In an era when the speed at which food is served counts for more than its quality; when restaurants crank up the ambient sound as an encouragement for diners to eat faster; when almost everything served by even the most prestigious establishments has been cooked elsewhere and arrives in the kitchen frozen and freeze-dried, the days when food signified more than sustenance seem impossibly distant.
At such times, I take consolation from Jean Renoir’s 1939 film La Règle du jeu (The Rules of the Game). Set in the years before World War II, it can seem the record of an even more distant past. The nouveau riche Marquis de la Chesnaye hosts a hunting party at his chateau, to the frustration of his chef, who must accommodate the foibles of the guests. When one demands her food contain only sea salt, he blows up. “Diets I accept,” he says, “but fads? Forget it!”
Many of Chesnaye’s supposed friends are contemptuous of his Jewishness, his rich German wife, his childlike delight in his collection of automatons, but his chef is more respectful.
As he explains, the classic recipe for potato salad requires that the potatoes be peeled while still hot, then doused with white wine. When a lazy sous-chef allowed the potatoes to cool before peeling them, the marquis detected the difference, and complained.
“Say what you like,” says the chef, “but someone who would notice that is a man of quality.”
ALLÉNO PARIS AT PAVILLON LEDOYEN
ALAIN DUCASSE AT PLAZA ATHÉNÉE
While not exactly a guide to Paris’s best restaurants (although it can serve that purpose), the following list indicates locations that, to an overseas visitor with an interest in food and drink, have historical or culinary significance. (N.B. All prices are without wine.)
IF MONEY IS NO OBJECT …
84 rue de Varenne, 75007 alain-passard.com
Three Michelin stars. By common consent the best in Paris. Certainly one of the most original—and expensive. Chef Alain Passard no longer cooks with meat, a challenge to his prodigious invention. Tasting menus begin at €145. Evenings, expect to pay about €500 each.
Bristol Hotel, 112 rue du Faubourg St.-Honoré, 75008 lebristolparis.com
Three Michelin stars. Chosen as one of the Top Ten Paris Restaurants by TripAdvisor 2016. Specialities of chef Éric Fréchon include macaroni stuffed with black truffles, artichoke and duck foie gras, and, bizarrely, a whole chicken poached in a pig’s bladder. Six-course tasting menu at dinner €320, three courses €145.
Four Seasons Hotel George V. 31 avenue George V, 75008 restaurant-lecinq.com
Three Michelin stars. Chef Christian Le Squer offers lunch (four courses) €145, (six courses) €210. Dinner tasting menu (nine courses) €310.
15 rue Lamennais, 75008 taillevent.com
Two Michelin stars. Taillevent was the nickname of 14th-century chef Guillaume Tirel, author of the first cookbook in French. Austere postmodern decor, classic menu, exceptional courtesy. Perfect for a special event, or to impress a companion. It’s possible to eat for €50, but expect to pay, with wine, at least €400 for two.
ALLÉNO PARIS AT PAVILLON LEDOYEN
8 avenue Dutuit, carré des Champs-Élysées, 75008 yannick-alleno.com
Three Michelin Stars. The showcase of cutting-edge chef Yannick Alléno, formerly of the Hotel Meurice. Jolting contrasts are his trademark: duck roasted in a sugar crust; avocados 18 months on the tree, served with a millefeuille of celery. Seven-course tasting menu: €340.
17 rue de Beaujolais, 75001 grand-vefour.com
Two Michelin stars. Probably Paris’s oldest surviving restaurant (opened 1784). Opulent 18th-century decor. Noted for desserts, including artichoke ice cream. Set lunch €115. Evenings, think €250 per person. Worth it to dine (in spirit) with Napoleon, Thomas Jefferson, Colette and Jean Cocteau.
Hotel du Pont Royal, 5 rue de Montalembert, 75007 atelier-robuchon-saint-germain.com
Two Michelin stars. Chef Joël Robuchon’s 12 restaurants worldwide possess collectively 28 Michelin stars, an international record. Signature dishes include cauliflower cream with caviar and potato puree, and caramelized quail stuffed with foie gras. Twelve-course tasting menu: €179 per person.
ALAIN DUCASSE AT PLAZA ATHÉNÉE
Hotel Plaza Athénée, 25 avenue Montaigne, 75008 alain-ducasse.com
Three Michelin stars. For the latest addition to his string of restaurants, the redesigned salon of this luxury hotel, Chef Ducasse announced a return to simplicity and nature, signaled by organic ingredients, little or no red meat, and tables without linen. Lobster, turbot, fruits and fresh herbs feature in his three-course lunch for €210 and dinner for €390.
FORGET THE FOOD: EAT THE DECOR
17 avenue Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 75008 restaurant-lasserre.com
With its retractable walls and roof opening to the sky, Lasserre is a show in itself, even before one opens the menu. A six-course tasting menu, including two desserts, costs €195. Adding an appropriate wine for each course brings the total to €350. However, it’s worth ordering à la carte to sample the signature dish, Pigeon André Malraux.
avenue Gustave Eiffel, 75000 lejulesverne-paris.com
Another restaurant of chef Alain Ducasse, this one is inside the Eiffel Tower, and named for the famous science fiction author. A favorite of writer Guy de Maupassant, it was the one place in Paris he couldn’t see the tower. Spectacular views. A three-course lunch for €105 per person and a six-course dinner for €230.
