hughw
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Posts posted by hughw
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I'm afraid this is one time when I disagree with my esteemed cohost. I and another eG member ate at Gazzetta and were not impressed at all. Le Baratin is quite good, but if you want a rising star I still don't understand why you're not considering Jadis,Table d'Eugene + Jeu de Quilles? They have all been very favorably if not superlatively reviewed, granted by French critics, but hey, they know something too. Just read Sebastien Demorand's review today in Le Fooding and tell me why that's not the table of the month. It is by me. Young guy, old recipes, fantastic presentation, good wines, reasonable prices.This isn't exactly a new a place, but Gazetta is a place that doesn't get mentioned often for some reason. I had an amazing meal there in July and thought at the time that it wouldn't be surprising if it was awarded a star.Hi. We're visiting Paris in February and Felice's write up of La Gazzetta definitely makes it sound worth visiting. However, after doing a search, I found several less than flattering reports (some using words like "inedible" about certain dishes). Obviously, I take everything I read with a grain of salt, but I would love to hear any other recent comments from other gulleteers. By way of reference, we love places like La Regalade, Chex l'ami Jean, and can not stand fancy pretentious places (AKA Ducasse). We also loved Mirazur in Menton.
I've also recently read a few interesting reports on Le Baratin with chef Raquel Carena. Does anyone have any experience there?
Sounds pretty good to me, even with my fractured French.
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This isn't exactly a new a place, but Gazetta is a place that doesn't get mentioned often for some reason. I had an amazing meal there in July and thought at the time that it wouldn't be surprising if it was awarded a star.
Hi. We're visiting Paris in February and Felice's write up of La Gazzetta definitely makes it sound worth visiting. However, after doing a search, I found several less than flattering reports (some using words like "inedible" about certain dishes). Obviously, I take everything I read with a grain of salt, but I would love to hear any other recent comments from other gulleteers. By way of reference, we love places like La Regalade, Chex l'ami Jean, and can not stand fancy pretentious places (AKA Ducasse). We also loved Mirazur in Menton.
I've also recently read a few interesting reports on Le Baratin with chef Raquel Carena. Does anyone have any experience there?
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Table d'hôtes (literaly "guest table", echoing "chambre d'hôtes", which is for b&b). Like this one: www.hegia.com .
I just watched the video on their website. My God, it's a little bit of heaven......
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Some up to date recommendations please
I've read through this thread as well as a few others, but many of the posts are at least several years old. We're visiting Nice (actually Villefranche) in February. We've been there before and really enjoyed our prix fix SUnday lunch at Mirazur as well as pizza on the Quai in Villefranche. We enjoy a variety of food but the one no-no for us is overally pretentious (and overally expenses) places. So we're looking at up-to-date ideas for the following on the Cote-de-Azur:
1) Friendly one star (or close to one star) attractive resto within a hour or so of Nice for lunch at 60 euro or less prix fixe.
2) Local boulubaisse or fish place with hearty simple food.
3) Same as #1 above, but in Italy,
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Let me say to start that I'm a New YOrker and not an expert in parisian food. That said, we've been to Paris numerous times and by now have some clear ideas of the kinds of restaurants that we like and that we don't like. The smaller bistros llke La Regalade, l'Ami Jean, tend to really good meals at reasonable cost. But you ask particularly about brasseries. Let me say, that we've never had a great meal at a brasserie in Paris. They can be fun but the food is definitely less than memorable. However, they are often the only option for Sunday night dining. I note that you are active in the New York forum. New York, interestingly, has our favorite Brasserie, Balthazar. I often describe Balthazar as the brasserie that you are always looking for in Paris but never quite find. Keith McNally has basically put together Brasserie "greatest hits" in terms of food, architecture, and ambience.
And Robyn replied
Thanks for the feedback. I have been to France perhaps 6 or 7 times - but last trip was about 20 years ago. I live in northeast Florida - get to New York about once every 4-5 years - and like Balthazar - a plate of fruits de mer - some frites - and a nice white wine. Usually for an early before theater dinner if the theater is near "downtown". We have a similar restaurant here in Jacksonville (Bistro Aix) - really good for Jacksonville - not as good as Balthazar. On the other hand - if you're paying about $50 for food for 2 for dinner - it is hard to complain. I get the definite impression after reading a lot about food in Paris these days that I will be disappointed with brasserie food. I have zero interest in hanger steaks when I can buy rib eyes on sale for $7/pound and grill them myself (Costco was selling prime rib eyes for about $10/pound this summer). Fruits de mer are expensive no matter where you buy them - so it is worth a few extra dollars to buy the best.FWIW - this may well be our last trip to France - if only because my husband and I are over 60 - and have a lot of other places in the world we want to see before we have physical problems with travel (also travel in general has become a big PITA for everyone - but I am getting weary of having my husband's leg brace tested for 20 minutes for explosives every time we go through airport security) - so cost really isn't an issue (although I don't want to pay a lot of money to get mediocre or worse food). Robyn
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Do they automatically let you get a table for a weekday bistro evening dinner as a hotel guest, or do you still have to reserve in advance?
