HOLLY_L

I like Stephanie and was glad she won (go Chicago!), but certainly would have liked to see Richard be closer in at for the finale. I wonder if Season 2 taught them that it was better to have 3 finalists, to have a better chance at building up viewer suspense. Not that Marcel necessarily choked (I still wish he'd won) - but when you have chefs taking risks with more unusual preparations (e.g., Richard, and to some extent Marcel), it can go wrong. Especially if they're up against chefs who appear to be making variations of dishes they've made any number of times (which I've heard re Ilan, and appeared true with Lisa, at least with her much-praised soup). If you have three contestants in the finale, there is a better chance that at least two will be competitive enough to make it suspenseful.

Here are my pictures from my April lunch at Le Meurice: Le Meurice pics The foie gras and one part of dish at Pierre Gagnaire were the only two dishes during my trip that I disliked. I had not entirely understood what “iodé en pain du sucre,” but that part of the dish I actually liked; at least in terms of the theater of cracking open the “sugar bread” (don’t know if there is a more idiomatic translation) to reveal the foie gras inside (which is shown in the first couple foie gras pictures). Of course, this left the foie gras quite sweet; and certainly something was needed to cut that sweetness – but for me, the chutney de navet aux algues vinaigrées was definitely not the right choice. It tasted pretty good at first, but gradually the flavor of the chutney – particularly the algae or seaweed or whatever the proper translation is – became overpowering, at least for me. I was only able to taste the chutney and hardly taste the foie gras at all. I only had about half of the dish. It was an ambitious dish and certainly different, but for me, a miss. I think I am particularly sensitive to excessively salty/sea flavors (I know it’s heresy, but I am not a huge caviar fan), so maybe others would find this more pleasing. The lobster on the other hand was excellent, and the ris de veau was very good. Dessert also very nice. I also found the service to be particularly friendly, particularly given the (overly?) formal nature of the dining room. I’m not a huge fan of the palace dining rooms, but I think they’re generally better during the day with the natural light. At the end of lunch, I briefly met Chef Alléno, and I chickened out from saying anything negative about the foie gras. It's certainly not the first three-star I would go back to - but I would go back. Certainly interesting things are going on here.

Here are my pictures from lunch at Apicius: Apicius Chef Vigato is not exactly reinventing the wheel, but I thought the food was all quite good, and on my personal list would probably rank it slightly under Le Bristol, for example, which is probably my favorite of the two stars. Some of the a la carte dishes from their descriptions appear to possibly be a bit more inventive than the dishes I had. When I explained it was my first time at the restaurant, the server recommended the tasting menu (160 euros). The courses were not specifically described on the menu, and I believe I could have requested other courses (in fact, I believe a choice between two mains was specifically offered depending on my tastes, but I can’t remember the other that was offered). The menu description is “un menu degustation évoluant en function des produits et des saisons peut vous être propose.” A la carte prices range from 28 to 85 for starters, 45-85 for fish, 40 to 60 for meats, 18 for cheese, and 16-20 for desserts. I can try to take a picture or scan the menu if anyone is interested. There is comparatively little info available on this about this restaurant compared to some others, I found. Largely Parisian (or at least French) clientele; this impression was confirmed to me when I spoke with one of the servers afterwards. He said that they save some reservations for a week or two ahead of time, so that locals not planning as far ahead can still get tables. At least in my room, I believe I was the only native English speaker. I had very good and accommodating service. Chef Vigato was there and paying particular attention to one table – I was later told that the woman at the table was either a current or former sommelier at the restaurant. Probably to the surprise of no one, I did not see any female sommeliers actually in action at any restaurants in Paris.

