Eating and Drinking in Paris

In the midst a 10 day Paris / Burgundy trip!

A few observations:

Much like NYC there has been an explosion of new restaurants in the last 12-18 months yet many older restaurants are struggling.

Inflation has hit, wow Paris is expensive, seemingly more so than just our last visit four months ago.

I hate to complain but warm white wine drives me insane! And it has been almost everywhere.

And wine selection is getting tougher. I think partly because there are so many new restaurants they have not had time to build their list and partly because they don’t have the capital.

On to some quick observations from our first three days!

Les Enfants du Marché - As good as always and in some ways even better. The new Chef is Italian and will be here while Chef Shunta is focused on opening their new restaurant in Biarritz. We had an absolutely stunning John Dory for two. Everything else was great. Just a note to the reader prices are very high. The John Dory was huge and more than enough for three of us but it was 150 euros and a couple of the other main type dishes were well past 50 euros. Secondly the wine selection is getting tougher. We still LOVE this place so much and will always go and usually more than once.

Tarantula - The Chef / Owner is a close friend so take this with a grain of salt. I love the food and vibe. We went for dinner on our first night and again for late night drinks. The food is a blend of Mexican food mixed with influences from Paris bistro food. Odd combination but it is pulled off because Maniu is a Mexican Chef who has spent the last 13 years in Paris and understands cultures well. It is a real hit in Paris.

Dandelion - This is fascinating situation. For some reason this is a divisive restaurant amongst locals. I feel like half the people we mentioned it to said they love it and it is their favorite restaurant of the moment and half went out of their way to say how much they did not like it. The Chef comes from Septime and I think that is part of the issue. I thought most of the food was excellent. The best dishes were very similar to Septime. We ate outside under a special table they set up for us under a tree.

L’Attache - They have a new chef and are quietly doing some amazing work. The foodie crowd is just starting to catch on. They also have a small but very impressive wine selection fairly priced. We had a few dishes on the street while drinking Labet and Selosse that were beyond fairly priced more like pre-pandemic pricing.

JIP - We were EXTREMELY excited for this meal as the Chef (Esu Lee) was at CAM which we loved! And it did not disappoint. It is a three course meal for 35 euros! Each course has one vegetarian option. Knowing the Chef not surprisingly it was a genius, creative and delicious meal. Small wine list but we managed to drink well. The add on “potato salad” is a must. Despite only three courses where the first two were very small it is an extremely fulling meal because the third course is a substantial noodle dish. We had a Radikon and a Fanny Sabre Burgound Rouge that performed way above its category!

La Tour d’argent - We made a reservation for the roof. Stunning, stunning, absolutely beautiful experience. I can’t wait to go back. The reader should note the wine prices have really moved up. They are still fair but nothing like they once were even compared to our last visit 8 months ago. You just have to forget how the list used to be priced. We drank a 92 Guffens Heynen Puilly- Fuissé Petits Croux, 88 Joly coulee de serrant, 14 Ravenau Foret all were in the 350-400 euro range. Interestingly only one table out of 20 was drinking good wine, most others had cocktails or a simple glass of bubbles. One of the captains knows how much Reneé loves aged Comté and brought us a huge overflowing board of some of the best we have ever had!

Butcher of Paris - I don’t really eat much beef or pork. I do love to stop by here after lunch at Les Enfants du Marche usually to say hello to Paris legend Clovis who is a fixture. And I do really respect what they do so when a friend demanded he take us here I acquiesced. All I can say is that it was amazing. Any meat lover should make a stop here. Luckily for us they also have a new spot in the market focused on Chicken so they brought a special bird over for us. We enjoyed the chicken with a lovely Labet Vin Jaune. And the Croque Monsieur is decadent and stunning! A very special place.

Double - Another slightly controversial place amongst the locals. Not everyone loved it, we did. It is very small and two totally different experiences. Half the seats face the kitchen, half face a wall that has a mirror so you can see the kitchen. Luckily I sent word ahead to the Chef who has worked at Saturne and Le Verre Vole both places we were regulars at and requested seats facing the kitchen and we were seated right in front of him. Stunning meal of incredible unique combinations of flavors paired around a main ingredient that was always executed at the highest level - the tuna was mindblowing. The pasta dishes reminde me of Blanca. Given the Chef’s worked in Italy and it is a combination of Italian and Japanese it reminded me of Blanca! I absolutely loved this experience and it will be added to our rotation as will JIP which incidentally have the same owners.

Dreamin Man - Our favorite coffee shop now has three locations. We stopped by the one in The Broken Arm store in the Marais and it was as great as usual.

