Paris restaurants

More Paris favorites, including two fish restaurants, a fusion place and several neighborhood places where only French people go

My friend Eric and I like to go to restaurants together. I usually do the research as I have a zillion restaurant guide books, but always pass the ideas by Eric before we choose.

Just as Paris closed for the August vacation, we dined at Fish La Boissonerie. This is the brain child of a Brit who created Cosi (one in Paris all over NY--the concept was purchased and franchised). Cosi is a great sandwich place where they make delicious bread in a wood burning oven. You create your own sandwich with a number of interesting and tasty vegetable and cheese mixtures or else excellent meats and enjoy. The shop is tiny with two floors. The music from great operas is piped in throughout the day.

Fish La Boissonerie is across the street on the rue de Seine (number 69). It is a wine bar where the wine is sold at market price. But of course, the menu is long on fish. The atmosphere is very animated and lots of fun and there are always people seated at the bar and at the tables. Everyone who waits on you speaks English and French. This is what we had for dinner: risotto au safran, aux crevettes roses et au marscapone, salade de mozzarella di buffala, fenouil et amandes, vinaigrette à la menthe et citron (a big pile of assorted lettuces atop the mozzarella); saumon cuit au four, salade de concombre, sauce tomate (served on a large mound of salad to Eric's delight); filet de sandre (a river fish) poelée, petits legumes, bouillon de romarin (a lovely dish). For dessert there was pannacotta au thym with a mango sorbet and fresh raspberries as a garniture, and an crème brulée à l'orange.. We ordered a bottle of VdP Val de Montferrand which was a blend of chardonnay, viognier and sauvignon grapes. The meal came to 40-50 euros per person and was well worth it.

One of my favorite I places is a little hole in the wall called Les Cakes de Bertrand. The decor is very feminine and there are interesting gifts to buy all around the room. The tartes salées (actually, quiche only refers to the quiche lorraine. Other savory tarts are called tartes salées) are all delicious and there are also savory cakes like cake with chicken; cake with sundried tomatoes and olives; mushroom cake. The salads that come with the tartes and cakes are very inventive and the desserts are all homey and good. Les Cakes de Bertrand is at the exit of the Metro Notre Dame de Lorette in the 9th arrondissement. Unfortunately the restaurant has closed since this posting. You can now get the same menu at their little cafe in the garden of the Musée de la Vie Romantique from mid-April to mid-October.

Another delicious salon de thé is Le Loir dans la Théière (The Dormouse in the Teapot). It is open everyday of the week. They also have many delicious salads and tartes salées as well as hot dishes. The club sandwich is addictive and the omelettes are all very well prepared and not overcooked. The desserts are luscious and not fancy. They have a huge lemon meringue pie that serves four easily. They are mobbed for Sunday brunch. Le Loir dans la Théière is on the rue des Rosiers near the Rue Malar in the Marais.

The Petit Troquet is a find. It is on rue de l'Exposition in the 7th arrondissement. I went there with my friend Sophie and had a lovely time. Poêlée de girolles et pleurotes (wild mushrooms in season in the fall) and risotto cremeux aux escargots de Bourgogne were our appetizers? Although I loved my dish of mushrooms, I adored Sophie's meaty escargots and vowed to order that another time. For our main courses we chose dos de bar sauvage with an émulsion d'herbes fraîches and a filet de canard aux girolles. Sophie and I decided on a mushroom menu and that is why there were so many mushroom choices in our menu. Desserts were a clafoutis aux abricots and a tarte chocolat-caramel. We drank a 2005 Brouilly Domaine Cretes des Garanches. Brouilly is a very basic red wine; often served chilled and easy to swallow. It is good with meat, but goes well with a flavorful fish.

On another evening, Eric and I went to a restaurant in my neighborhood. In one area in the 11th arrondissement there are a number of terrific modern bistrots. Some of them are the Bistrot du Paul Bert; L'Ecailler du Bistrot and Le Temps au Temps. Both the Bistrot and the Ecailler are owned by the same man and are next door to each other. L'Ecailler is a fish restaurant--highly recommended for the freshest of fish and oysters from Brittany, These three restaurants are on the rue du Paul Bert next to metro Faidherbe Chaligny. Just across the street on rue Dahomey is Au Vieux Chêne. At all of these restaurants you can eat for 40-45 euros without a problem.

Eric and I chose Au Vieux Chêne for this outing. It is great. There is a menu for 29 euros (three courses) for which there are several choices; and you can also order à la carte. Eric and I decided to skip the appetizers and head for a thick juicy steak served with gratin dauphinois (heavenly and rich: potatoes and cream slowly baked until the potatoes melt into the cream) and a salad. The owner recommended a red wine from the Languedoc-Roussillon and only had us pay for what we drank (he knew me from past visits). The staff is very laid back and friendly and the chef takes great pride in his work. For dessert I had a petit sablé aux frambroises with a framboise sorbet (raspberries) and Eric had fraises des bois à la creme d'amandes with rhubarbe, served with a marscapone ice cream. We went in the summer when the berries are at their peak.

Several years ago, I took my family to Au Bon Accueil on the rue Montessuy in the 7th. They have a 30 euro three-course menu or an à la carte menu. We blew the staff away when I told them that 4 of us are allergic to (detest) cilantro. That can be a problem in these inventive French restaurants as the chefs enjoy spicing up their foods with Asian and Indian herbs and spices. I do remember a wonderful veal chop and a lovely sautéed calves liver. The fish that they serve is fine as well. Appetizers are interesting salads or terrines, and the desserts are lovely to look at and delicious to taste. If you are lucky enough to sit outside in the summer, you will see the Eiffel Tower shimmering in the distance for ten minutes at the top of each hour. Otherwise, you can leave your table inside to admire the view. This is an excellent address (as they say in France when referring to a good restaurant.)

Friends from L.A. were here last Monday, and I took them to Ze Kitchen Galerie. I don't eat cilantro and every dish has it, but they assured me that they can leave it out. There were three of us and we had wonderful dishes. The cuisine is fusion style with a French/Asian twist. Joel and I had a lovely seafood bouillion with lobster meat served with luscious chicken croquettes. It sounds strange but it was wonderful. Rusty had a Chinese dumpling soup with many different herbes and vegetables (which I didn't dare taste because it was full of cilantro). For our main courses, we had solettes with artichokes, mushrooms, coconut and lemon grass; (lovely white filets of sole atop mounds of the vegetables and coconut) and roast duck with a variety of fruit sauces. Desserts were wonderful: a cold chocolate-hazelnut cappuccino with a peanut emulsion and coconut ice cream, and a wonderful warm mirabelle cake with apple sorbet sitting on crushed almonds. We shared a bottle of a white wine whose producer I had heard of when I was visiting the Languedoc-Roussillon--a fruity 2005 Vin de Pays (country wine) des Côtes Catalanes, Domaine Gauby. The wine stood up to our very flavorful food and was delightful. This restaurant is extremely branché (trendy) and the food is excellent. The decor is quite modern and very appealing. The chef used to be the right-hand man to Guy Savoy and ran his bistrots early on. About 5-6 years ago he opened this place and it has been extremely well received.