I think that Robyn has implicitly defined "great food" as the expensive food served in the best reviewed restaurants, since she concedes that "Delicious food - yummy food - really nice food" can be found at a lower price. Of course, "great" is flexible enough a word that one could define "great food" in any number of ways, for example, in ways that are more like any sort of delicious or yummy food. And it's not at all clear to me that the original poster was using "great food" in the same way that Robyn was, rather than in any way that means delicious food. I assume that by asking for great food at less expensive prices, in fact, the original poster meant something altogether different than the way Robyn chose to define it. As for theories of risk-taking in restaurant-choosing during vacation, I've done it both ways, and the style that one prefers is certainly subjective. But probably 80% of why I go on vacation (at least someplace like Paris, maybe not a beach vacation) is for the food, so I find that not doing my research and letting luck have too much of a role is unsatisfactory for me personally. That being said, some unplanned meals are okay, of course, but I was, for example, glad I had spent so much time doing research when I was hungry for lunch one day and stumbled past Le Comptoir du Relais, which I knew was a good bet. So does this approach take some excitement out of it - sure, although I think there is excitement any time you go to a new restaurant. But my bottomline is that even in Paris - where the good to bad restaurant ratio is probably more favorable than in some cities - if a restaurant is not getting a lot of attention, it's probably more likely that this is because it's not a very good restaurant than because it's an undiscovered gem. And I'd rather play it safe than waste too many meals in not very good restaurants. eta - it was not entirely explicit above, but I do recommend Le Comptoir du Relais for great food at less expensive prices - I understand weekday dinner reservations are nearly impossible, but I found the (more casual) lunch menu to be quite worthwhile in its own right); no reservations possible, but if you go early-ish or late-ish, I think you can usually get in

Bu Pun Su asked and and I have always been seated in what I understand to be the center room. For lunch, at least, I like it, because there are windows (no good view though, just a not particularly attractive courtyard), so you get some natural light. It's my impression that this room is also done up in somewhat warmer colors than the front room, although I'll admit I am not the best at making and remembering these sorts of observations. There are tapestries or some other sort of wall hangings in the middle room. As for the back room, if it is the room I am thinking of, it appears to be something like a private party room, which just one larger table. There were diners there one time when I was there. I have also been in that room, because there is also another restroom back there, and the servers have ushered me to it when the back room was not otherwise in use. Again, I'm not the most observant on this front, but the style is more like the second room, as I recall. Best morels - I don't know; certainly good, and as indicated above, insanely generous portions at L'Ambroisie; but I also had good morels at other restaurants. Someone who knows more than me should chime in here. Your last question is indeed subjective; and I have only been to L'Ambroisie in the spring, so have not had the opportunity to try, for example, Pacaud's game, about which I hear good things. Although I had very high praise for the chicken above, I think overall I might say that Pacaud has a particularly fine hand with fish. That is, the langoustines with curry is a great dish, but I have probably had langoustines as good or almost as good elsewhere. Same with the lobster. But the fish dishes I have had really stand above fish I have had elsewhere, excepting perhaps, now that I think of it, L'Arpege, where I have had fish that is probably equally good.

plafield, none of my meals were lunch specials - unfortunately, lunch specials don't really go with the philosophy of total decadence that I was applying to this particular vacation!

I started my trip report with Le Bristol, and planned to go chronologically, but I think I’m going to skip ahead to L’Ambroisie, since those pictures seem to have excited the most interest, and it’s my favorite as well. Unfortunately, I don’t think my words can really do justice to this restaurant. I had two lunches at L’Ambroisie – only my second and third time at the restaurant. It was the only restaurant I considered going to twice, and I am glad I did. Every single dish was fabulous/perfect, although the chicken with morels deserves special mention as my favorite dish of the entire trip, and probably ever, and this coming from someone who is not even a huge fan of chicken! Of course the langoustines is a classic dish, and rightly so, and the saint-pierre with tarragon and chocolate tart rounded out the first lunch quite exquisitely. First lunch My second lunch was also excellent, with frog legs, sweetbreads (with more morels!), the fabulous lobster, and a lovely and refreshing dessert described as “Biscuit dacquoise au praliné, giboulée de fraises de jardin,” which I’m afraid I don’t know how to translate. (I thought about getting the chocolate tart again, but M. Pascal had urged this dessert on me during the first lunch, and again at the second, and I should know better than to ignore his advice!) Second lunch I love the L’Ambroisie space, which I find quite intimate and welcoming, at least at lunch – I have never been for dinner. I also find the service to be very welcoming, although I laid it on pretty thick with my praise and admiration (all true, of course), and such flattery can do wonders in terms of good service. Re Andy Fenn’s question in the Le Bristol thread – I was not aware of being “shoved out to the table next to the toilet,” and I’m not sure what table that would even be, based on where I understand the toilets to be located? Which day (April 10 or 18) were you there?

