Ptipois

Eek, I'm going to Aux Lyonnaise tonight My 2004 Pudlow guide says that Christophe Saintagne is now the chef and they have deemed it bistro of the year, so I hope things have improved since June. I guess I'll find out. Please keep us posted, and you may have a great meal there, I hope you do. Also it would be a pity to see a place that had started so well go down the drain.

Of course he wasn't spending full time there, but believe me, he was holding it with a, er, firm hand. And seemed very proud of the place at its opening, considered it "his baby" somehow. Now Aux Lyonnais (without his iron hand hovering over it) may have ups and downs, if not downs and downs, but the lunch I had there in June 2004 was the unmistakeable sign that downs were not an unusual occurrence. That reminds me of that famous quote by Bocuse. When asked by a journalist: "Who does the cooking when you're not around?" He replied: "The same guy as when I'm around."

That might be easily explained. I went to Aux Lyonnais when Jean-François Piège was in charge. The restaurant had been recently taken over by Ducasse, who had put JFP at the commands. The food was wonderful. Then JFP left Ducasse (not in very good terms it seems) and went to Le Crillon. I went again to Aux Lyonnais since then (late June) and the place had plummeted. The bread was dry, the dishes uninteresting, some of them sloppily made, but the prices had, of course, remained at their original heights.

I completely agree about L'Atlas, where I always had delicious meals. I've never been to L'Etoile Marocaine. A good couscous is a very good thing indeed. I can add a few good couscous places and areas to the list (because there are couscous areas too!): - Le 404, rue des Gravilliers, 3th (the original Momo - Mourad Mazouz - place, the one he opened when he wasn't a star yet. Fortunately it's still going on, unchanged.) - Le Petit Cahoua, boulevard Saint-Marcel (13th). Well-prepared Moroccan fare. Try the Pastilla au lait (a dessert). - Le Pied de Chameau, near the Beaubourg cultural center. Untested by me, but heard nice things about it. - Many Jewish-Tunisian places around the Folies-Bergère (9th) and the rue Richer/Faubourg-Montmartre area. Most are pretty good. Jewish-Tunisian couscous is special: very plentiful, coarse grain, sometimes served with nice gooey Shabbath stews like arissa or pkaila. Highlight: Chez Chalomé and La Boule Rouge. A word of caution: what makes Tunisian couscous special is what comes before it. Kemia, an assortment of small but very rich hors-d'oeuvres, will be placed on your table before the meal starts getting serious. If you're not very careful, it may get serious when you're no longer hungry. - Other Jewish-Tunisian places on Boulevard de La Villette. My favorite (and, as you may find, a lot of peoples' favorite too): Chez René et Gabin. - Back to Muslim-style couscous with my personal favorite of all times (watch out, hole-in-the-wall place!): Chez Hamadi/Le Boute-Grill, rue Boutebrie (5th, near the beautiful Saint-Séverin church which you should visit by all means). Very simple but extremely good. You'll find out. Don't miss the lamb-chop couscous. Tunisian-style couscous : fine-textured "red" grain, a little tomato in the meat and vegetable stock. - In the same category (hole-in-the-wall, but definitely cozier), La Mitidja has been on rue Lacépède (5th, near the Jardin des Plantes) for ages. Simple, superior quality. Algerian-style couscous: fine "white" grain, lots of vegetables in the stock, lamb chops are skewered on two pieces of wire that looks like twisted coat hangers, then broiled and brought to your table just as they are, while the owner slams a big brick of butter on your red-and-white checkered tablecloth. Absolutely delicious. Cheap. Owner not young = I'm dreading the day this place will close. - Overexpensive, slightly overhyped but hey, Fatema Hal can really cook, and she knows about food. Refined Moroccan cuisine - easily the most refined and fragrant in Paris - at Mansouria, rue Faidherbe (11th). There are many more. Indeed, there are many couscous restaurants in Paris. Most of them are OK. I've never had uninteresting couscous in Paris yet, except in a very posh and expensive place I won't reveal the name of here. I tend to believe that the best couscous is to be found in the most simple places. Oh, by all means - stay away from the restaurant at the Great Mosque, La Mosquée de Paris (5th, right next to the Jardin des Plantes). In spite of many changes of management, this restaurant never was good and probably never will be.

This really sounds like Naniwa-Ya on rue Saint-Anne. The description just fits. A friend of mine even went there with a Japanese friend who wiped a tear at the corner of his eye, saying: "Oh, it's just like Tokyo!

Thanks for the warm welcome! What do I like? Hmmm... Well, many places that may not readily jump to my mind right now. In Paris I can mention a few Asian eating places in the 13th, like Li Ka Fo and Lao Thai; L'Ami Jean (rue Malar, 7th); Le Pré Verre (rue Thénard, 5th); L'Ecureuil, l'Oie et le Canard (rue Linné, 5th); Creole food is very nice at La Rhumerie (bd Saint-Germain); Moroccan food at L'Atlas (same boulevard)... There are other places I have good memories of, but I haven't been there for some time and I don't know if they're still recommendable.

First of all, hello to all, because this is my first post to this forum which I have been reading with great interest for some time. I'm French and I've been living in Paris most of my life, except for three years in the Nice region as a child and three years in NYC during the Eighties. For about eight years, during the Nineties, I was a ghost-food-critic for a Parisian restaurant guidebook. Which doesn't mean much (for reasons inherent to the trade and that particular guide) and also was a long time ago. I just read this thread with particular great interest. I agree with most of the appreciations here. I can guess that some places can be consistently mediocre (I see "L'Ambassade d'Auvergne" mentioned — I had one of the most horrible meals there. Uncooked sausage. No proper Auvergnat would dare this.) Ma Bourgogne has a pretty bad reputation indeed, unlike Hélène Darroze, and about the latter I'm glad to read frank reviews at last. Fouquet's was always rather dire and I can see that hasn't changed. I'm not a Le Soufflé fan, actually I didn't know this place still existed. I have yet to meet a Parisian who actually knows it exists (maybe I'll meet some here though). As for rue Mouffetard, the whole street from beginning to end has become a tourist trap, which means a food disaster — except for a few places like the Korean restaurant on rue Blainville. Etc. What is funny is that many of those places enjoy a good reputation in general. I think it sticks to them by habitude, or some sort of mysterious taboo. It is considered bad manners in Paris not to appreciate Hélène Darroze. L'Ambassade d'Auvergne too. Many raised eyebrows when I mention the sausage. Some personal appreciations: being suspicious about chain restaurants is not entirely unfounded, at least in France. The problem is not that the public thinks that chain = bad food, it's that some chains do. Not all, of course. But if you're wise enough to avoid Hippopotamus, you'll be even wiser to avoid La Criée. Remember the time when all those Batifols were in Paris at every corner? Terrible food. Not surprisingly, they sank. Someone mentioned Chez Clément. I think Clément is, most of the time, okay. A bit expensive, true. I was a bit sad about Le Trumilou. It's a place I like a lot. I like the enormously kitschy décor, but most of all the old-fashioned simplicity of the place. There are dishes that other bistrots have stopped serving decades ago. I think the food is good, simple-good, not zen simple but on the verge of sloppy-simple (as in the now extinct "bougnat" tradition). Sometimes, maybe, on bad days, it can be further than on the verge (Au Tord-Boyaux, le patron s'appelle Bruno, know that song?) and that's when you may have experiences like the one Marlena describes.