A nice and cool spot. On a corner in the upper Marais, this seafood tapas bar is a good acquaintance. If you drop by during the afternoon, you will surely find pleasure enjoying the small sea food tastings in the large bar with a glass of wine. A couple of oysters. Some urchins. A healthy snack made on beets. Not really sophisticated, but very elegant and simply good. If you're still hanging out in the evening, or if you just happen to drop by later on, the place turns into a real restaurant with a bit more comprehensive menu. The somewhat narrow, but good selection of wines is mostly natural. Despite some reservations to natural wines, we only had rich and very beautifully harmonic wines. Excellent. Reasonable prices.
Showing posts with label lively. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lively. Show all posts
Cave Nansouty
A lively place that is much better than it looks from the outside. Sounds scary? well, just try it then... A very easy going classical no bullshit-bistro. Very good wines - selected to please rather than to show off.
Le Pantruche
Le Pantruche is an excellent new charming bistro, located in a small side street, right off the vibrant Rue des Martyrs. Discrete, but warmly decorated, and with perhaps just as many tables inside as you could imagine. As both guests and staff are nice, open and accommodating; the proximity of a large number of potential friends just adds to the vibe of the place. The kitchen is inventive, but solidly grounded. Particularly worth exploring is the excellent application of fish and sea food, for example in oyster tartare, mackerel, or the likes. Wines are good - some even very good - and available for a bargain. Most definitely worth the visit - again...
lepantruche.com
lepantruche.com
La raLLonge
La RaLLonge is just next to another excellent restaurant by the same patron, la Table d'Eugene (see http://pariseur.blogspot.fr/2012/12/la-table-deugene.html). La RaLLonge is a modern looking tapas bar with excellent jamon iberico, cheeses, a variety of seafood, small elegant and well prepared dishes; this place is an excellent to pass an evening. No reservations are possible in order to keep guests mainly local - and so the crowd is. From half past seven the tables are getting full, and hopeful newcomers quickly fill out the space in between. The food is well thought out and generally very good - although some dishes work less well and a few faults are spotted in the execution. But a very cool and place. Exellent wines.
Milord
Context is everything: Imagine that the sun is shining warmly on the first sunny spring day in Paris. You are wandering carelessly on the butte de Montmatre enjoying the weather, the people and the extraordinary places on your way. You feel like a brunch. This place appears in front of you, covering the pavement with uneven tables on the mounting street. People are passing by, saying hi, telling stories, passing by again, walking their dogs, their wives or even their mistresses. And you're enjoying your brunch. Very simple although overwhelming and not expensive (the word cheap doesn't really sound nice). So you can simply chill in the afternoon sun while enjoying the generous plates. Feels good.
Le Tout Petit
In the heart of the friendly neighborhood around Batignolles, you'll find a small square, somewhat in between a little decorative parisian park and a white painted church. In the midst of all the cafes and bars generously welcoming its visitors, a tiny restaurant has been squeezed in between its neighbors, Le Tout Petit. The ambiance is cosy, it's almost always crowded, particularly outside during the summer time. The prices are very reasonable, or even, regardless of your pick, you can be almost sure that it's a good buy. The food is very decent, but simple; salads, plates with cheese or charcuterie, and a single hot dish of the day. It's not sophisticated, but the staff is very friendly and relaxed. A fair selection of wines too.
Pierre Sang
On the corner of the vibrant Rue Oberkampf in the 11th district, you will find a cool place called Pierre Sang. You enter a most often crowded and lively place where something that looks like the mother of all bar counter works as a an epicenter, the place where everyone is seated, mixing up people and companies, adding up to the good ambiance of the place. From here you can fully oversee what's happening in the kitchen - or you can just chat up people next by... For those interested in neither, the more calmer room downstairs, accompanying the numerous bottles of the cellar, would also be an option.
The kitchen is French-Korean, and although the food is very well-prepared, the idea behind the mixing up of the different elements is not always clear. Tasty and elegant, ambitious, but still not fully successful. However, the place is cool, nice, and the staff is very friendly and accommodating. Wines are mostly nature, and they actually do a pretty good job here. Reasonably priced within the difficult genre of neo-bistrots tendances.
La Baignoire
This restaurant happens to be located less than 30 meters from my apartment. In itself, this does of course not lead to any kind of bias in this assessment... still: This is really un resto du quarter. An unpretentious, better than very decent, place. With small funny bath tubs, taps and other stuff decorating the relaxed - read, not over styled - deco, the place greets you with a direct view to the large kitchen (although this sometimes reminds you that occasionally, you do fry things in a kitchen). If you decide to come early, know that the restaurant is filled later than most places in Paris - and usually with a rather young and lively crowd. The wine list is not overwhelming, but it does the job. And no wines cost more than 40 euros, in itself a clear indication of a preference to serve food to the locals, rather than becoming bobo'ised. And the food is simply good. A plain entrecôte, comme il faut. Good potatoes, by the book. Nicely done cod tartare, fresh and appetizing. And a very nice and warm staff. Friendly. The place you are really glad to have around the corner.
Chez Moustache
We are at a beardy place. And as strange as this may sound, it feels good. Bistrot Rigolo as they call it themselves. We are in the 11th, on the corner of Amelot and J-P Timbaud, where this new cool resto de tendance is welcoming you. A huge and usually quite crowded bar desk is at the entrance, until you're skillfully guided towards the back of the two rooms where tables are somewhat randomly organized. The staff is cool, friendly and attentive. The food is a good, not necessarily highly inventive, but a well grounded, creative cuisine de marche; things are well prepared, nicely served, and simply taste very good. An excellent place. Although the wines are a bit pricy for the quality, the place is highly recommended, particularly for the cool ambiance and the overall experience. Good cocktails too. For example in case you've actually left the table but somehow feel the need to chill for a second or two as the bar greets you again, just before reaching the exit...
