last trip i skipped les enfants du marche bc i was with my kid and his diet is very limited
heading back in february and i’m not skipping it this time
leave him wandering the marais, or should i bring him and hope for the best?
the menu definitely presents a problem for him
There are other food options in Le Marche des Enfants Rouge. And within a 5 min walking radius as well. What does he like to eat?
looking at some sample menus online if we get lucky and there’s steak all will be good
thanks
There’s a burger stall, Le Burger Fermier, right behind Les Enfants du Marche.
The Butcher of Paris is about as good as steak gets in Paris.
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i’m guessing they won’t be happy if i ask if he can eat his burger next to me while i eat tempura sardines?
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Trip to Paris! Here’s a little report:
We stayed in an apartment in the 3rd arrondissement, on the Boulevard Beaumarchais. This is a great location with easy walking access to the heart of the Marais. It also is in close proximity to the hot restaurant scene happening in the 11th. It was a great trip with a lot of good shopping and museum visits, including the Centre Pompidou, Versailles, Palais de Tokyo, Musée Picasso, Musée des Archives Nationales, and Musée Carnavalet – the latter five first-time experiences for me.
Sunday
Breizh Café, in the 3rd. Breton crepes ftw. You can’t go wrong here. We eased into the café after dropping off our luggage at our apartment and were immediately subsumed into Parisian life and restored by the very good crepes/galettes.
Clown Bar. Everyone should have a Clown Bar in their life. Man this place is good. We kept it simple and had the terrine, the pumpkin flan with mushrooms and sautéed spinach (zowie), and the absurdly good pigeon and foie gras tourte (kapoom). Also we were pleased to drink 2021 L’Anglore Lirac at a reasonable price. 9-minute walk from our apartment, too.
Monday
L’As du Fallafel. Three fallafel pitas, straight, no chaser. We did well this time to stick just to the fallafel and not bother with any sides and left satisfied and not stuffed. As great as always.
Le Servan. Cute and hopping place full of Americans in the 11th. I was really looking forward to this but am sad to say we were underwhelmed. There were some delicious dishes but overall we were hoping for more oomph. The dishes that were good – boudin noir wontons, soft-boiled egg with mushroom bechamel-y sauce and truffles, seared chicken with a sort of citrus/satay sauce – all were tasty but were one gear short of great. Here they leaned into richness/sweetness without enough relief – dishes variously could have used vinegar/citrus or fresh herbs or something to brighten the flavors. Still tasty and enjoyable but I probably would not return. Natural wine winelist, of course; I drank Mosse chenin.
Tuesday.
Maison Plisson, in the 3rd, a block and a half from our apartment. We headed here after a morning/early-afternoon trip to Versailles. This is just your run of the mill, top-notch local French food purveyor that slays nearly anything in the US. We grabbed 250g of excellent French ham, a pack of Bordier truffle butter, and a jar of tarragon cornichons and made the world’s greatest jambon beurres back at our apartment. Their wine selections are terrific, too.
Bouillon Julien. This classic bouillon is a decorative spectacle festooned with art-nouveau arabesques and Mucha-inspired figures. It’s an extraordinary interior, large and inviting and evocative of another time. The food is … good, nothing great, but we were pleased to have this reservation on xmas eve. I chose it from one of the very few places (like, two) on Wendy Lyn’s Paris is My Kitchen holiday list that was open. It was a lively affair, probably half Parisians and half us grubby American tourists. We refused the English menus and got a noticeable bounce in service from our waitperson.
Wednesday.
Xmas day on the lunch boat cruise. Amusing and relaxing. It’s winter and, ergo, gray, so it was not the best situation for sightseeing but it was fun nonetheless. The site we booked through had the wrong address (inexplicably said Pont d’Alma when the launch was a 20-minute walk upriver, by the Musée d’Orsay) so we made a mad scramble for an Uber and barely made the boat. That’s what memories are made of, right? On the boat, the food was only and not surprisingly ok, but at least the dessert (dark chocolate bûche with passionfruit compote) was excellent.