For what its worth, last October we ate a Regalade for the first time since Camborde left and found it was terrific.
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I have used www.viamichelin quite a bit but haven't for about 6 months to search for restaurants and hotels as well as plotting routes. It had a nice search feature where you could filter your results for things like type of hotel, "stars" and "good meals at moderate prices." When I went to use it today, I could find any way to do this. Have I forgotten how to navigate to wherever I need to be, or have they eliminated those functions? Too bad if they have.
Well, I looked at ViaMichelin today and was happilly suprised that they have upgraded the site and you can now search with results filtered for things like type of hotel, "stars" and "good meals at moderate prices."
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Off topic, Ajgnet. Has you blog, A life worth Eating, been taken off the internet? I tried connecting today, but had no luck.
And BTW, I found this also a very interesting blog: http://countryepicure.wordpress.com/
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DOn't agonize. Go to La Regalade, Yves Camdeborde's original restaurant before Comptoir. New chef, new owner, somewhat new menu. They've taken a year or two to find their way and it's now terrific.
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John you might check the oven manufacturer's website. Often, Manuals are posted on-line,
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Sure La Regalade and Chez l'ami Jean are noisy and crowded, but what a treat to have great food at a reasonable cost. And in some way, if not exactly part of the charm, the "thrill" of great food for far less than you pay at other places with a more commodius setting probably makes the food taste even better. At those costs, you can forgive a hiccup here and there in service or even in the food. The fun is enjoying your friends, the food, and even your neighboring table (they are close enough to become your friends). Last time we went to La Regalade we met a psychiatrist from Denver who knew some of my therapist wife's associates in New York. On the other side, we met a great franco/british group who were in Paris for the rugby tournement. What I can't stand is going to an expensive or even a moderately expensive place and not haveing a good time due to less than wonderful food, lackluster service, or even too formal a setting. But each to his own. The idea of petit bistots was for great cooks to bring great food to a wider audience using less expensive ingredients, in less expensive parts of town, in closer surroundings, and in that, places like La Regalade excel. A footnote: the two best meals of my life were in the U.S., at The French Laundry and Eleven Madison. The worst fine dining experience was at ALan Ducasse in Paris - all pretense and uninspired food. And an apple fritter from Poilane probably tastes better eaten from your hand on the rue du Cherche-Midi than eaten on the finest China at a three star restaurant.
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Here's another really nice article about Vrinat on Slate entitled Remembering the world-class Paris restaurateur. http://www.slate.com/id/2181786
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NY Times Obiturary: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/world/eu...ies&oref=slogin
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So Michelin's reply to me (see Post #10) is either a lie, and they have no intention of improving the site, or they are throughly screwed up. Either way, they don't look good. And if you think about it, if all they want to do is sell books, why have the info on the web at all?
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I've had complaints with the site as well, but of course, in all fairness, I can't really see a reason that they'd want to give away everything free online, because then they'd never sell any guides. I mean, I'd rather get it all free online, AND, I used to find that the ability to do "sorts" would let me print out information organized in ways that you could never get from the books. But sometimes I just break down and buy the guides... or go to a Barnes and Noble and browse through them and make notes...
That may be the reason, but there are many other sites that "give" away their content even though they have a paid hardcopy version, advertising being the usual reason. Michelin to the best of my knowledge started publishing their guides to encourage motorists to drive, and of course wear out their tires faster. For a company the size of Michelin, I can't imagine that their publishing division contributes a significant portion of their profits. However, it creates name recognition and still encourages people to drive. So to me, taking utility out of their website is counterproductive. WHile it may allow them to sell a few more books, it creates ill will and reduces the traffic to their site. And if they really were concerned about revenue loss, they could always charge a nominal amount for a yearly subscription to their online enhanced content like Zagat does.
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On a somewhat related note, there's a new book out by Melanie Dunea whith fancy photos called My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals / Portraits, Interviews, and Recipes featuring Featuring: Ferrán Adrià, José Andrés, Dan Barber, Lidia Bastianich, Mario Batali, Rick Bayless, Michelle Bernstein, Daniel Boulud, Anthony Bourdain, Scott Conant, Gary Danko, Hélène Darroze, Alain Ducasse, Wylie Dufresne, Suzanne Goin, Gabrielle Hamilton, Fergus Henderson, Thomas Keller, Giorgio Locatelli, Masa Kobayashi, Nobu, Jamie Oliver, Jacques Pepin, Gordon Ramsay, Michel Richard, Eric Ripert, Marcus Samuelsson, Charlie Trotter, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and more… I haven't seen it yet, but it's been getting a lot of press. The title explains it all. Here's the Amazon link in the U.S.:
http://www.amazon.com/My-Last-Supper-Portr...95082970&sr=8-1
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We were at La Regalade about three years ago when Camborde was there. We quite enjoyed it then. We were there again on October 19 (under new ownership and chef) of this year, and we thought it was far, far better, and extremely firendly. We arrived over an hour late due to the transit strike. Even though we had called ahead and said we were going to be late, we were even later. When we arrived, we were greeted with "its a bad night for everyone, how about a drink" and the evening when on from there. I've wanted to go to Comptoir but at this point, my feeling is why bother.