During certain April discussions on these forums (at the time I was in Paris, in fact), I was one of the more vocal supporters of a compressed and decadent dining schedule during vacations. After two glorious weeks in Paris, I’m still very much in that camp. Anyway, besides the pictures already uploaded, I also had dinner at Guy Savoy, but unfortunately forgot to take pictures, and had a second lunch at L’Ambroisie (on my last day in Paris, because it is my favorite), with pictures I haven’t yet uploaded. I will fill in descriptions on Flickr and provide links in appropriate threads when I have time.

I have finally uploaded the pictures from my April vacation in Paris to flickr, and have also started labeling them. Here are the pics from Le Bristol: Le Bristol dinner pictures Very good dinner, although I think I like the lighter atmosphere in the summer dining room more than the lovely but somewhat more serious-seeming winter dining room. The pictures at Flickr are labeled with my menu choices, but briefly: amuse bouche - sorry, I don't take notes, so I don't remember exactly - some sort of mousse, I think with foie gras beneath starter - the macaroni dish discussed in other reports. excellent, although somehow not as good as I remembered from my first visit - maybe simply because it was a repeat, so a bit less exciting fish - lobster with asparagus and morels - really tasty, but how do you go wrong with those ingredients? meat - sweetbreads - very good, but perhaps not excellent. I think I did have the cheese course, but if so, I didn't take any pictures pre-dessert - nice ice/sorbet thing dessert - beautiful; worth looking at the pictures just for this. It was a frozen mint parfait, served in a chocolate purse - that is, chocolate formed like a handbag. very cute. plus unbelievable amounts of raspberries in sauce on the side. You can just see the extra raspberries off to the side. service was excellent. I went on a Sunday, and the dining room was either full or mostly full, I can't quite remember. I had a nice meursault, but unfortunately without having taken notes cannot remember it.

Please add me for Friday. Thanks!

I had lunch at Apicius today, and had a discussion with one of the servers about how many of the people seemed to be Parisian or at least French. He said most/many of their patrons were indeed French, and it's not that they don't welcome overseas visitors, but, if I understood correctly, that they save some of their tables for reservations a week or couple weeks ahead of time. So at any rate, the restaurant is indeed a look at a certain segment of Parisian life, and it's very much more Parisian-oriented than some of the other starred establishments I have visited. I actually did not see any other English speakers in my section of the dining room (approximately 6 other tables). That may not be surprising since it's not a restaurant that gets a lot of play here or on other anglophone websites I have seen. (By the way - I thought the food was excellent, and although not inexpensive, reasonably good value. I have the best of intentions to write it up with my pictures eventually, so that other English speakers will visit!)

