We haven’t yet reviewed this restaurant, but you can scroll down to find the practical information and to read what others are saying about Eels.
Practical Information
Address: 27 Rue d’Hauteville, 75010 Hours: Open Tuesday-Saturday from 12:30-14:00 and from 19:30-22:00. Telephone: +33 (0)1 42 28 80 20 WebsiteOnline BookingFacebookInstagram
What people are saying
The Financial Times (2018) Nicholas Lander says that his lunch “delivered everything I look for in a meal anywhere: the kind of hospitality I would expect from someone in their own home combined with ultra-professional cooking of straight-forward ingredients.”
Le Monde (2018) François Simon calls this a serene spot, noting that chef Adrien Ferrand undoubtedly earned that characteristic alongside his mentor William Ledeuil from Ze Kitchen Galerie. He calls it a sort of comfort food, with plates that are brilliantly balanced and service that is friendly and efficient.
Le Fooding (2017) says that Eels “ticks off all the necessary boxes for a Parisian faubourgeois affaire: polished recipes, well-sourced ingredients, unadulterated wines and zero nonsense.” They rave about a dish of smoked eel with licorice-infused browned butter and the wines selected by Félix le Louarn.
Alexander Lobrano (2017) calls Eels the best new table of the rentrée “due to the superbly witty, inventive and assured cooking of chef Adrien Ferrand.” He praises the front-of-house staff for delivering “a flawless and charming service experience around the outstanding cooking of Adrien Ferrand.”
L’Express (2017) raves about the signature dish with “small sections of lightly smoked fish, hazelnut butter and hazelnut chips for the roundness, a touch of liquorice for spicy sweetness, shoots of oxalis and green apple for freshness.”
La Bourse et la Vie is one of our favorite Classic Bistros in Paris. It’s a place where you come to celebrate, to bring a date, and to devour one of the best steak-frites in Paris.
This dining room near the Bourse (the former stock exchange) is compact and cozy, complete with all the markers of a comforting old bistro. It’s largely filled with Americans, especially now that chef Daniel Rose has become the toast of Manhattan with his French restaurant Le Coucou. The latter is delicious but difficult to book and easily five times the price of La Bourse et la Vie. Rose’s primary restaurant in Paris (now that Spring has closed) feels like a steal if your reference point is French food in New York.
When comparing it to other Paris bistros, this place feels lavish and expensive. On the surface, La Bourse et la Vie appears to have much in common with a neighborhood bistro serving classic dishes like poireaux vinaigrette, steak-frites and pot au feu. But look more closely and you’ll learn that the leeks are dotted with hazelnuts from Piemonte and the steak is 30-day aged Simmental beef.
Steak frites, made with 30 day aged Simmental beef
Rose, who is obsessed with old recipes, continues to resurrect and refine vintage dishes that modern-day travelers are rarely able to encounter. His version of pot au feu is deeply delicious and evokes the classic dish that was bubbling a century ago on stoves all over the nearby market neighborhood of Les Halles. However, it’s radically different and probably more delicious than the original because it marries perfectly cooked (not boiled to death) cuts of veal and lightly cooked vegetables with the sort of profound bouillon (broth) that has become Rose’s signature. It’s also served with a side dish of tête de veau with a sauce ravigotée. More “authentic” Paris bistros are not making food like this anymore.
Pot au Feu
All of this specialness doesn’t come cheap, of course. That delicious steak-frites is priced at 39€, and dinner for two is likely to be 120€ before wine. However, most new restaurants that have opened in the years since Rose took over La Bourse et la Vie are offering much less for a similar price. Paris is becoming very expensive. At La Bourse et la Vie, it’s both expensive and very good.
Practical information
Address: 12 rue Vivienne, 75002 Hours: Open Monday-Friday for lunch and dinner. Closed Saturday & Sunday. Telephone: +33 1 42 60 08 83 WebsiteFacebookInstagramBook Online
Three cheers to L’Entente founder Oliver Woodhead for having arrived at such an apt name for his curiously dainty, all-day- service “British brasserie” near Opéra. An entente is a diplomatic understanding between nations; any understanding, of course, is what British and French cultures have notably failed to acquire of one another over the last thousand years.
David Lebovitz (2015) “Like most experimental food, not everything is a hit. A starter of mustard leaf sorbet that was paired with mirabelle plums and smoked cheese (shown up above) tasted – well…like a frozen puree of mustard leaves. But a grated carrot sorbet with pea puree and pea shoots was excellent. And I loved the ripe strawberries with parsley ice cream and fruit leather that led the way to the final course.”
The Financial Times (2014) “On a recent visit, the four-course degustation menu began on a savory note – raw tuna paired with tangy orbs of red and white currants, droplets of peach purée, avocado sorbet, and a red onion emulsion that was so good I’d like to suggest they sell it as a condiment.”
Sugared & Spiced (2014) “This second visit to Dessance was overall a pleasant experience. Some dishes were a bit too much for me in terms of flavor combination, but Dessance still remains an interesting address to visit for its unusual creations. For a change of the Paris sweet scene, why not?”
The New York Times (2014) “The menu at Dessance doesn’t run toward the pastries, cakes and tarts that a desserts-only concept might imply, but rather offers a small but intriguing collection of dishes that can be eaten as both desserts and main courses, including, for example, a surprising combination of violet-colored vitelotte potato purée with raw and poached apples, arugula and marjoram granité.”
