Mothers and Paris restaurants
I'm taking my aging (but not yet aged) mother to Paris for a couple of days - her first visit in over 40 years - and am currently researching where to eat. Probably a bustling brasserie on the first night for that archetypal Paris experience - maybe Bofinger, though I'd welcome any other recent suggestions.
But it's the second night that I'm struggling with the most. Somewhere elegant but not ostentatious, great food but nothing too cutting edge, somewhere with a warm welcome, but not too expensive (probably 60/70 euro per head - on previous experience there's nothing like the knowledge that a meal is costing her darling children a mortgage payment or two to put a mother off her food!), perhaps somewhere with sure hand at cooking fish but not fish-only.
Staying in the 7th, but happy to travel a bit further afield if necessary.
Sooo, any chowhound favourites that come close?
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The Brasserie Balzar may have the most friendly wait staff, but Bofinger and La Rotonde are more "classic". For the second evening I would check out Leo le Lion, 23 rue Duvivier, a block or so from the Ecole Militaire metro. The chef is from Le Divellec, a great, and super expensive, fish house. The prix-fixe menu is around 30E, but many of the fish dishes will up the tab considerably.
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souphie
Oct 9, 2008 05:43 AM
Le Violon d'Ingres -- not a bistrot, not a fancy restaurant, good to great food, in budget, with something warm but (just) enough space, comfort and intimacy.
I would also argue for Tante Louise (rue Boissy d'Anglas) and I am a big fan of Ramsay's La véranda in the Parc de Versailles, though it's probably far for a dinner.
Bofinger is an excellent choice for an archetypal Paris experience. Though it's likely to end up costing you the same as the second night. But that's the deal with brasseries. La Rotonde is better but less scenic. Le Petit Zinc is good too, with its art nouveau setting and excellent fish.
