Robert et Louise

Robert et Louise is a small restaurant, easily missed on the Rue Veille du Temple.

Try not to miss this hidden gem for carnivores. The walls are adorned with kitchen utensils and pictures of the old days - makes you feel like you're back in 1930s. In general, the decor is rather minimal, everything around you is made of wood and in the back you can see the great big wood burning fire where most of the meats are grilled. Yes...that's the 'kitchen', at the back of the restaurant - actually it's an alcove with an open fire and a giant wooden chopping block. 

It's all about the meat - which the Chef grabs from the hanging fridge and slabs it on the grill, serving it on a hot wooden plate. The meat is cooked to perfection - saignant/rare and you can taste the smokyness of the meat coming from the burning wood. 

To start, we had an assiette de charcuterie and the boudin noir (yummy blood sausage and very sweet as well) which were both delicious and served with baguette and cornichons. 

The starters were a great introduction to the country-style food we'd be getting but it was the meats that came afterwards that were brilliant. All served with roasted potatoes and a side-salad. 


The confit de canard was juicy, tender and fell of the bone.

The plat du jour: Tête de veau melted in your mouth. It consisted of different pieces of the veal's head served with diced cornichons, eggs and caper sauce.

The entrecôte, served saignant is a meat lover's dream. It's dark on the outside, pink, juicy and tender on the inside, so tender you can cut it with a butter knife with fat to make it have plenty of flavor. 

I found out that Anthony Bourdain came here and loved it, and I can see why. Another great meat find in Paris with an inexpensive menu (try to come during the week, they have the best prix-fixe in town: 12 euros for starter and main or main and dessert - who can beat that?!). Prices here are kept at a low and the portions are generous so definitely a great value for money. No need to reserve here, perhaps only for dinner on weekends.

Robert et Louise
64 Rue Veille du Temple, 75003
Tel: 01 42 78 55 89
Metro: Saint-Paul (Ligne 1)

Le Garde Robe

Le Garde Robe, literally "closet", is a small wine bar tucked in rue de l'Arbre Sec, across the street from Spring's shop, Spring Boutique. Many wine bottles line the brick walls of the narrow wine bar like a library of books. The wines in this bar are 'nature' from independent labels, but you can find an array of international wines too. You can pick wines by the glass (4 euros) or by the bottle (to which you must add 7 euros for corkage fee if you drink it in the restaurants) or which you could leave with right away.

While you wait for your wine to air out, the staff kindly serves you a platter of different meats, cheeses or both and country bread. 

Below the daily menu:


                             


It's a comfy place to come to after work or late on weekends.


Le Garde-Robe
41 Rue de l'Arbre Sec
75001 Paris, France
Tel: 01 49 26 90 60
Metro: Louvre-Rivoli (Ligne 1)

Back to the motherland

I have been looking forward to this meal since well Saturday when a good friend of mine, Rebecca mentioned this Chinese restaurant that served hot pot (both spicy and normal). Now the only times I've had it was in Hong Kong and in Shanghai so was definitely looking forward to keeping warm, especially now that it's winter in Paris; and it was very good. From the outside, it's very misleading since near Les Champs Elysees (a 5 min walk from the restaurant) there are lots of Chinese restaurants, but once you walk in, you see only Chinese people (a. a good sign when entering a Chinese restaurant) and they are basically people from Mainland China (b. another good sign).


We decided to order a hot pot in 2-ways: spicy and not and it was delicious, served with all the goodies! They had an awesome sesame sauce, served with the usual herbs (parsley and spring onions, and a pickled garlic)

And the fixed menu came with a portion of mutton and beef, beef tripe, noodles (and we ordered more noodles), and we also ordered a portion of seafood. Basically the idea of hot pot is that they serve the broths on top of a portable stove top and you cook and serve yourself! Easy peasy!

Mutton, beef

                                        

                                

   

Seafood

The simmering hot pots

Yummy cooked beef with bean noodles

In other words, it was super good and actually will come back for the other food we saw was being served, a very typical Chinese restaurant, not touristy or anything and it looked authentic!! Yay, finally!!

Le Bistro de Pekin

38 Rue Ponthieu, 75008
Tel: 01 42 56 12 34

Metro: Franklin D. Roosevelt

In the meantime, today in class we tackled grilled fish (in salmon and dorade - sea bream form), and also made the accompaniments.

1. Grilled salmon (finished off in the oven) served with sauce bearnaise (egg yolks and clarified butter mixed with a reduction of white wine, shallots, pepper and tarragon)

2. Grilled dorade (finished off in the oven) on a bed of fennel and topped with anchovy butter

Coco & Co

Sunday brunch in Paris is not a national pastime on Sunday mornings but there has recently been a surge in restaurants specializing in Brunch. Coco & Co, concept by Former fashion stylist Céline Parrenin and ex-music publicist Franklin Reinhard lies in the heart of the 6eme arrondissement, by St. Germain Des Prés station, devoted entirely to egg dishes. 

Coco & Co

A small restaurant on a tiny street, it houses about a dozen tables, surrounded by very rustic decor. There are 30 + dishes made with eggs any style including quiches, omelettes, etc... but for 20 euros, you can get the brunch menu consisting of: tea/coffee, orange juice, any kind of eggs (scrambled, fried, cocotte, poached, omelette) served with salmon, ham, bacon, herbs, eggplant, wild mushrooms and/or cheese accompanied by a salad and potatoes, pancakes and fruit salad. The Cocotte Burger is another specialty of the house. A must try for next time!

Scrambled eggs with herbs accompanied by roasted potatoes and a vinaigrette salad

Don't forget the sweet ending: pancake and fruit salad

Omelette Agnes: Saumon, Courgettes et Basilic

Quiche du Jour: Poivrons et Lardons

Coco & Co
11 rue Bernard-Palissy 

Metro: St. Germain des Prés 

01 45 44 02 52

A Meaty Weekend (continued)

Today was a beautiful day in Paris and I decided to rent a velib (part of the public bicycle rental scheme in the city) and bike down to Concorde and le Jardin des Tuileries. As I parked my bike, I realized how close I was to the Place du Marché Saint-Honoré. It used to be an Old Market but now hosts a modern glass building sitting in the middle of this big square surrounded by local restaurants with some trendy international shops (Marc Jacobs) while mingling with your local fruit and vegetable store, butcher, etc...


I went to a restaurant I tend to go with my parents called Cuisine et Confidences. It is always packed during the weekly lunch hour. They have, by far the best steak tartare and carpaccio (yes in one dish!) served with olive and red pepper tapenades (this dish cost 14 Euros and it's worth it since the Carpaccio costs 12 Euros and the Steak Tartare alone costs 13 Euros...so why not have the best of both?). 

Steak tartare and Beef Carpaccio with a Mesclun salad and Parmesan cheese

The fun part about this restaurant is that you can literally 'spray' olive oil and balsamic vinegar onto your dish. But sometimes this task can be tedious as, for some people like myself, i like a lot of both and you continuously have to spray out the olive oil and vinegar from the bottle, where only a teeny bit comes out at a time.


Cuisine et Confidences
33, Place du Marché Saint-Honoré, 75001 Paris
Price: around 20 euros (with a drink)