Yasube

[Pan]

At 9 rue Sainte Anne, Paris 1, there is a great Japanese restaurant. We found it because we were staying around the corner on rue Therese. The 1ier and 2ieme Arrondisements between the Opera and the Palais Royal are full of all manner of Asian take-out places and eateries - Chinese, Vietnamese, even Indian - but above all, Japanese.

We had lunch at Yasube for our last meal in Paris. Everyone's lunch started off with a miso soup which was superior. I had an excellent Japanese salad, also. For my main dish, I had a terrific yakitori of magret de canard. My father had sashimi that he said was the best he had had since he was last in Japan. I've never loved sashimi, but I tried some of his, and it was great. The amazing thing, too, was the price. Including sake that my brother and I had, the cost for lunch was about 12 Euros, from what I remember.

The only drawback was that our waiter was a horrible klutz. I think I remember that he accidentally hit my mother on the forehead with something and, later, almost dropped a whole tray all over us. But don't let that stop you from going. It's a great place and, yes, it's well worth your while to skip French food for a meal and go to this Japanese place if you're staying nearby or have a reason to be in that neighborhood around a mealtime (e.g. after a trip to the Louvre).

[Kikujiro]

... the cost for lunch was about 12 Euros, from what I remember

Surely some mistake?

[Pan]

Probably more like 15 Euros. It really was quite inexpensive, definitely not more than 20. Check it out yourself.

[Bux]

There seemed to be a lot of Japanese restaurants in that neighborhood. I don't really remember prices, but many of them appeared inexpensive and from a casual observance it appeared as if they had a clientele of young Japanese students or tourists. Some of them would have looked right at home in parts of downtown Manhattan--say the Village or East Village--where $12-15 will buy you a lunch. It's very possible to eat very inexpensively in Paris and little or no trouble to find well cooked three course French dinners for $25-35.

[Pan]

I live in the East Village, and Yasube has to outclass all Japanese restaurants in this neigborhood that charge anything near their prices by a country mile. I'll give you an example:

I went to Jeollado about a year ago, I believe (maybe it was two years ago; I don't remember). It's a Korean/Japanese place that also seems to style itself a specialist in sushi. I thought their Korean food was pretty good though not consistently amazing, and I tried some sashimi that my ex-girlfriend loved - tuna IIRC. She thought it was great. (Another friend of mine also ordered sashimi that she thought was great, by the way.) It was unfishy but tasted like nothing, just texture. I didn't mind it but I was unimpressed and remarked that perhaps it was like wasting pearls on swine. And though it was dinner and not lunch, the bill had to have been close to $40/person.

[fresh_a]

Rue St. Anne is the most well-known street for Japanese (or other Asians posing as Japanese) restaurants... They are of varying quality, but, for the most part, not expensive.

For really top Japanese cuisine, try.. Isami, or Isse... avoid Nobu, they were already too expensive, but now also bankrupt, and on the point of closing ...