There were no hints of the delights to come when we entered the restaurant Alliance in the fifth arrondissement, but it was a good sign that the kitchen was fully visible through a rectangular window that stretched across the entire back wall. Chef Toshitaka Omiya and his sous-chef appeared to be laboring away in a fish tank.
It takes a talented cook to get me excited about any kind of fish other than shellfish, and Breton chef Anthony Hamon at Cézembre knows how to do it. You won’t find any boring, overcooked fillets here.
I’ve been waiting a long time for Sicilian chef Fabrizio Ferrara, who made his name in Paris with the minuscule Caffè dei Cioppi, to open the new restaurant he promised when he launched the deli and lunch spot La Dispensa in the 10th arrondissement last year. Ça y est. I ate at the new Osteria Ferrara the other night and was overjoyed on all counts.
When we arrived at Mensae last week, we were greeted by the welcoming smell of garlic cooking (okay, if it had been fish I would have found it less welcoming) and huge smiles from the staff.
Three young food-loving entrepreneurs recently opened a new kind of restaurant in Paris as a springboard for talented new chefs. Its name, Fulgurances, is a reference to lightning: they hope to strike their customers with a lightning bolt of joy every time they encounter a new chef.
My friend Connie felt like she was being ambushed by offal when she glanced at the menu at L’Embuscade, a new restaurant that has replaced a neighborhood institution, the anarchist restaurant Le Maldoror, of which no traces remain – nary a political tract hangs on walls that were once papered with them.
A recent article in The Guardian called the Canopée, the new roof over the Forum des Halles in the center of Paris, a “custard-colored flop.” I’d be more inclined to call it a regurgitated-custard-colored flop; custard doesn’t deserve such treatment.
There was nothing really wrong with the restaurant Playtime, which used to occupy the space that is now home to Mamagoto, not far from the Gare de l’Est. The food was very good and the decor attractive.
The front dining room at Sunset.You would be forgiven for doubting the possibility of getting a good meal at this trendy 18th-arrondissement restaurant and bar with the California-style name Sunset, but you would be very wrong. I recently had an excellent lunch there with a friend.
The dining room at Le Petit KellerRegular readers know that I love to share food in restaurants. Not only do you get to taste more dishes than you normally would, but it is also more fun and convivial.