Julot is no doubt right that something may be lost when many special dining experiences are forced into a relatively short time period. For example, I have found that details of certain restaurants or dishes may be lost or conflated in my memory. That being said, I also think it’s possible that something may sometimes be added when one eats at a number of great restaurants in a short time period – a sort of forced distillation of opinions and an ability to see clearly which meals are truly exceptional, and which are not (which is itself a subjective evaluation to be sure). Thus, from my first trip to Paris last May, I remember my lunch at L’Ambroisie most clearly, and it fell right into the middle of my trip, and clearly did not suffer for its position. Whether the restaurants I ate at on either side of it suffered is a more difficult question. I suppose the question is whether these distilled opinions or comparisons are more or less accurate than the opinions formed over visits to restaurants over a period of months or years. I suspect that the distilled opinions are most accurate when it comes to identifying what are (in one’s subjective view) the best experiences (or the “great” three stars or whatever as referenced in another thread), but that it may lead one to inaccurately discount the good but not excellent experiences at (again in one’s subjective view) the next tier (“good” three stars). (I also think the distilled opinions probably are pretty accurate in identifying any experiences that one dislikes (“bad” three stars). (Not that I limit my dining to three-stars only, just referring to the other thread specifically about three stars – there are of course, two-stars that I subjectively rate higher than some three-stars.)) At any rate, when we eventually develop Star-Trek-type transporter technology, I’m sure dining experiences, including of those eGulleters who are committed to this sort of dining, at great restaurants will be generally more spread out. But even then, here may still be a place for this sort of compressed dining schedule. For example, when I am on vacation, I want maximum enjoyment and relaxation. Some people like to go to the beach for that, but for me, one of my favorite parts of vacation is the dining. So even if there were a transporter-option, my vacations would probably still feature a surplus of great dining restaurants – if not quite so many scheduled as I do currently. As to julot's question re hunger, I find that my appetite is pretty much restored a day after one of these meals. I also think any restaurant is best enjoyed when one is hungry. But even with this sort of compressed schedule of dining, and even if I sometimes feel full beyond belief at the end of some of these meals, I am generally restored and hungry again by the time the next day rolls around. Again though, I personally do one big meal a day, generally just a little fruit or cheese or something otherwise. I can't manage the two blowout meals in a day.

Both John and Bu Pun Su have made many good points. Like Bu Pun Su, I pretty much do one big meal a day, with maybe a little snack here or there elsewhere. But for those who are able to do more – including trip reports I have read here however, I say, more power to them and wish I could. I don’t have a 12 hour flight like Bu Pun Su, but my 7 hour fight is hardly negligible. Plus, once I get here, I can’t hit the ground running at least the first day due to jet lag. It’s not an inconsequential hit to my frequent flier miles or my wallet for the travel expense either. Plus, while I can take the time away to travel to Paris now, it’s not clear whether I will have this time next year or the year after – and no one knows what restaurants that I would have wanted to visit will shut down in the meantime. I read your blog post, and your point about simple places where “ordinary French people” are dining is not without merit. But while I drop in on a few of those restaurants, they’re just not worth a seven-hour plane trip to me. Maybe not every Michelin-star place ends up being worth that either – but I don’t know that until I try, and some of them most certainly are. Plus, as for ordinary French people at the Michelin-starred restaurants, I do see a few such people (at least so they appear to me), and often they seem to be out for a celebration or to really enjoy themselves. That’s why I’m here on vacation too – not to experience everyday French life, but to really enjoy myself, even if it is somewhat decadent. Like Bu Pon Su, I will sometimes feel a little tired or bored, particularly while getting ready or making my way to the restaurant. But those feelings generally fade away once I’m at the restaurant (or sometimes not, if it turns out I don’t particularly like the restaurant – but that’s a learning experience too.) From your blog post: I don't know if I'll feel differently, but as a 31-year old, I'm doing this for absolutely fabulous experience you can have when a restaurant really gets it right. I'll never be able to visit Jamin back in the day, or any other restaurant that is no more or that is past its prime. I'm looking for the best experiences available now - and there are hits and misses - but to have a chance at that experience where the chef hits it out of the park, you have to try. Frankly, I doubt many of the people who are hitting a whole bunch of Michelin stars in one trip are doing it for trophies or oneupmanship - they're doing it because they're serious about this sort of dining, and want to have experience at many of the great restaurants as possible. Edited to add: sometimes I do need a nap after I have lunch though - including today after a tremendous lunch at Les Elysees du Vernet - thanks to Julot for his advocacy on their behalf, because it's harder to find reliable info about the two stars!

I’m a little stressed out about my reservation at L’Astrance for lunch tomorrow. I had planned on calling to confirm a day ahead (that is, today), but I had forgotten that L’Astrance is closed on Monday. When I originally made my reservation, I had hotel reservations at a different hotel than I eventually settled upon, so L’Astrance also doesn’t have my correct hotel info. Is there any chance they will call that wrong hotel tomorrow and then cancel my reservation since I'm not there, or am I likely to be safe if I call to confirm pretty much right at 10:00? If I send a fax today, will they get that before I call tomorrow? I'd appreciate any insight or your best educated guess. Thanks!

