Restaurant Guides

[menton1]

My patience has ended with the Michelin Restaurant Guides, and the Gault-Millau; These self absorbed guides are so political and so important to the restaurateur that their information has become less reliable.

On my trip to France last spring I ordered the Pudlo guide from Amazon.fr, in french, and it was wonderful! Pithy, thorough coverage, and so many good restaurants in there that are not even mentioned in the Michelin!

Do the french themselves use Michelin and GM as much as the tourists, and what is the general Frenchman's opinion of this Pudlo guide? Je vous remercie!!

[fresh_a]

The Michelin Guide Rouge still remains the Bible for many. I read them all, but we give priority to the Michelin. We use the Zagat, too, which is becoming increasing popular in France, as well as the rest of Europe.

We also like to think of ourselves as "living" guides.

[balex]

What about le Bottin Gourmand? Does anyone like it?

[VivreManger]

The Pudlo question was not engaged. If I may, it is the guide that my middle-class Paris friends turn to most readily because the coverage is so much more wide-ranging than the Michelin. On the other hand its descriptions tend to be too uncritically recycled from year to year, it clearly lacks the staff and rigor of the Michelin process, and it accepts ads from food purveyors, though not, of course, from restaurants. No single guide should dominate. The recommendations of a good concierge are therefore invaluable.

When I have the time, I try to cross-reference as many sources as possible. eGullet is of course a wonderful source. Other listings are in fact on-line: e.g. the Nouvelle Obs, Pariscope, Paris Time-out, and Patricia Wells so they can be easily compared with often revealing and sometimes repetitive results.

One time I was dining at the counter of Willi's Wine Bar, talking to Tim Johnston, {EDIT Now that I think about it, it might have been his partner??} when Patricia Wells rang up to get suggestions for worth-while bistros. Some I later tried tried with mixed results. But much of that list regularly reappears in the list of usual suspects.

Edited January 12, 2003 by VivreManger (log)