Le Dôme - fish brasserie

After the theatre we went to a fish restaurant that was VERY good.  Le Dôme is in the Montparnasse area, and everything we ate was really top quality. 

I had mussels with a cream sauce (with a dash of curry & fleur d'oranger), E started with oysters. Then we both had a fabulous lobster salad.  Main dishes of lotte and sole meunière were excellent.  Desset of millefeuille which they are famous for was amazing, and we are fans of millefeuille at Boulangerie Monge (and we'd had it for brunch!) but this blew it away.  A few bites of caramel & chocolate Berthillion ice creams didn't hurt either....

Yum.  Instantly became a place I'll put into regular rotation, even if it's a bit spendy...

Montparnasse 25

We went to Montparnasse 25 for dinner.  It was sad, because the Starwood management has just converted the hotel to a Sheraton & decided to close this Michelin-starred restaurant that we love.   The chef, Christian Moine & the waitstaff that my husband knows from years of dining there were all still in shock from the announcement (even though they've been under threat of the axe for 2 years).

Food was very good, as usual, and I imagine we'll make it back a few times in the next months, but it will probably be going downhill fast since the best of the serving & kitchen staff will go for greener pastures as soon an they are able.

Julien

Last night before the theater we went to one of the Flo group Brasseries, Julien, which is just around the corner from where we saw the play.

It was a good typically-French brasserie meal, I had a salad w goat cheese followed by monkfish with spinach and green beans. Yummy, probably because it was all bathed in butter.

The best part of the restaurant was the decor - its an art nouveau masterpiece, and the picture doesn't begin to do it justice. Great paintings on the wall (I especially liked the peacocks) and sculpted arches around the hall, and the huge green stained glass ceiling windows.

La Mosquée

Tonight we went to La Mosquee for dinner. We were already walking around not too far away and it's been a long time since we've been here (and never for dinner). Couscous is one of those local cuisines that the French take for granted - it's very exotic for an American, and as I don't eat it often it's something I am still discovering. It's also kind of like pizza places or Mexican food in the US - there are a lot that are mediocre, but not many that are really good.

I made the same mistake I've made several times at a couscous restaurant - I ordered a tagine (like a stew) instead of just sticking with the basics of couscous. Luckily my DH & I had agreed to share, and luckily couscous is always quite generous - the couscous was much better than the tagine, as was the case the last time I had couscous too (which was probably about 2 years).

Guy Savoy

I'd been wondering whether I should add a category of "restaurants" here and last night tipped my decision.

On a Friday night where we had nothing in particular planned, my DH suggested we go to a nice restaurant. We really enjoy the fine dining experience, and tend to hit 2 and 3 star Michelin restaurants a few times a year. I suspected it wouldn't work out - seeing as he made the suggestion at 6pm for that same night and we had nothing reserved. But, it is a vacation period in Paris, and after 20 calls he found a table at Guy Savoy at 10pm.

It was excellent. We took the "menu prestige" option which is a tasting menu of many courses to give us a taste of several of Guy Savoy's most famous dishes, and we were not disappointed. This is a chef who really knows how to ge the most out of each ingredient and taste. There were many courses but my favorites were :

Myriad of Young Peas - the essence of the fresh baby pea, in gelee, in the peas themselves, and the play of textures from peas to gelee to poached quail's egg to the little sprouts on top. Divine.

Cold steamed land and sea assortment - amazingly good fresh steamed veggies presented very dramatically over steaming dry ice. By far the best simple vegetable dish I've ever had. The "sea" mention came by way of a very original oyster vinaigrette which was deep and oceany and amazing (and I don't like oysters).

Soup of artichoke heart and black truffle - very good, one of his famous signature dishes, but I found it less amazing than some of the other things. The mushroom and truffle brioche that was served with it was out of this world however.

Crispy sea bass in vanilla spice - was probably the best fish dish I've ever had. The fish was perfectly cooked, extremely flavorful, and the sauce was absolutely out of this world. Vanilla but the flavor was only complex and savory, no hint of sweetness.

There was also a half rock lobster (very good, but nothing particularly surprising about it) and duck magret with foie gras (the foie gras of course I didn't eat but as usual my DH doesn't complain to have a second portion of foie gras).

The cheeses were really good - I particularly liked a fresh goat cheese, a Corsican sheep's milk cheese that was covered in spices, but the knockout was a 2004 cantal.

The desserts just kept coming - but I'd seen that from tables around us (one of the advantages of a late seating is seeing the end of the meal of earlier tables) so I'd done my best to save room. The desserts from the menu were a "Strawberry Textures w granny smith apples" and it was another fabulous example of Guy Savoy's ability to highlight and magnify the essence of an ingredient - it was fabulous. Less surprising was the chocolate fondant layered w praline, but then again I'm never a big fan of praline. On the sweets cart - this is in addition to the two small desserts served in the Prestige tasting menu, mind you - there were many things to tempt us. I tasted the sorbet au petit suisse (a yogurt sorbet) and raspberry cheesecake and a nut cookie and had a few bites of my DH's fabulous choice of rose rice pudding.

In all, a great experience. Restaurant was very good, not stuffy, service excellent. We had a great champagne upon arrival and the white wine was outstanding. I really liked the red demi that we had as well, but it was mainly well-adapted to the duck - on it's own it didn't have the complexity of the white.

Cafe Delmas

I was with a colleague today and we were looking for a quick lunch before an appointment and walked a few minutes to this small square in the 5th district where there were a bunch of cafes facing a fountain. It was one of the first sunny and warm days and a place in the sun was our mission, and we found it at the Cafe Delmas.

The cafe was a great choice - we took a Chinese Chicken Salad which was really, really good, but saw several very pretty dishes served to those around us.

I'd definitely come back and try other things, and it's nice to know a good cafe in this part of town

Aki

E and I went here for a quick dinner before the theatre (which became the movies). It's not too far from his office, in the Rue Saint Anne which is the small Japanese district. I've tried several of the restaurants in the area, having lived in the neighborhood for 2 years when I first arrived in Paris, but this one was recommended to us by a friend of ours, and for one particular reason - they are specialized in Okonomiyaki, a type of Japanese crepe-pancake. I had the menu with the okonomiyaki with porc, my DH had it with porc and kimchee, and clearly the kimchee was the winner. Aki : 11 bis, rue Sainte Anne - 75001 Paris. Tel. + 33.1.42.97.54.27. Delicious !!!!