Cloche Paris for xmas dinner. Another Wendy Lyn recommendation. We went after seeing the Surrealism exhibition at the Pompidou, and while admittedly that does not sound appetizing, it became even less so after someone fell ill and vomited in the galleries two minutes before we were about to enter. The walk from the museum to the restaurant restored our appetite.
This was a very good small spot, trendy and swanky, very close to the Forum des Halles. The food was delicious, neatly and beautifully plated. The other guests were young and beautifully put together. Cloche jacked up the prices for the xmas night dinner but whatever.
Thursday.
We went to the Catacombs in the morning and then the Palais de Tokyo, which I had not been to before and which was super cool. Really informal, laid back contemporary art museum. The Barbara Chase-Riboud installation there is beautiful. The Catacombs – what can I say? If you haven’t been, you should. Uniquely Parisian experience.
We hadn’t planned lunch and learned that there is a fancy shmancy restaurant in the Palais de Tokyo called Monsieur Bleu, so we reserved a table while we were in the galleries. It was perfect! Decorated in a crisp Viennese déco style in a green color key (no bleu anywhere to be seen, monsieur), the place has a luxury hotel restaurant vibe with cloth napkins (the first place to have them on our trip, wtf?) and velvet banquettes. The menu is sort of random with a number of dishes influenced by southeast Asian cuisine. We stuck to appetizers and were glad we did, because the portions were rather large, especially the massive pile of French fries we ordered as a side. Also the complimentary bread basket was large and good and there were almonds and olives as part of the service. Not cheap but this was a lovely landing spot for an impromptu lunch. Bonus: our waitperson didn’t once speak English with us.
We had dinner at Oobatz. Wow! Ok, this is sick pizza, certainly among the best I have had. So glad we went, and it made for a great change of pace from the French streak we were on. Best part was we were seated next to chef Dan Pearson’s family, who were in Paris for the holidays. We chatted at length with his father and also a bit with his sister and his wife Claudia, who was waiting tables. We had expected a quick dinner and ended up with a 2+ hour evening. We ordered three pizzas, which was 0.67 pizzas too much, including the “chef’s choice” which turned out to be a duck confit white pizza – amazing! We also got to try a fourth pizza from Dan’s family (the chanterelle pizza – boom.) So fun. Also, cloth napkins and obligatory natural winelist.
Friday.
After a very late start (we are all suffering from colds) we went to the Instagram-ready Chez Janou, a super popular Provençal bistro. We were staying two blocks away and popped by for a possible lunch. The wait is more than an hour? No problem! We were not so hungry and so we roamed the Marais in full gather-gather society mode before returning. We still waited 20 minutes in the cold before being seated. The lunch “formule” was only 18 euros, and we had our eyes on the French onion soup. It delivered, if a bit salty, but our plats were mixed – the beef good, the salmon terrible, overcooked beyond recognition. We got the chocolate mousse for dessert and it was great but absolutely massive – no way to eat it all, especially at lunch! The room is vibrant and fun but you can do so much better.
Dinner at Le Bon Georges was all classic, all the time, and full of Americans. The starters were good, the steak was freaking ridiculous – so tender, so flavorful. We weren’t really ready for such protein-loading after a week of the high life, but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t great. We drank 2022 Chateau Thivin Cote-de-Brouilly ‘Zaccharie,’ because how could I pass that up? Terrific wine and great with the steak. We had a funny and friendly conversation with an older couple next to us who have spent the last 33 Christmases in Paris – just something that this city encourages. Maybe we will do that, too.
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Excellent report. I feel the same about Le Servan. I really want to love it but I have never had a complete meal.
No Les Enfants du Marche?
Thanks - and no shit! Believe me I wanted to, but the idea of lunch outdoors in the cold wasn’t working with my family. Next time!
So sad the Maison Plisson in the first closed. Loved the place! Along with Fauchon closing (both not surviving pandemic I think), quite a culinary hole created.
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We are cleaning up and packing to move out while we remodel and I found this blast from the past, from Oct 2005. Note the price for 1985 G&H Jayer Nuits St George. The Euro was roughly equivalent to $1.30.
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Very nice.
