumac, while peach is paired with miso. Not all the experimentation pays off though, as the texture is sometimes a little off, but it’s nice to find an ice cream shop with personality.

— Catherine Down, September 2015

Read More »Glaces Glazed