I had the wine pairings at Ledoyen. They seemed nice and complementary to the dishes, although I have little expertise on wine. I would not say that the wine was transformative to the experience, however, in the way described for L'Astrance, for example. But I recall two noteworthy aspects of the pairing at Ledoyen - very generous pours, including refilling if the wine was finished before the course, and a wine for each cheese selected.

I'm not an expert on procuring reservations at L'Astrance, but I called this past February about two months before I wanted a reservation (and not at 10:00 Paris time or whenever it is they start taking reservations) and was able to get a reservation for lunch. I think it's possible I could have had a dinner reservations, but not sure, my French is not so good. And I certainly had no special connection, so I don't know why they would have told you one month.

Very interesting review, Julot. On my vacation last May, I went to Les Ambassadeurs on my last night in Paris. I had initially chalked up my somewhat so-so impression of Les Ambassadeurs to the fact that 1) it came at the tail end of many other starred restaurants and I had reached my saturation point for such dining and 2) I was just not in the best mood since my vacation was over. But having reflected on it since then, I think that part of the fault did lie with the restaurant. There were just too many things about it that made me think, “this is just too over-the-top,” – the sorts of things you highlighted in your review: the menu holder, the TV dinner, the plants being wheeled around like a cheese course. And I don’t think any of those things, alone or together, would necessarily be a fatal flaw to a haute cuisine restaurant. I think you could have those bits of whimsy or irony or whatever they’re going for, and still provide a memorable and rich dining experience. But whatever it was you would need (soul?) to make that happen was just not there for me. Partly, I thought the service didn’t match up with the thoughts – when I was there, the TV dinner was presented with seriousness, without any nod to the whimsy that should have been present. (Maybe they've been doing it too long, and also need to change things up?) Partly, I agree with you that all the food was indeed technically proficient, but still somehow lacking.

Are you planning a visit to Ledoyen? It's a favorite of mine, and I think there's a fair chance you'd still be able to make a reservation there.

MichaelCE, Le Procope is definitely along the right lines. It was actually the first restaurant I visited last year during my first visit to Paris, when I was stumbling around jet-lagged and hungry. The food was fine, but the historic sense of the place was very charming and exactly the right sort of introduction to Paris for me. That being said, I wouldn't mind food that was slightly more ambititous. Tartetatin, thanks also for your thoughts. I am definitely still torn about Le Grand Vefour, due to the kind of mixed opinions that you and your husband had and that are otherwise expressed on these boards.

I'm planning my second visit to Paris, and while I've mostly chosen restaurants based on food (for example, L'Ambroise and Ledoyen, which I visited last time; L'Astrance, which I did not), I was thinking of throwing one restaurant into the mix to enjoy an old-school, historic sort of ambiance. I would still want the food to be good, of course, but it doesn't have to be especially innovative. In fact, something traditional might be appealing in terms of completing the experience. I was considering Lasserre and Le Tour d'Argent, both mentioned by John above. Also considering Le Grand Vefour despite the loss of star and mixed reviews here. So if I went to one of those restaurants, did my research, and ordered appropriately, would it be possible to come away with a good overall dining experience beyond just the setting? Other suggestions? I went to Taillevent, also mentioned by John, last time, and feel no need to return immediately.

Has anyone visited Apicius recently? This was the most recent thread I could find, and while generally positive, is is not very specific. There is a website for Apicius, but there doesn't appear to be a menu, or much about the cuisine generally.

I believe Le Restaurant is at the analogously named L'Hotel. L'Hotel gets quite a bit of press, some small proportion of which is about Le Restaurant.

I am interested in both Thursday events.

I think L'Arpege might take a bit of a hit business-wise. The prices are so high (even compared to other three-stars - it was my most expensive meal in Paris) that I would think at least some potential diners would reconsider.

I'm so glad you ended up having a good experience at L'Ambroisie. Did you experience any other service issues, besides the oddity of the desserts arriving all at once? I will have to try to plan a visit to Paris during truffle season!