Georges - Paris (75002)

Georges
1, rue du Mail
75002 Paris
Tel : 01.42.60.07.11
Open from Monday to Friday lunch and diner (booking advised).



We’re talking about a classic here.

The pitch
If you’re able to spend €60 painlessly this is a wicked restaurant where you eat pig’s nose salad, followed by a Georges-style sole and profiterolles. (1)

There are many pictures so I’m putting the review on its own to spare your iPhones.

The restaurant
It’s located in an area that I love particularly, around the Place des Victoires. It’s trendy, calm and beautiful all at once! The Georges sits majestically, unimpressed by the cool-indie-skinny fashion surrounding it.
By entering Georges you make a few choices: the one of darkness over light for instance, apart from the two first tables the rest of the restaurant is quite dark when the square (Place des Victoires) is often very sunny. You come to Georges because you’re after something solid and established as opposed to the fleeting sun and trends of the outside world.

The Meal
It's a menu like you dont see any more.



The starters
As stated in the pitch the pig’s nose salad is a knock out, as well as the terrine. Slight disappointment with the boiled eggs and mayonnaise (I couldn’t see the point in putting bland tomatoes on the side and the mayonnaise wasn’t quite vibrant and light enough for me) but I was happy nonetheless since my neighbour took the pig’s nose salad bowl: there was plenty for two.



The main courses
For our main courses we had fish: Georges-style sole with cream and white wine as well as a grilled turbot with béarnaise sauce : spot on!





The desserts
We had profiteroles and a tarte Tatin (2). It’s pretty simple here: just get your taste buds to remember the exquisite flavours that these desserts evoke and that’s what you’ll get!
(Sorry about the picture, the Tatin was being a bit shy).



Conclusion
It’s phenomenal! If you want to eat old-school French cuisine and indulge in some food sensations that’ll make you travel around the country. But you have to be able to cough out €50 which doesn’t happen every day, or every month…

1) Choux pastry, filled with cream and topped with melted chocolate
2) Upside down apple tart with caramel

Le Petit Vendôme - Paris (75002)

Le Petit Vendôme
8, rue des Capucines
75002 Paris
Tel : 01 42 61 05 88



















The pitch
A killer sandwich!

The back-story
The Figaroscope recently did a special report on the Americans of Paris and several celebrities shared their three favourite venues. I was

immediately attracted to the one from the New York Times correspondent in Paris. I like the newspaper for its reliability and Steven Erlanger’s selection was very interesting indeed. He included a sandwich place in the 2nd arrondissement as well as a fish restaurant in the 7th (Les Fables de la Fontaine, in a very different style and price range, also delivers seriously good food). You could just tell that this guy prefers substance to trifle.



















The restaurant
It’s a real lively and busy Parisian bistrot, full most of the time. I’ll just mention the sandwich although I have eaten there previously.

The sandwich
The owner himself takes my order, I ask him for a suggestion and although he could’ve joked around he fires back that his favourite is "jambon de pays-cantal" (1). Go!
-"and a glass of red, please"
-"Saint Pourçain?"
-"… ok"
-"because that’s what I drink"
-"Let’s do that then !"
























The sandwich
It’s faultless, like the one from le Bistrot des Halles. This is for real.
You could think that it’s easy to make good sandwiches and there’s no problem preparing your own at home, but as soon as you’re dealing with cafés or bistrots there is something irresistible that gets certain restaurateurs thinking ‘what a great opportunity to make a couple more euros, I’ll just put a little bit of this and a little bit of that and it should be nice enough’. Or:’ I’ll put some of this really expensive ingredient in a baguette and I’ll sell it for minimum of €5’. But as we know that doesn’t make for a good sandwich’.
Example: the chicken sandwich I discovered the other day thanks to a friend in the 19th arrondissement. It was simple with an unpretentious lettuce leaf but amazing!

There is a subtle balance to find: an osmosis of textures and flavours with an underlying freshness which gives it all its bite.
























(1) Dry cured ham and cheese

Michi - Paris (75002)

Les sushis de Michi
58, rue Sainte-Anne
75002 Paris
Tel : 01.42.60.03.22

→ french version













Korin was renamed Michi after the arrival of the new chef.
I didn’t know this when I first went after reading François Simon’s enthusiastic review. We were rudely sent away under the pretext that the restaurant was full. Paul Simon had mentioned the gentleness of the service so I was very unimpressed…
I went back and was told that the owner had changed. The waitress even apologized about my previous visit explaining that a client had upset the chef. This is generally the kind of thing that sits on my stomach. Anyway…













Once you factor in the strict opening times and the tiny size of the restaurant you’re in for a feast!
The lunchtime menus are good value (from €13 to €17) but the evening ones start at a very minimum of €25 and are not for me, personally.
Having said that, real Japanese sushi at an affordable price is extremely rare in Paris and this one is worth checking out…every now and again.

Note that customers eat either on the counter or in the little basement room.