Laize Paris - A new to us coffee and tea shop. Beautiful design. We loved the coffee and the cube savory pastries. The Black Sesame Cube is a must. We will be going back here!

Not bad for the first three days!!! Busy day today as we have the Tarantula X Dauphin popup followed by dinner at Le Doyenne!

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Ah I want to go. Any need to make a reservation? Will be in Paris for 10-14 days in September. Also love what Yonghoon is doing at Clown Bar.

It is super small so I would say to be safe yes. Especially after my reviews hit the various platforms. Ha! We were there on a Friday and they were turning most walk-ins away.

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Great (and not surprising) to see your thoughts on JIP!

Insane jealous, as May 1 to July 14 is my favorite time of the year in Paris.

noticed the same last october and the euro was ~10% weaker back then! even l’as du fallafel is up to 10 euro now. i remember thinking wow this is nearly the same pricing as nyc, la, etc. i think on the retail front it is even more perplexing that i am seeing better pricing on in demand bottles from wine shops stateside now. perhaps a volume thing? the prices you mention for la tour d’argent appear relatively fair given the venue. still have not been; really need to check it out finally.

Agree those prices are fair but I had to work hard to find them. Not as easy as it was in the recent past.

Being a Socal native who loves Paris, I would do this in a heartbeat!

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Love aged Comte, fromagerie Marie-Anne Cantin had 40 month old when I was there in May.

That’s my go to cheese store in Paris.

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laurent dubois has some lovely selections if you have not checked them out before!

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Was looking at JIP, it looks like they have three seatings for 90 minutes each. Am I reading that right? That is pretty crazy and antithetical to the French approach to dining. And I thought two seatings was bad enough. Very strange.

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Guessing it is part of the business plan. The meal is only 35 euros for very high quality food and the space is extremely small.

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Had a fantastic time at the Tarantula popup at Dauphin. The food was all done by Tarantula. I did hear from several that Dauphin is as good as it ever was so I intend to go back soon.

My second visit to Le Doyenné was wonderful. The early summer menu was much lighter than the winter menu and featured a lot of vegetables. The Guinea Hen from none other than Prieuré Roch was outstanding. You really can’t beat a long leisurely meal here. Always fun to play records after dinner some of which I curated for them when they opened.

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We also really enjoyed Double during our Thanksgiving trip last year. Will definitely be back.

We just got back from an amazing trip to Paris (and Copenhagen, which was also amazing though isn’t relevant here) and spent a good while doing some quality eating and drinking. At the highest level, I was thoroughly impressed by the food almost everywhere, though hard to say how much of that was a symptom of curation vs. the overall quality bar. Lots of wine flowing around, though a lot of it is rather natural leaning (which we didn’t mind but I imagine many here would), and most of the classic cherries are pretty heavily picked over or super expensive. Almost inevitably our favorite meals were the lunches, not to speak poorly of the dinners, but there is something really special about sitting back with a bottle of wine for a leisurely midday meal.

Will take some time to write up more detailed thoughts on specific places and post that here as well.

edit: I’d also be remiss to not mention that the coffee was absolutely exceptional everywhere, all over the city. We’ve become Tanat (fka Kawa) obsessed and brought many beans back to have at home.

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Looking forward to your more extensive Paris notes, and I hope you will post about your time in Copenhagen here: Copenhagen (NOMA) & Stockholm Trip in July - #99 by Gerald_Sng

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I’m a coffee nut and LOVE kawa! Did you get any of their wild process label, Peoples Possession? Not normally my kind of coffee tbh but fun for an afternoon cup every once and a while

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No!!! I’ll need to check this out. My favorite I tried was a double ferment w/ yeast inoculation from Peru that smelled like strawberries and totally blew my mind.

its their label they use for more rare and experimental stuff. If that double ferment was up your alley you will probably love these coffees. I am more of a simple washed coffee guy but these can be really fun

https://peoplepossession.com/shop/

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As promised, some more detailed thoughts (roughly in order):

Mokonuts: Such a charming little spot and the team is lovely. While we were there they lost power due to the heat (!) but still we had an amazing lunch and the whole restaurant felt like a little party. Lots of Americans here. We had a Werlitsch Ex Vero II which was delicious with the meal.

Delicatessen Cave: Fun place with solid options, really enjoy the buy + drink next door concept. I missed the well priced natural Burgundy they supposedly have some of, but we had a great 2022 Ganevat Les Chalasses Poulsard that was showing well and did the trick nicely.

