55 quai de Bourbon
Tel. +33 (0) 1 43 54 02 59
Opening Hours: Open noon-midnight Mon, Tue, Fri-Sun; 6pm-midnight Thur.
Closed: August
Metro: Pont Marie
Credit Cards: All Major
Prices: Moderate
This is a typical old Brasserie saved by its delightful location and view of the Seine River and Notre-Dame from the terrace. The dimly-lit interior dining room is typically Parisian and the place is interesting in that perspective, although the cooking here is quite pedestrian.
9 Rue Christine
75006 Paris, France
Tel. +33 (0) 1 43 54 61 47
Opening Hours: Lunch & Dinner: Open 7 days
Metro: Republique
Closed: August
Credit Cards: All Major
Prices: Moderate
Chez Fernand serves typical Normandy style cuisine on Rue Christine off the Rue Dauphine, the Fernand group also has other branches, all in the 6th arrondissement, the chefs include: Jean-Luc Roulière, Rémi Lebon, Guillaume Godon, Jean-Paul Morice. They purchase chicken from the Landes, scallops from Erquy and Limousin beef from the local markets.
Just to mention a few of the bistro favorites on offer are: Starter: Haricots verts frais à l’huile de noisette, Main: Rognon de veau entier poêlé, pommes sautées, sauce moutarde à l’ancienne, Dessert: Baba au rhum façon Guillaume Godon, Glace vanille et griottes au kirsch du jura.
The restaurant is fully air-conditioned, which is welcome in the summer. A set menu at: Lunch €15, Dinner €34 is very good value.
Link to: Gluten Free in Paris Blog Post
135, Rue St Dominique
75007 Paris, France
Tel. +33 1 45 55 15 05
www.leviolondingres.com
Opening Hours: Tues-Sat noon-2:30pm and 7-10:30pm
Credit Cards: All Major
Prices: Expensive
Christian Constant learned his craft from his mother in the south-west region of France. He began his apprenticeship in a local restaurant when he was 14.
Later he worked at the prestigious Ledoyen Restaurant in Paris. Seven years later, having worked every station, his aunt welcomed him to her one-star Michelin bistro “Chez Les Anges.”
After working at The Ritz, Paris, Constant became Executive Chef at The Hotel Crillon’s luxurious 2- star Michelin restaurant, Les Ambassadeurs, now undergoing a full restoration to be completed at summers’ end. It is hard to see how the new owners, of the hotel, the Starwood Capital Group, can improve on the magnificent dining room, which was the former ballroom of the duc de Crillon’s palatial home and under the watchful eye of chef Jean-François Piège. (Hotel de Crillion, 10 Place de Concorde, Paris. Tel. 0033 144 711 540 www.crillion.com;).
During eight years tenure Constant created a new generation of talented young chefs, proud to have worked under him.
Constant decided that although he loved The Crillon it was time to realize every chef’s dream; to open a restaurant of his own. In 1998 his dream came true and the 60 seat Violon d’Ingres opened its doors. The name, pays homage to Jean-August-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867), the French painter born in Constant’s home-town of Montauban.
All of this might not have become a reality if he had not met his wife Catherine, a Scot, who was Assistant Crew Chief Steward at the time that he was giving cookery classes on the QE2. She is now helping the Maitre d’hotel at the Violon d’Ingres’ by taking bookings, hiring staff and dealing with all the administration work. They also own Les Cocottes and Café Constant.
At some point during the nineties I dined at Yves Camdeborde’s La Régalade, which, at the time broke every rule by serving haute cuisine at bistro prices and started a trend that was imitated by many other chefs over the years. My notes in 1993 read:
LA RÉGALADE
49, Av Jean-Moulin (14th)
45-45-68-58 Dinner CLOSED Sat Lunch., Sun., Mon. Cash only
In 1993 the most popular Bistro located in the 14th, Port Orleans and Menu at 150 F with a top chef, Yves Camdeborde, cooking.
Hard to near impossible to book and once in you are politely rushed out.
He sold La Régalade because he wanted another challenge and he then bought the small 17th-century hotel Relais Saint-Germain and installed a crêperie and take-out food shop next door and created LE COMPTOIR, a tiny restaurant that seats about twenty and is now, once again, the most difficult booking in Paris. The restaurant has the very odd arrangement of being a simple, casual dining establishment during the day and weekend nights. However, during the weekday nights it transforms into a restaurant that only serves an amazingly inexpensive and excellent, five-course, prix-fixe menu at 45 euros.
Yves trained at the Hotel Ritz, Maxim’s, La Marée, La Tour d’Argent, and Hôtel de Crillon. It has been said that he would prefer to reinvent a classic dish such as Poulet Marengo rather than to use a thermal circulator or sous-vide machine.
The most sensible way to secure a table at Le Comptoir is to book a room at the Relais and for sure you will have a place. Otherwise, it is next to impossible due to Yves offering high cuisine at low prices.
Paris: Doreen Carvajal has information on where to buy “Snails To Go”.
La Maison de l’Escargot, with a history dating back to 1894, is located on a tranquil side street of Rue Fondary. There is no longer any competition so the sole survivor in Paris is La Maison l’Escargot.
She says, “I usually buy my escargots from snail farmers at weekend markets. But with an escargot emergency for a celebratory dinner, I ventured out in search of the maison where I half expected to see live snails crawling around in basins and pots of bouillon. Instead I found an airy shop with baskets stocked with two common varieties of wild French snails—bourgogne and petits gris—rated and priced according to different calibers.”
