Restaurants open weekends

[hshiau]

Incidentally .Do you drink wine with your meals?

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I can take a glass with dinner but my wife can put it down a whole lot better than I can. Why?

[vivelafrance]

Hi everyone,

My wife and I are headed to Paris to celebrate her 40th birthday.  She was there once in high school and I've never been so we've got a lot to cram into 3 short days. 

We're probably going to stay at the Westin for 1 night and the Hyatt Regency Madeleine for the other 2 nights.  I don't know if that makes a difference or not.  I figure we have 3 breakfasts, 3-4 lunches, and 3 dinners to plan so any help would be greatly appreciated.  I'd like to do one high end meal and the rest low to middle.  The main thing is to get a feel of Paris. 

I've read through the forum as well as gotten some recommendations from friends and this is what I have....way too much!!!  Where would YOU go if this was your first time to Paris?

Astier

Aux Lyonnais

Dominique Bouchet

Just experience Paris....don't try to cram everthing in 3 days...it can't be done. I would go to the Marais and walk around. Take a look at the local restaurants that you walk by and give it a shot....Also, you could watch Tony Bourdain episode in France, it has a couple of cafe and restaurants that look worth trying.

Breakfast...Go to a cafe, order a grand creme and a croissant, or tartine beurree (baguette with butter). Simple and heavenly.

Just take a deep breath and relax... walk around and hold hands, you'll have the best time.

[vivelafrance]

Bofinger is a classic brasseric I would recommend.

[hshiau]

Just experience Paris....don't try to cram everthing in 3 days...it can't be done. I

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That's always the challenge, isn't it? You want to do as much as you can in the short time you have but you want to make sure you enjoy it. We're already trying to figure out what specific sites we want to cut down on. Just walking around and seeing the architecture and people in an old European city would be entertaining enough.

I'm planning on making lunch/dinner reservations this week if I can. Problem there is that while we want to be spontaneous and walk into places wherever we happen to be, we also want to make sure we're enjoying Paris at its best so reservations are necessary. We don't want to be those stupid Americans that stand up their reservations.

[hshiau]

I'm finally getting around to writing a recap of our Paris trip. Unfortunately, it starts with both of us getting food poisoning 2 days before the trip. By the time we fly out, we can eat but it's not as appetizing as we had hoped.

We had a layover at Dulles (Washington DC) and actually had a nice little meal at a wine bar called Vino Volo in the international terminal. We shared 2 appetizers: a chickpea and chorizo sausage chili and ziti and cheese gratin with black truffle oil. Both were very nice but I especially like the spice in the chili. My wife had a glass of the Vinum Cellars Slow Lane Cabernet Sauvignon. I didn't like it as much as she did. Not sure it went with our dishes particularly well.

We got to Paris around 8am and our room at the Intercontinental wasn't ready so we went walking. Checked out Arc du Triomphe, then walked towards the Eiffel Tower. Grabbed breakfast at Fleurus Cafe at 39 Ave Kleber on the way. I had many croissants during the trip but I think I liked the one here the best. Also noticed the accompanying jam was not grape and strawberry but prune and groseilles. Cool!

After we went up the Eiffel Tower, which btw feels like I'm a construction worker in a skyscraper that only has girders, we headed over to Violin D'Ingres for lunch. My wife, while not fluent, can converse reasonably well in french. However, we were at a loss for many of the items on the menu. Asking the maitre'd, who seemed to be the one taking the orders, didn't help. Even though it was obvious we were floundering, he would only answer questions about specific menu items rather than taking us through it. Anyway, for starters, I had the Millefeuille de langue et foie gras, facon Lucullus, betteraves a l'huile de noix (It looks like I didn't write down my wife's starter). The foie gras was delicious. My wife had the veritable cassoulet montalbanais for her main. It was huge but very good. Not too salty like many cassoulet's we've had. For my main, I had the andouillette de pieds de porcs panee, sauce a la lie de vin. I remember thinking it was good but I can't say too much else about it because both my wife and I were falling asleep at the table at this point from lack of sleep.

Back to the hotel where our room was waiting. They brought up a piece of chocolate mousse cake for my wife's birthday, which was very nice. 4 hrs later, we woke up and figured out that we weren't going to be hungry for dinner. Unfortunately, we cancelled our dinner at Spring and just went walking. Headed down Rue Royale and Champs-Elysees. Grabbed a quick pastry and cafe creme around 11pm and we were done for the night.

More tomorrow!

Edited February 4, 2007 by hshiau (log)

[John Talbott]

We had a layover at Dulles (Washington DC) and actually had a nice little meal at a wine bar called Vino Volo in the international terminal.

That'a a great tip; I come in and out of Dulles and will recall it if I have a layover.

My wife, while not fluent, can converse reasonably well in french.  However, we were at a loss for many of the items on the menu.  Asking the maitre'd, who seemed to be the one taking the orders, didn't help.  Even though it was obvious we were floundering, he would only answer questions about specific menu items rather than taking us through it.

While it's usually safe to assume that upscale restaurants have one waiter who speaks English, in the case of Violin, it's Madame (Catherine) herself and perhaps the others are used to depending on her. In any case carry a small dictionary like the "A-Z of French Food" Scribo Editions, available at Brentano or Editions Scribo, BP 467, Paris Cedex 11. I'm not sure it's fair to expect anyone to translate every dish for you. Although an amusing cultural difference is that on weekends it is not infrequent to see one member of an elderly (that means my age) couple read the entire menu aloud to her sighted spouse.