Kubri: We opted to try something different and went to this somewhat trendy Lebanese spot for dinner. The food was incredible, but the restaurant didn’t feel like it stylistically belonged in Paris. Not inherently a dig, but didn’t feel like the sort of experience that one travels to Paris to have (though it was very delicious). Wine list not worth mentioning.

La Cagouille: We went for lunch. This place is everything everyone makes it out to be. The list isn’t quite as appealing as what they have online, but we ended up with an electric bottle of 2022 Prieuré-Roch Savigny blanc Dessus les Gollardes and were very happy. Incredibly fresh, absurdly delicious seafood prepared simply but impeccably. The cockles they bring out at the beginning of the meal are just perfect. I know folks had varied opinions on the outdoor seating there, and it isn’t the typical Parisian setup, but we found the semi-covered tables very pleasant and enjoyed it thoroughly. As far as I could tell we were the only non-locals there. If not for the sake of variety I would’ve come back here again, and again, and again over the following few days.

Augustin Marchand du Vin: Planned to just have a drink here, though we learned you have to get a plate each as they don’t have a bar license (not a problem, we had something to snack on with our wine!). This place is so fun - there is no list, but wine everywhere, including some very cool and tempting bottles (as well as some, humorously, labeled “PMG” - pour ma geule!). After a lot of conversation (and making it clear that we care very much about wine indeed), we ended up with a bottle of 2015 Overnoy Ploussard, for not a bargain but also not an unreasonable price. The cured meats we had along with it were delicious and beautifully presented. There are many gems in the basement, just have to have a bit of a conversation and ask for the right thing!

Tarantula: This food is so good and incredibly unique - a somewhat wild mix of Mexican flavors/format with many French accents. It works splendidly, the food was amazing and unique, and I was very happy with the simple wines BTG I had (very natural leaning, but went quite well with the food).

Le Villaret: A cozy establishment with an absurd wine list. We had a delightful bottle of 2022 Lamy-Caillat St Aubin En L’Ebaupin to wash down our lunch, which paired perfectly with the food. The dishes were very well prepared and presented (and tasty!), if not the most mind blowing meal we had on the trip. Well priced Raveneau, which we didn’t drink but would have if we got a second bottle here.

Cave Paul Bert: Such a fun little place. We stopped in for a quick bottle of wine (Jean-Yves Peron in this case) and some snacks, all of which were tasty.

Dandelion: We had a lovely dinner here. Not * tons * of options on the wine list, which was good but expensive, though we landed on a 2022 Dandelion (ha) Hautes-Cotes Nature, which was drinking really nicely on the day and went well with the food. The restaurant is on a little corner park area and everyone was sat outside, which was quite nice, and the food was refined and very well prepared.

Clown Bar: Perhaps my favorite meal during our time in Paris (alongside La Cagouille). The food here is so exceptional, really delightful preparations and everything hit the spot. A sharply priced bottle of 2020 L’Anglore Tavel was a perfect match for the meal. We ended up sitting for a while after our meal and enjoying a bottle of Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus, which was very thoughtfully decanted and served. Everyone here is super friendly, the vibes are great, and the music they play here is amazing as well.

Liquiderie: Continuing on our Cantillon streak for the day, we sat here for a lazy afternoon with a bottle of Fou’ Foune and some beers on tap (shocking, not wine, I know!). Really nice selection, fun space, and lots of cool wine, including on tap (very natural leaning). I’ve seen photos of some geeky stuff, eg, Bruyere & Houillon here, but no luck on our visit.

Oobatz: This is every bit as good as everyone says it is (and I’m a native New Yorker!). We got 2 pizzas and ended up ordering a third for dessert, as well as a fun bottle of Fabio Gea, which went really nicely. Not a traditionally Parisian dinner / experience but I was very happy to overlook that (unlike Kubri, for whatever reason - I can’t explain that).

Semilla: This was our final dinner in Paris and a great way to end the trip. The set menu here is fairly reasonable for dinner, and the food was really beautifully prepared. The list is deep, with some very cool bottles, though largely rather expensive. That said, they had some sharply priced Labet and we enjoyed a 2022 Savagnin En Chalasse with the meal, which was firing on all cylinders. I couldn’t help myself but finish the meal with a cheese plate and a bottle of 2015 Labet Savagnin Elevage Long, which was both mind blowing and a wonderful pairing. Hard to put into words (though I’ll try to at some point, need to write up proper tasting notes in addition to the CPH portion of this trip!)

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Fantastic list! Some favorites on here. We hit Dandelion this trip and I found the list to be better than you. I like a lot of those hipster Burgundy producers. And I was able to order a great bottle of German Riesling from Julien Renard.

I need to get back to Clown Bar. I will have some updates from my current trip soon!

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