A few places in Paris

We struck lucky with several good places on a two night stay in Paris:

La Coupe D’Or in Rue St Honoré for lunch: we enjoyed sitting in the sun watching the world go by, while eating a salade perigourdine (duck breast, gizzard, foie gras and mounds of salad) and quiche Lorraine (very eggy with lots of crisp lettuce . Service was fine contrary to many TripAdvisor reviews.

Aux Vieux Paris D’Arcole, Rue Chanoinesse for dinner: an amazing place a stone’s throw from Notre Dame.  Very welcoming host and family, charming old-style dining room. We had the 5-course set menu at €39 – a courgette fritter, foie gras, scallops and duck followed by a tart of some kind. Other tables were in raptures over the chocolate pudding and crème brulée.

Chez Francis, Place d’Alma for lunch (twice): we’d been to this place several times before.  A classic brasserie in a super location overlooking the Eiffel Tower, stunning décor inside and plenty of terrace tables for full meals or snacks.  B had steak tartare (vg but pre-mixed) and I had tuna tatami (also raw), with chips and spinach (which even I thought was super).  Second visit was just a club sandwich - which was huge.

                    

Flottes in Rue Cambon near Concorde/Tuileries for dinner:  another classic brasserie in a good location. Interesting décor in the rear dining room (try to avoid the corridor).  B had the grilled prawns and I had suckling pig.  Very good.

Capucine, in Boulevard des Capucines (Madeleine/Opera).  Another old haunt. More Art Nouveau décor.  Seafood tagliatelle for B and escalope of veal for me. Slightly less exciting perhaps but pretty reliable.

Bistro on Tooley Street

We’re meting up with a small gang at Cecil’s, a “speakeasy” hidden away near the railway arches off Tooley Street.  The place has a good sense of style and specialises in cocktails. It is really a “performance venue”, but tonight there’s nothing on, so it’s fairly quiet and there’s little sense of the atmosphere which may accompany livelier evenings.  We arrive later than the other three who are well into their cocktails and whisky, and take-away Chinese nibbles from around the corner.  But as there’s no real food here, we soon decide to move on.


I’ve often passed Brigade and thought it looked interesting, so I lead the way there. Fortunately there is a table for 5 available immediately.  On closer inspection the menu is a little limited with a number of classic English dishes and a small number of more interesting ones on the specials board. A orders the wine from an extensive list – a Spy Valley NZ Sauvignon Blanc (£36) and St Hallett Garden of Eden Shiraz from Barossa Valley (£33). The waitress takes an age, and then arrives with the wrong red. A second attempt also goes wrong, but eventually a more senior waitress manages to come up with the right thing.  It’s only then we realise that this is a semi-charitable venture with a group called Beyond Food Foundation, giving apprentices to vulnerable young adults – so some inexperience is to be expected.

I have a ham and egg croquette off the specials menu – interesting if a little heavy. Other starters chosen are scotch eggs with beetroot picalilli, crackling Cornish mackerel with pomegranate seeds and maunka honey. All are very much enjoyed.

My main course is the slow cooked lamb rump with white haricot beans – delicious and very tender.  B has roast salmon and crushed potatoes (also good), while others had shepherd’s pie, beef carpaccio and liver and bacon. As you can see not exactly ground-breaking stuff, but all were well executed and tasty.

We share a couple of desserts between us.  A very interesting, sharp dandelion and burdock jelly with sherbet meringue and lime sorbet is a revelation while the bitter chocolate tart does what is says on the tin.

After the initial confusion on the wine, service has been fine. The décor is pretty basic and you probably wouldn’t consider it a suitable venue for a smart dinner. A  was celebrating and generously picked up the bill, so I don’t know how much it cost. Mains were in the range £16 to £20, so if you chose more reasonably priced wines (of which there were several) you could probably get away with a good value meal.

Smart Italian in Red Lion Street

I’d been to Bacco before just for a glass of wine, when they had been very helpful and provided a basket of interesting bread. B had also been with other friends, so when looking for somewhere for lunch with M&G, we thought this would be a good choice. As we were celebrating their birthdays, we began with a bottle of Prosecco (£36), and then settled into examining the menu.

We wondered aloud what “slightly deep fried squid” might mean, and the waitress hearing us laughingly suggested in her seductive Italian accent it might be that they were still alive when pulled out!  That didn’t work for the similarly described brie though, so she asked her manager. He, also with a strong accent that had M wilting, described how this meant briefly fried in very hot oil.

I don’t know much about Italian grape varieties – they always seem so individualistic – so we settled on the house white, a Trebbiano del Rubicone, from Abruzzo  at a very reasonable £18.90 (the wine list does have plenty of options below£30).  This seemed to go down well so we stayed with it throughout.

M liked the look of the set menu, so began with the soup – an extremely thick mushroom with pesto - it was more like a puree than a soup, but apart from feeling full, M thought it was good. G had mussels – a huge plate in white wine with chickpea cream – also a hit.  B had to try the squid and it was a good as the descriptions had suggested.  My avocado and crabmeat with chilli was a little delayed in coming, and when it did it was on thin, crispy toast rather than the milk rolls advertised.  But it was worth waiting for, a great combination of flavours, and probably all the better for being on toast.

M’s set menu main course was billed as “Chicken Roulade filled w asparagus, four cheese fondue, basil potato mash, gravy”.  In practice the cheese was a background sauce, and the overall effect seemed a little dry, though M said the chicken itself was moist and tasty.  G’s main was the seafood pasta, which came with a surprisingly light but zingy tomato and chilli sauce: there was plenty of seafood, including more mussels.  B had the monk fish medallions cooked excellently and served in a very fresh herby sauce. My cod wrapped in pancetta with red lentils was also very good.

G has a taste for ice cream and sorbet, he chose a selection including some unusual flavours, so I had to keep him company with a tiramisu. Wow, this was so light and melting that it felt like it must be losing you weight!

We had been lingering over lunch, while other tables had come and gone. Bacco is a pretty popular place, so booking is probably a good idea. The whole atmosphere had been relaxed and gentle, with lots of happy and appreciative noises from nearby tables, and the service had been charming and efficient, a fairly uncommon combination.

This excellent meal came to a not insubstantial £250 including service (with 3 bottles of house white, some water and coffee), but for a special occasion represented very good value.