Decent chinese food in paris?

[Ptipois]

Nope! I've heard about that one too, but never found the name of the place...  But I've tried another one, rue Philibert Lucot, not far away, called la Tonkinoise. The had these quite strange snails (is that what they called them?) I really, really loved.

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It seems that the place I'm mentioning has no apparent name. I'll look closer. But it's quite good.

If the topic weren't "Chinese restaurants", I'd have given away some of my Vietnamese, Thai and Laotian addresses already (which are, I believe, more interesting than Chinese places in Paris).

We may slip to Southeast Asia if you wish. Could you tell more about those snails? I don't think I've seen them before.

Not really food-oriented but quite Chinese: there is an excellent tea place on avenue d'Ivry called "L'Empire des thés", run by the Kawa import company (which has an amazing shop on avenue de Choisy). This is the place to go for rare Chinese teas.

[Ptipois]

-Restaurant Asiapalace (Olympiades, 13e) + the other big one in the shopping mall is alrighty

If you're mentioning the upstairs shopping mall between avenue d'Ivry and rue Nationale, next to Paristore and Tang, is the "other big one" the Chinatown Olympiades (above the avenue d'Ivry) or the other big one in the back, next to the "dalle des Olympiades", i.e. the large inner courtyard with shops and cafés ?

Edited October 18, 2004 by Ptipois (log)

[Le Zouave]

Ptipois - the "snail" entrée is some kind of dim sum, actually: I think it was meat with something else, steamed in a large snail shell. Since the staff just doesn't speak one single word of french, it was impossible to ask for details -- but they understood what I said when I ordered some more!

[trsierra]

Ptipois...

by all means...let me rephrase my question to include thai/vietnamese/laotian food also...

cheers,

tanya

[Niall]

I had a nice meal at the Village d'Ung Et Li Lam; Wasn't to bad. We went for the Peking duck. It was good value and pretty good food.

Its in the 8th on Rue Jean Mermoz. Near FD Roosevelt Metro.

Edited October 22, 2004 by Niall (log)

[Ptipois]

OK, here's a few of my favorite Lao, Vietnamese and Thai restaurants. There are many more around, I wish I could try them all.

Thai: Chieng Mai, rue Frédéric-Sauton (5e), is quite nice and has been there for a long time. Same owner but even tastier food, spiced just as it should be (i.e.: too much), my very favorite, Lao Thai, rue de Tolbiac (13e). Krung Thep has been mentioned already.

Lao: Rouam Mit on avenue d'Ivry and its larger neighbor-I-forgot-the-name-of (same management) are good. Lao Viet is out in the sticks (boulevard Massena, near the rue de Patay) but the food is tasty and fresh, very well prepared, albeit lacking in chilli for my taste. A good laap neua (half-cooked beef salad) has to have some tang. Be warned that the yogurt jar of fried garlic and chilli sauce on the table is alarmingly hot (to be used in pinhead quantity, and don't let it get into your eyes).

Vietnamese: plenty of choice, but my favorite has long been a restaurant you can't find by chance (at the end of an alley in a shopping mall between avenue d'Ivry and rue Nationale), they serve one of the best pho soups I've ever had and a great bun cha ha noi. It's called Bi Da Saigon.

[naf]

If you're mentioning the upstairs shopping mall between avenue d'Ivry and rue Nationale, next to Paristore and Tang, is the "other big one" the Chinatown Olympiades (above the avenue d'Ivry) or the other big one in the back, next to the "dalle des Olympiades", i.e. the large inner courtyard with shops and cafés ?

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Sorry to get back to you so late, Ptipois.

I found the two huge restaurants INSIDE the mall Olympiades okay. One is just above the supermarket Tang, the second one (the one I prefer a bit more), is the far end of the mall, same floor, with one entrance inside the mall, and another entrance opening to the inner court yard. (But not the one INSIDE the court yard, I never try that one)

[Ptipois]

Sorry to get back to you so late, Ptipois.

I found the two huge restaurants INSIDE the mall Olympiades okay. One is just above the supermarket Tang, the second one (the one I prefer a bit more), is the far end of the mall, same floor, with one entrance inside the mall, and another entrance opening to the inner court yard. (But not the one INSIDE the court yard, I never try that one)

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Hello Naf!

The first restaurant you're mentioning is the Chinatown Olympiades. I find it okay too. The sautéed mussels are good.

The second restaurant is Asia Palace. I haven't been there yet.