Le Figaro (2014) “Plutôt convaincante à prouver, par un jeu de compositions biseautées, que l’idée du repas en mode sucré ne se réduit pas au final d’un repas.”
Table à Découvert (2014) “Le menu ne se substitue pas à un repas (à moins qu’il y ait des adeptes), mais se déguste comme un moment à part, après un plat salé dégusté ailleurs (même s’il y a 2,3 propositions de salées comme des madeleines au roquefort, une assiette de comté, coing et scones ou un foie gras mi-cuit, butternut, fruit de la passion, brioche).”
At the impossibly young age of 24, Arnaud Nicolas achieved one of the highest honors in gastronomy – the title Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF) – for his talent in charcuterie. Fourteen years later, he opened an ambitious shop and restaurant near the Eiffel Tower with the explicit goal of returning charcuterie to a place of honor on the French table. In the same way that prize-winning artisans have reshaped traditional baguette-making and pâtisserie, Nicolas wants to reintroduce charcuterie to palates that have become used to mediocre industrialized examples. So is it really that different? Yes. It’s like tasting chocolate from Patrick Roger when you’ve only ever known Hershey’s, or switching from Kraft singles to raw milk cheese sold by Laurent Dubois.
Nicolas isn’t the only star charcutier in town (Gilles Verot has a well-deserved following), but he’s the first to build a restaurant around his creations. This could be terrible – I cynically anticipated great charcuterie followed by mediocre mains and forgettable dessert. I was instead delighted by the best Quenelles de Brochet with sauce Nantua that I’ve ever tasted (yes, even in Lyon). The Baba au Rhum is also as good as all the other reviews (see below) say it is. As for the charcuterie, there’s a whole page of options to be taken as starters, ranging from elegant (Pâté en croûte with quail, pear and pistachio) to down-and-dirty (La Couronne de Cochon with all parts of the pig). The wine list is short but includes some very good Beaujolais, which is what you want to be drinking here. The connected shop selling for takeaway is a great source for picnics on the nearby Champ de Mars, and it provides a way to share his creations with my friends who never, ever leave eastern Paris.
Notable dishes:
Charcuterie starters, including different versions of Pâté en croûte
Quenelles de Brochet
Baba au Rhum for dessert
Practical Information
Address: 46 Avenue de la Bourdonnais, 75007 Hours: Open Tuesday – Saturday for lunch and dinner. Open Monday for dinner only. Closed Sunday. Telephone: 01 45 55 59 59 WebsiteFacebookInstagram
Arnaud Nicolas in pictures
What people are saying
Alexander Lobrano (2017) tasted two different pâtés en croute and says they “were among the most elegant foods I’ve ever eaten.” He also raves about the head cheese and the pork terrine. “I am besotted with charcuterie in its every iteration, and I don’t think I’ve ever eaten better in my life than what I had at Arnaud Nicolas’s,” concluding that this has “immediately become one of my favorite Paris restaurants.”
Le Figaro (2017) compares Nicolas’ creations to fine jewelry, saying that they’re closer in style to the nearby Louboutin and A.P.C. boutiques than to the corner traiteur. Nicolas is ushering in a new age for charcuterie, says Emmanuel Rubin. Oh, and the baba au rhum, prepared to order, is one of the best in the city.
Food & Sens (2017) offers another rave review, calling the tourte (a sort of pot pie) with chicken, cabbage and vin jaune “splendid.”
Le Villaret is one of our favorite Classic Bistros in Paris. Sometimes in life we chase after the ones who play hard-to-get and we ignore the nice, stable options who just want to treat us right. Le Villaret is the homely neighborhood bistro that I never appreciated until I stopped looking for love at Le Baratin and Le Repaire de Cartouche. Le Villaret boasts a wine list every bit as interesting, especially if you’re looking for a balanced mix of natural and conventional wines, and bottles are served without the side dish or distain that you’re likely to receive from those popular boys. Wine is definitely the attraction here, so decide first what you want to drink and then find something on the lengthy food menu to pair with your choice. On a recent visit, I pounced on a 2011 Chablis 1er Cru from Raveneau (80€) and enjoyed some lovely if not life-changing monkfish medallions in lobster sauce (30€). There’s also a three-course menu for only 35€, and plenty of moderately priced wines. For people who love wine and want to enjoy a special bottle (or four) and some classic bistro food, Le Villaret is currently one of most reliable options in town.
Le Grand Bain currently holds the #2 spot in our list of favorite restaurants for small sharable plates.
I became a fan of chef Edward Delling-Williams when he was cooking at Au Passage, and so I was thrilled when he opened Le Grand Bain on one of the grungiest / coolest streets in Paris. Like at Au Passage, there’s an ever-changing chalkboard menu of small plates, many of them vegetable driven (if not always vegetarian). You’ll also find massive hunks of protein to share. On a recent night, my friend and I competed for the last bite of a beautiful (entire) sole for only 30€, while vowing to return for the whole lamb shoulder that had us drooling on the neighboring table. This delicious drama played out while sitting outside on a street that’s a destination for graffiti tourists. Le Grand Bain is a great place to eat well and to drink natural wine while surrounded by the joyful cacophony of Belleville.
