Day three started at Taxi Phone, the new coffee shop, soon to be wine bar / listening room / radio station by Luis Andrade former Clown Bar Chef and current Le Cheval d’Or partners in the 18th where even the uber driver warns you to watch out for pickpockets. Beautiful space. Excellent coffee. Two different cookie options were wonderful. Excited to see how the space continues to evolve.
We followed with an impromptu visit at Petite Sommelier. As always the wine list was great. We only had a couple of things because I don’t really like the food. The chicken pot pie dish was actually very good.
Dinner was at Comice. I have heard about this spot from mutual friends for many years. Absolutely lovely couple that are the consummate hosts.
Overall excellent meal. It was a quiet Monday night and the drive over from the Marais to the 16th was classic winter Paris. The food was all around excellent. If you are looking for perfectly executive French style cooking this is an excellent option. The sea bass was excellent. Not exactly the style of cuisine I prefer these days but I do appreciate it.
Food looks nice, but the wine list is quite pricy, at least in comparison to what I remember from other spots.
Please keep 'em coming as I need some more recs.
Lunch found us at Mosuke. An intriguing restaurant that has one star and is focused on a combination of African, French, and Japanese flavors. Beautifully designed serene space that leaned into the Japanese theme. Overall we loved our meal. The highs were very high. The combinations of flavors generally worked. The wine list is compact. We ordered an older Abbatucci Blanc which worked very well with the food and a Sylvain Pataille Rouge.
Prior to dinner we stopped at L’Attache for a snack and some wine. We had a beautiful bottle of Labet Gamay. They change their chef every week. It is always very good.
Dinner found us at a return visit to JIP with friends that were experiencing it for the first time. We were curious to see how it would be without Chef Esu Lee who is cooking at Orson (which btw even though it has only been open a couple of weeks all the restaurant people are raving about it). It is still his restaurant and food he is just focused on opening the more serious Orson. No need to worry it was absolutely excellent and even better than our first visit. You can’t beat the concept. 35 euros for an excellent very filling three course meal. Concise wine list. You are in an out in 1.5 hours.
Had a rare day of disappointing meals on Wednesday. It rarely if ever has happened in Paris.
Yesterday we got back on track! We started the day at Mokochaya. WOW! Just all around fantastic. The sesame cookie is simply one of the best cookies I have ever had. The fluffy eggs were wonderful. If this was in NYC or LA they would mint money.
We followed with lunch at the Bar at La Tour D’Argent. It was an instant game changer when they opened the downstairs up for an all day format. Then they kept changing the hours and you could not order wine if the somm was not on premises. Also prices were significantly increased on the list post reopening. Well the bar is back again with a new format and it is excellent. AND it is open 9 - 1 a.m. They have let the younger somms create a list for the bar area with younger wines and during restaurant hours you can order off the main list. And they have created a fun menu with things like fish sticks, eggparm etc.! They made my wife an off menu aged comté grilled cheese that was insane! We took full advantage of both lists ordering a 2022 Lauchaux Aligote and a smoking 2010 Dauvissat Les Clos. Both of the wines were at retail pricing in the U.S. which for a bottle with perfect provenance is still worth it for me.
What a fun way to spend an afternoon!
We have an annual tradition dating back to 2014 of doing Thanksgiving Dinner in Paris with a friend. We typically invite a large group of whoever happens to be in Paris. It has been a wonderful rotating cast of friends with only three constants since the beginning. This year I did a buyout of Mokonuts and invited 11 friends. We brought wine. The night before Jerome Prevost had done a dinner there and we were able to buy some of the wines he left behind! Mokonuts did an absolutely outstanding job. I loved everything about it. Chef Omar was also very kind and patient and let us linger late into the evening. Highly recommend Mokonuts if you ever need a private dinner space for 10-20.
Up next we are finally getting to tour the Gainsbourg house followed by lunch at Restaurant AT where we have requested a full vegetarian menu!
For our final day in Paris we had lunch at Recoin. A local and industry favorite. We loved the simple format. 2 courses with one selection from each section of the menu that had 3 choices each. We will definitely going back here.
For dinner we were very, very excited to go to EME. A new restaurant that just opened three weeks ago. We had the Chef’s food in NYC during his Fulgrances’ residency and at a special event. Local Chef friends were already raving about it. WOW it was stunning and our meal of the trip and probably meal of the year.
I did a glowing write up on my IG. This will definitely be a contender for the Top 100 list and should get a Michelin star but you never in Paris as it seems to take a bit longer for new restaurants. Great wine service program we drank a Labet, Ganevat, Selosse XO (500 euros) and a Prieure Roch* Gamay. Excellent playlist that was at the perfect volume level. Perfect amount of food and just the right cadence. Highly Recommended.
Funny story about the Prieure Roch. My friend Chef Atsushi loves hip hop producer Pete Rock. He once told me some friends came with Prieure Roch and I thought he said Pete Rock. Since this funny exchange we call Prieure Roch Pete Rock! We always tag Pete in our postings that feature this wine. I have hung out with Pete several times and he finally reached out and asked what was up with the wine and why he gets tagged!
For those following along in the thread for travel planning trips I should note we saw a major shift in the Paris dining scene on this trip. We were last in Paris in July and before that February so relatively recently.
Shockingly Le Chateaubriand is closing. We walked by Clown Bar twice during lunch service and it was empty.
BUT don’t despair there are so many new openings from super casual to high-end.
I do think it requires a little more work in planning as there are many new openings and lots of Chef changes.
As I mentioned above EME is absolutely stunning and one I would highly recommend.
Orson is going to be the first reservation we make for our next trip. Esu Lee from JIP (he is still involved and formerly CAM). We heard raves about this restaurant.
And Cypsél will also be on our list. We had a reservation here but they had to cancel due to an electrical problem on their street that shut of their electricity. Two former Maison Sota Chefs.
And we can’t wait to go back to any of the Mokonuts restaurants (they have three Mokonuts, Mokochaya and Mokoloko) but particulary the all day cafe Mokochaya.
A few other tidbits…
The coffee scene has absolutely exploded! And I mean truly exploded. It feels like there is a high-end coffee spot everywhere.
Wine prices have started to come back down, however, I did notice great variability that seemed to be driven more about the newness of the restaurant.
And much like NYC I have seen a small movement to more inclusive wine lists and even the restaurants that have all natural are focusing on the cleaner end of the spectrum.
The Serge Gainsbourg house tour is definitely worth the hassle. You need to reserve this separately from the Museum tour.
Do you remember what the menu was like in the bar?
I see the rooftop bar is open for drinks Thu-Sat and that sounds great for an hour of drinks before some food downstairs without having to wear a jacket in the main dining room.
It was bar snack type menu. They had a duck croque monsieur, eggplant parmigiana which really surprised me, fish sticks, omelette and a few other similar things.
We are regulars so my wife requested a Comte Grilled Cheese and they made it happen. It was a brilliant idea and the best of what we tried!
Overall the menu is enough to have a light meal but you don’t go there for the food.
Does anyone have any recs for restaurants in the town of Versailles? We are going to a show at the palace in the evening and figure it might be easier to eat afterwards there instead of worrying about getting back to town in time for a reservation….
If you read the comments below someone asked this and she revised it to Not Recommended. That is pretty bad. The pictures of the food support her review.