La Quincaillerie
La Quincaillerie is yet another hip-cool kind of place in the still filthy-greasy, but now even more than ever up-and-coming area in Faubourg-Saint Denis. Lively, good ambience, this half bar, half restaurant is laid back and makes you feel instantly at home (except for a few bewildered banana flies). The staff is kind of laid back - perhaps even a bit too much - but always very friendly and nice. With an ambitious chef in the kitchen, eager to get the finalized servings out where they belong in due time, this is kind of funny to watch. Decent wines on the glass, and some interesting, tasty and well prepared servings in the lower end of the bobo-bistrot price range. Go there because its always lively. Or go there before you're having some drinks somewhere else in the area. Or just go there because it's all in all a good experience.
Le Floreal
If you happen to find yourself looking for a good spot to eat between the 11th and the 19th, Le Floreal is most certainly an option. Although it's actually located in the 10th (which would make some people say you kind of missed your target), they will serve you a very decent meal, not extravagant, but by the book. The place is large and lively, and the cocktails served in the bar might just as well also be the main reason for a visit. Informal and yet with classical style at the small tables in the restaurant section. The menu is basic and classical, but things are well prepared. Also the wines are good value for your money.
www.lefloreal.fr
www.lefloreal.fr
Coinstot
Coinstot is a crowded and always lively wine bar, located at the end of the charming Passage des Panoramas near the Grands Boulevards. The wines - mostly natural - are excellent and well selected. The choice of producers reflect that natural wines can and should be not only an ideological choice, but also and mainly about finding the good wines. And not necessarily from the more well know appellations. Also the food is well selected, from the oysters, the charcuterie plates to the well treated meat. It's all good. The prices are most certainly reasonable; this is a place where you can easily spend a good evening accompanied by a soul full kitchen.
www.coinstot-vino.com
www.coinstot-vino.com
In Champagne - Damien Wilmet in Reims
Located near the old market place (will the restoration ever end?) in a beautiful light butcher house, you'll find this elegant and sparkling bar, bistro and wine shop. Well carpentered wooden tables. An appropriate number of Champagnes on the glass. An unpretentious lunch kitchen serves exactly what you need. Everything is here. Just relax, sit down, and let it come to you. And hope that you have not planned any visites de cave within the short future.
Point Bulles
At the Marche Saint Germain. An easy, light and delicate Champagne bar welcomes you: Point Bulles. The food is just as light and sparkling as you would expect. The tables outside are of course packed during the summer. Several very nice Champagnes can be found here, somewhat reasonably priced. Small elegant tasting dishes or larger plates to share. Although somewhat mixed and certainly not with the same sense of terroir as in the bottles. The food remains decent, and gain points on the ideas and the servings, rather than the preparation. And you simply just get delighted by sipping bubbles in this elegant part of Paris.
www.pointbulles.com
www.pointbulles.com
Closerie des Lilas - brasserie
A Boulevard institution. And the place does not seem to oxidate. You feel the vibe from when you enter. From the harmless mice running on the floor in the entrance to the drunk piano player with a craving for Elvis and Calvados. A bar, sharp and to the point. It's all there. And of course, a very decent kitchen, although today perhaps rather overpriced - also in the brasserie.
www.closeriedeslilas.fr
www.closeriedeslilas.fr
Bistrot Favart
A classical and very correct bistro; simple, based on good products; a so called cuisine du marche. With a more standard Parisian bar in the ground floor, the restaurant is on the first floor with the kitchen. Good wines. Friendly ambiance. Very reasonably priced.
www.bistrotfavart.com
www.bistrotfavart.com
Aux Deux Amis
This place is a strange mix between a noisy bar and a classy neo-bistrot. For those who prefer things quiet and nicely wrapped in, this might be a bit to much. For the rest of us, the place is excellent for tasting a series of interesting and well prepared dishes. Although the noyeau is French, some twists of Mediterranean kitchen are to be expected. Excellent wines. Very much Oberkamf.
Frenchie - bar a vin
Frenchie is an excellent wine bar serving bistronomy in a cosy and intriguing ambiance. Located in a small alley, on a side street from Rue des Petits Carreaux and Montorgueil, this place. The tables are small, so if the place is full, you're likely to be placed at the table of other guests. Normally for the better, but if you can find a corner, hold on to it. The food comes in small, well prepared, elegant, tasteful servings, allowing for real dining as well as curious snacking.
Jaja
JaJa labels themselves as a restaurant of "sympathetic kitchen and wine". Located in the very heart of Marais, the place is most often crowded and lively, full of people. Although the crowd is often rather touristy, some locals also drop by to add to the authenticity. The place is designed to be unpretentiously good, and do deliver on this, somewhat, overall. The wines are good, but too expensive for the food. A small court yard terrace adds to the charm, both summer and winter.
www.jaja-resto.com
www.jaja-resto.com
La Chasse Gardee
La Chasse Gardee is a Batignolles adventure... a small, funny bar with a warm but kitsch deco, mixing deer hunting with a library cocktail bar. The food is traditional, very decent and well priced. The wines are ok, and you easily forgive them that instead of a wine menu, you just go and have a look at whats stocked in the wine rack. The staff is nice and cool. The ambience is also good, relaxed, although moving somewhat unpredictably. But you should go there, not because of the above, but solely to explore just what might happen, when the dinner is over and the hunting starts...
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