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[hshiau]

While it's usually safe to assume that upscale restaurants have one waiter who speaks English, in the case of Violin, it's Madame (Catherine) herself and perhaps the others are used to depending on her.  In any case carry a small dictionary like the "A-Z of French Food" Scribo Editions, available at Brentano or Editions Scribo, BP 467, Paris Cedex 11.  I'm not sure it's fair to expect anyone to translate every dish for you.  Although an amusing cultural difference is that on weekends it is not infrequent to see one member of an elderly (that means my age) couple read the entire menu aloud to her sighted spouse.

John, you're absolutely right. Unfortunately, it was my fault that we didn't have a handy "food dictionary" on hand. Those couple of sick days right before our trip threw me for quite a loop and I forgot a bunch of things. Lesson learned.

[hshiau]

Day 2:

Still not really hungry after day 1, we re-evaluated our dining plans and decided to cancel our lunches. This way, hopefully, we'd be in good shape for dinner. Also, skipping lunch allows us to see more of the city.

We headed out early for Notre Dame and managed to climb all 400+ steps! Then a late breakfast across the river at Cafe Panis. After Notre Dame and St. Chapelle, we walked through Ile Saint Louis and "lunched" at Berthillon, if you can call ice cream lunch.

Then we did some hardcore "museuming" at the Orsay and Rodin. By then, we were exhausted once again and headed back for a quick nap. This time, we did get up for dinner at Drouant.

My wife started with the tarte a la truffe. While we both love truffles, it was a bit overwhelming after awhile. I started with the "4 coins du monde", which consisted of a japanese broth with ginger, citronelle and coriander, Sumac spits of lamb with crystallized lemon Hommos, stuffed shrimps, and italian style pie. The broth was definitely the best. The lamb and pie were both fine. The stuffed shrimp were tiny. Not sure how you stuff anything into shrimp that small.

My wife then had the entrocote blonde d'aqui, basically a steak. Flavorful but a bit tough. I had the medallion de biche (doe), which was very good. The mains came with some vegetables on the side which didn't really do anything to add to the dishes. I'm not sure I saw the point. The concept might be something to reconsider.

Desert came last and we shared "les grande classiques": millefeuille, a paris-brest, rice pudding and a baba with old rum. We enjoyed all but the baba. It was just too strong for either of us. Perhaps we should have realized that from the start. No more baba for me.

But all in all, I would still consider this an excellent meal. Service was attentive but not overbearing. The decor was very inviting and the restaurant, mostly empty when we arrived, was full by the time we left.

[pissaladiere]

My family (me, husband, son (7 years old), daughter (5 years old), mother) will be spending two days in Paris to see the final stage of the Tour de France. We will be taking the train from Avignon and arriving late Saturday morning and returning to the South Monday mid-afternoon. We would like one lovely lunch in there. Sunday seems to be difficult as many restaurants are closed, and we will be busy watching the cyclists. We are staying at the Hotel Magda close to the Arc de Triomphe. Can anyone recommend a restaurant (not too fussy as we will be with children) in the general vicinity of our hotel.

My mother and I would like to take a couple of hours Monday morning to see some foodie sights. We were thinking of going to the Rive Gauche. I would like to visit Pierre Herme, but apart from that I am open to suggestions.

Thanks in advance,

Andrea

Edited May 3, 2007 by pissaladiere (log)

[John Talbott]

My family (me, husband, son (7 years old), daughter (5 years old), mother) will be spending two days in Paris to see the final stage of the Tour de France.  We will be taking the train from Avignon and arriving late Saturday morning and returning to the South Monday mid-afternoon. We would like one lovely lunch in there. Sunday seems to be difficult as many restaurants are closed, and we will be busy watching the cyclists.  We are staying at the Hotel Magda close to the Arc de Triomphe.  Can anyone recommend a restaurant (not too fussy as we will be with children) in the general vicinity of our hotel. 

My mother and I would like to take a couple of hours Monday morning to see some foodie sights.  We were thinking of going to the Rive Gauche. I would like to visit Pierre Hermes, but apart from that I am open to suggestions.

Thanks in advance,

Andrea

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(1) I assume you know being Tour fans that around the Etoile it will be crazy since that's where the Tour swings around and

(2) I assume that you've checked out our compendium on Sunday openings.

That said, a kid-friendly place open Sundays (that I think has a kids menu too) within walking range is the Brasserie Lorraine, 2, place des Ternes, 8th, 01.56.21.22.00.

[boston]

another possibility but I am not sure of the hours of operation

L'Orenoc in the Hotel Meridien Etoile 81 Bd Gouvion Saint Cyre

good and wide selection, reasonable and child friendly.

Sandy

[John Talbott]

Host's Note

Because we had a lot of overlapping topics on weekend eating, I’ve merged some weekend eating topics so that all the information is in one place and all you need to do is go to Saturday lunch, Saturday dinner, Saturday, Sunday brunch/lunch, Sunday night wine bars, Sunday dinner, Sunday,

weekend lunch, weekend dining, and starred restos on weekends.

If there are errors or busted links, please tell me.

Thanks.