Last night I took a friend to Li Ka Fo, on avenue de Choisy, and as usual we were delighted by their gutsy (sometimes very gutsy) Cantonese cooking. I was introduced to the place by a friend who is a native of Fujian, and he claims that some of the food he finds there does remind him of his childhood memories. The menu is interesting, but a large number of red paper strips felt-tipped in Chinese adorn the walls all around, so the most interesting items may only be ordered if you can read them. Alone, I can only read the prices in euros, so I do like going with my Fujianese friend... His absence didn't keep us from being brave last night at dinner, so, shunning the albeit delicious specialty of steamed free-range chicken with ginger and scallions (everybody seems to order it), we dove head down into the tofu sautéed with ground pork in a rich oyster sauce (comfort food), crispy chicken (brown, luscious, fragrant with marine flavours) and what was described as "steamed ground pork and salt cod", actually a layer of aromatic ground pork tenderized with cornflour and steamed under a thick layer of - shiver! - salted fermented mackerel. I don't know if you've ever had this ingredient before but it's like vieux-lille, nuoc-mâm, old socks and natto put together. Now that was a notch higher than gutsy. When we realized that the fish was actually not to be eaten but was there only to flavour the pork (which it did deliciously), things looked up a bit.

Other specialties include crisp-fried duck skin (a delicacy, not available last night), jellyfish salad surrounded by fluorescent-red-dyed baby octopus (my Fujianese friend's favorite, I don't really go for this myself) and remarkable clay pot dishes, including scallops and mushrooms and chicken and chestnuts.

[Ptipois]

Since this thread is being revived I'll do a little update on the present state of some of the commented places, plus a few others:

Thai: Chieng Mai not recommended (horrible meal lately). Le Banyan very good.

Vietnamese: Bi Da Saigon, Pho 14 still good. Also recommended: Xinh Xinh, Le Bambou.

Lao: Lao Viet, Rouam Mit and the larger one next door, and Lao Thai, all serving both Lao and Thai specialties. Nice.

Chinese: recently discovered Le Fleuve de Chine really interesting (in the courtyard behind the avenue de Choisy McDonald's). Also: Li Ka Fo IMO still the best, ex-aequo with Aux Délices de Shandong on boulevard de l'Hôpital. Restaurant de Chengdu on boulevard de Strasbourg serves good Sichuanese food. (I was there last night and the eggplant in yuxiang sauce was heavenly. Mind the pepper and chilli, they do not just pretend to add them.).

Interesting holes in the wall around rue au Maire (3e) where the Wenzhou community is located, Chez Chen is known for its jiaozi dumplings.

[Felice]

I was in the 13th last night, hoping to have Thai. We wanted to go to Sukothai which I have heard good things about but it was closed, so we went to my current favorite Rouammit, which was also closed!

Luckily I had the pocket sized guide from Express in my bag which listed Empire des Thés owner Buon Huong Tan's favorites in the neighborhood so we went to Apsara Celeste. It had both Vietnamese and Thai but somehow we all ended up having Vietnamese. It was good and inexpensive but there are other places that I prefere for Vietnamese in the 13th.

He also lists the following as favorites in the neighborhood le Bambou, Rouammit and Le Palais Cristal.

[cco]

For Cantonese cuisine, Panorama across from Pho 14 is not bad (junction of Ivry and Choisy). Their fried rice/noodle is decent,, comparable to the average standard in Hong Kong.

[Ptipois]

For Cantonese cuisine, Panorama across from Pho 14 is not bad (junction of Ivry and Choisy).  Their fried rice/noodle is decent,, comparable to the average standard in Hong Kong.

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You probably mean Sinorama, and it is indeed decent.

While we're at it, Cambodian-run Tricotin, in the lower part of avenue de Choisy, looks like an eating factory in a glass case but is good and wholesome. Though the place is spacious, it is packed during weekends. Dim sum quite good, noodle soups quite honorable, "nouilles maison" excellent.

Looks are generally deceiving in the XIIIe. The best food is generally served in the simplest surroundings (Pho Bida Saigon, Pho 14, Tricotin, Rouammit, Li Ka Fo, Le Fleuve de Chine, etc.) Particularly, Lao Thai stubbornly refuses to submit to the "Phuket nostalgia" style and serves what is, in my opinion, the best Thai food in Paris. While Paradis Thai, a few steps away on rue de Tolbiac and complete with wooden apsaras and tacky Asian décor, serves some of the most dreadful imitation of Thai food I've ever tasted.

On the other hand, places that look like eating factories may also be really bad, like Hawaï on avenue d'Ivry.

Edited August 27, 2007 by Ptipois (log)

[cco]

You probably mean Sinorama, and it is indeed decent.

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Thanks, Ptipois, you are right its Sinorama. Was too far away from Paris when I wrote that