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Thanks John. Now I can prove to my wife that I'm not an impolite jerk. We were walking along the Seine on Friday near the Pont des Invalides (after a long walk from the 6th to the Musee Guimet only to find it closed due to the transit strike). A young women picked up a ring near our feet and asked if it was ours. Smelling a scam, I just kept walking . My wife suggested we are being impolite and we should stop and talk. We didn't.
Since this is a food forum, I should add that we had a nice lunch earlier at the Cafe du Marche, enjoyed a delightul meal that evening at La Ceresaie that evening (walked again), and a fantastic meal on Friday night at La Regalade despite beastly traffic causing us to arrive almost an hour and a half late.
P.S. At least the "old" scams were food related.
Hugh, quite a coincidence. I was en route from the Cafe du Petit Palais, where I was sipping a cafe serre awaiting Colette's depart from the Courbet show to Ze where we showed M. Ledeuil the news that he was the #9 chef in France (one better than Pierre Gagnaire) in Liberation/oMnivore's ranking (but more on that in this week's Digest). In any case, my incident occurred at the SouthEast corner of the Pont Alexandre III and Cour La Reine. Sounds very near; they must be working those bridges. Food news: #9 is #1 in my book; the rouget and pasta with mushrooms and figs with sorbet were terrific, but the confit de canard: nickel.
I would say we were actually about halfway between Pont des Invalides and Pont Alexandre III on the right bank. We were approached probably around 3:45-4:00pm. Obviously, we have a friend in common.
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Thanks John. Now I can prove to my wife that I'm not an impolite jerk. We were walking along the Seine on Friday near the Pont des Invalides (after a long walk from the 6th to the Musee Guimet only to find it closed due to the transit strike). A young women picked up a ring near our feet and asked if it was ours. Smelling a scam, I just kept walking . My wife suggested we are being impolite and we should stop and talk. We didn't.
Since this is a food forum, I should add that we had a nice lunch earlier at the Cafe du Marche, enjoyed a delightul meal that evening at La Ceresaie that evening (walked again), and a fantastic meal on Friday night at La Regalade despite beastly traffic causing us to arrive almost an hour and a half late.
P.S. At least the "old" scams were food related.
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John, I don't have it's name, but it's a wonderful little storefront place with all kinds of goodies. It faces right on the Abbe Pierre de Porcaro, the modern plaza right across from the RER station and the Chateau housing the Musee des Anquities Nationales and behind the Eglise St. Germain. The kids were doing all kinds of things including the little beauty I took a picture of running the cash register. Perhaps one of your local sources can identify it. I marked it with a yellow pushpin on the Google Earth image below:
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On a slightly humerous note, in April, we took the RER out to St. Germain en Laye to visit the Marcel Denis Priory. On our walk from the station, we passed a small bakery on the main plaza that doubled as a cooking school for kids, and wow were they cute. See below:
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I would appreciate an update on Les Magnolias. It looks like it's still in Le Perreux-sur-Marne. Can anyone confirm that? And we were thinking of going for our aniversary dinner next month. I see that they have a 55 Euro menu which is within our price range, the 90 Euro menu is not. If we stick to the menu will we get a great meal or our will we be dissapointed unless we order al la carte? The online menu looks fantastic. Is that what we will get?
Are there any recent reports? Thanks.
NYT Articles on Food, Drink, Cooking, and Culinary Culture (2005–2011)
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted · Edited by hughw (log)
Well, based on this somewhat offhand comment, we were looking for a casual place to have dinner last night after a movie in New York. So we tried The Redhead, which except for downtown and east village denizens, is pretty below the radar on the New York dining scene. We had a fantastic fried chicken dinner. Was it inventive? Probably not, but great food at reasonable prices in a very friendly bar atmosphere. $96 (about 77 euro) for two including a cocktail for each of us and one glass of wine and the tip.
Would I seek out a restaurant like this on my yearly trip to paris for only a few days. Absolutely, not. You can find good tasty food at $100 for two in NYC but never with the ingenutity that you can find in Paris if you look hard enough and are willing to travel to some far off arrondissment that no one (except John) even knew was in Paris.