51 quai des Grands Augustins, 75006
Eighteenth-century decor and the bawdy reputation to go with it. Adequate food, but more interesting for its private dining rooms, where crowned heads could take off their crowns, and anything else, confident of the staff’s famous discretion. Dinner for two in a salle privée is worth every penny of €160 per person.
15 quai de la Tournelle, 75005 tourdargent.com
One Michelin star. Called “The Silver Tower” because it looks over Paris from a penthouse on the Seine. Fans of the animated movie Ratatouille will recognize the location. Famous for duck in all its aspects. Menus from €85 to €300.
LE COMPTOIR DES SAINTS-PÈRES (formerly MICHAUD)
29 rue des Saints-Pères, 75006.
These days a simple café but formerly Michaud, famed for pheasant with potato straws and woodcock singed with brandy. Hemingway wrote of James Joyce, “The report is that he and all his family are starving, but you can find the whole Celtic crew of them in Michaud.” In its toilets, Scott Fitzgerald once displayed his genitals to Hemingway, the incident described in A Moveable Feast.
151 boulevard St.-Germain, 75006
Former brewery/café that retains its 19th-century decor and menu. Ernest Hemingway liked its cervelas sausage on cold boiled potatoes. Also worth sampling: Alsacian choucroute: sauerkraut made with white wine and garnished with sausages and salt pork. Another obscure delicacy—vintage canned sardines.
3 rue Royale, 75008 maxims-de-paris.com
Notorious as the belle époque’s prime pickup spot, Maxim’s was celebrated by Proust, Feydeau, Cocteau, Lehár and Colette, and patronized by Edward VII, Dietrich, Garbo, Callas and Bardot. Not recently, however. Even without a high-priced tasting menu, dinner à la carte, with its €50 entrées and €100 plats, not to mention the relentlessly promoted champagne, could run to €300 or more. Cheaper and more illuminating to visit the upstairs museum of art nouveau, recreated under the direction of Maxim’s owner, couturier Pierre Cardin.
See also CAFÉS.
CAFÉS
The post-World War II decision to serve food in cafés sounded the death knell for these institutions, crucial to the cultural life of the French nation. Writers who used their local café as study, office and workroom were pushed out late morning as tables were set for the lunch trade.
102 boulevard du Montparnasse, 75014. lacoupole-paris.com
Largest and most modern of the great Montparnasse cafés, the Coupole, opened in 1927, combined café, restaurant, cocktail bar and basement dance hall: everything tourists required. Notable for painted columns and floor tiles, both original.
108 boulevard du Montparnasse, 75014. restaurant-ledome.com
Favorite hangout of expatriate Americans, including Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller, etc. A client wrote in 1929, “My dear, at first I was uncertain whether the Dôme was a place or a state of mind or a disease. It is all three!”
99 boulevard du Montparnasse, 75006. leselectmontparnasse.fr
Little changed since its opening in 1923. Hemingway drank here, Hart Crane fought with waiters and James Baldwin wrote Giovanni’s Room.
105 boulevard du Montparnasse, 75006. rotondemontparnasse.com
Meeting place of Hispanic expatriates: Picasso, Gris, Miró. One-time haunt of Amedeo Modigliani.
171 boulevard du Montparnasse, 75006. closeriedeslilas.fr
Venerable hangout of French literary lions. Hemingway wrote in its lilac-shaded café.
18 rue de Tournon, 75006.
Post-World War II meeting place of African-American expatriates: Richard Wright, Chester Himes, James Baldwin; later of “little magazine” community: George Plimpton, Paris Review, etc.
6 place Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 75006. lesdeuxmagots.fr
Best-known Paris literary café, named for the Chinese merchants or megots perched overhead on the central support column. Expensive but atmospheric.
172 boulevard Saint-Germain, 75006. cafedeflore.fr
Headquarters of post-World War II Existential movement. Regulars were Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Juliette Greco.
226 rue de Rivoli, 75001 angelina-paris.fr
Famous for patisserie; afternoon tea, coffee or hot chocolate so thick it barely pours. Marcel Proust was a customer.
TRIP-ADVISER TOP TEN
The following were chosen by users of the website TripAdviser as the best Paris restaurants of 2016.
2 rue Germain-Pilon, 75018
Tiny, lively tapas/Hispanic resto in busy Moulin Rouge district.
212b boulevard Pereire, 75017 restaurantilgrano.paris
Italian street food, specializing in pinsa flatbread.
12 rue la Fayette, 75009 http://midi12.lafourchette.rest
Buckwheat pancakes, savory and sweet. Good for a quick lunch between bouts of shopping in Galeries Lafayette and Printemps.
55 rue de Paradis, 75010 bistroparadis.fr
Tiny family resto, attentive service, close to Opera.
EPICURE (See above, under IF MONEY IS NO OBJECT …)
16 rue Notre Dame de Nazareth, 75003. parispicnic.com
A novel idea: a catered picnic. Cold cuts, cheese, fruit, salad and wine delivered to you near a suitable park: Eiffel Tower, Luxembourg Gardens, etc. Utensils and blanket provided. Professional photographer optional.
31b rue du Faubourg Montmartre, 75009. locolerestaurant.com
Steak in all its forms, including super-tender Wagyu beef.
27 avenue du Maine, 75015. leclosy.com
Japanese/French fusion.
LE CINQ. (See above, under IF
MONEY IS NO OBJECT)
54 rue Corvisart, 75013. iletaitunsquare.com
Superior burgers and raw-beef steak tartare.