Wife and I also took on Wendy Lyn’s list with a spur-of-the-moment decision to line up with a ton of seemingly excited locals at (the other) Bouillon Republique. You pretty much described the food and ambiance exactly as I probably would, if only I could write it as well. It’s the kind of place that I would only go back to only if I was forced to organize a large group dinner involving not-so discriminating foodies and drinkers, but wanting a taste of French bistro stuff in a somewhat traditional, yet boisterous, setting.
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We tried Bouillon Pigalle during our visit last month and can‘t recommend it for any purpose.
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and @Joe_W_i_n_o_g_r_a_d - that’s pretty much it exactly. The truth is somewhere between “only if” and “never.”
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Mark - Outstanding! And you gotta love the Jayer wine is not THAT much more than the water… (And the chicken at 70E!! My god!..). Those were the days…
I’m not sure if it is good or bad that Arnault has bought L’Ami Louis. (Obviously bad in terms of ‘luxe’ owner; on the other hand, apparent ‘luxe’ now is just instagram–bs–everyday manufactured… It’s like Parker-points for the crowd that likes to think they are in. Certainly the level of execution Arnault has brought to Le Tout-Paris and, well, everything, is outstanding… And at Laparousse of all all places, another recent Arnault acquisition, I happened to meet the manager & he insisted - leading my French partner & her young son first - on giving us a tour of the whole place, making clear which were the best salle to book (I actually agreed w/ him…) & then giving us his card for resos… My guess is l’Ami actually won’t get worse, rather just eventually, as it continues its success/being the same, prices will rise… and rise.). Anyway, I’m kind of surprised, after all Arnault’s move into (unique) ‘authentic’/sui generis experiences (including the Orient Express as well as the Paris restos above), Arnault hasn’t purchased the 21 Club in NYC…
Anyway, congrats on your plumbing good eats in Paris for the duration! Nice seeing that check.
Theo
In the 9th arrondissement I’d recommend Perception. It’s fantastic contemporary French haute cruise with Korean influences - essentially French, Korean fusion
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I’ve championed it many times here after eating there this spring. Best meal of 2024 for me and definitely a top I don’t know too 10 in my life maybe. Up there.
We spent the last four days in Paris and had a great time. The focus this time was on more “regular” restaurants without big tasting menus and multiple bottles of wine per night. We still had a blast!
Parcelles: I really like the cooking here, small menu but the dishes are excellent. Wine list is relatively pricey, but still well curated and always has something interesting. Thankfully, they stopped listing all the unicorn bottles they wouldn’t sell to you anyway (without a price), which really annoyed me in the past.
Les Arlots: The saucisse puree is absolutely fantastic, it’s worth going just for that.
Solstice: Really impressive! This is starting to become one of my favorite restaurants in Paris. We did the 5 course meal instead of Omakase this time and the amount of food was perfect. A bottle of Valette Monsieur Noly was a perfect pairing and the chef takes pride in slightly altering some of the dishes/sauces to match the wine(s). (Disclaimer: we’re somewhat acquainted with the owner and he throws in an extra dish here or there or pours an interesting bottle of wine to taste, which makes for a very personal and enjoyable experience, although people that are passionate about wine/food would probably get a very similar treatment.)
Petrelle: First time and we quite liked it. Very romantic setting and definitely a date night spot, but the food is very good and the wine list is solid (although not cheap).
Mokonuts: We love this place and try to get lunch every time when in Paris. Lebanese/French/Japenese influence with excellent food and mostly natural wine list. Very popular and busy and run by a three person team, so service can be spotty. Still, highly recommended!
Sucrepice: We can’t just eat French food and we really like this Sichuan place close to the Sorbonne. Excellent black mushroom salad and good noodle dishes.
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Just returned from dinner at Le Duc. Old school fish restaurant with great quality fish served in a traditional setting. We had the sea bass and sea bream carpaccio, followed by sole meunière, all faultless. We drank a bottle of Fevre Bourgros 2019 with the meal and some calvados with pear tarte for dessert. All in all nothing groundbreaking but very satisfying.
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Those sardines are so gooooooood…