Restos for under 30 Euros

28 February 2006 by John Talbott    964  
Last week I was ranting about and going on about fads in food in Paris, picking on pumpkin (poitiron) soup as this year’s prime example.  And, I noted that there must be some central point of dissemination of these fads because everyone seems to know about them instantaneously.  Well, wouldn’t you know that the same week I sent the column in to B.P., three weekly publications all featured articles on Restaurants under 30 Euros.      What goes here?  Are these guys in cahoots; do they all eat together; are they looking over each others shoulders; or, as is most likely, is there really only one restaurant critic in Paris and he or she uses different names for different pubs?  Whatever the answer, I was thinking of doing an article on restos under 30 E anyway so they’ve lightened my load and I’ll lighten it further by boiling down the lists to a few “must eat ats.”    Let’s start with Monday/Tuesday’s publication of A Nous Paris, the great, revamped free newspaper available only as you enter the Metro.  Their take on the subject started off with a dilemma: If you call up the following places (which their critics, Philippe Toinard and Jerome Berger, favor as affordable places), that is, l’Ami Jean, l’Abadache, Le Temps au Temps, La Cerisaie and l’Ami Marcel and they are fully booked, what do you do.  Their answer; they suggest you think about the following new places: La Ferrandaise, Ripaille, le Bis de Severo, La Table de Claire and Les Symples de l’Os a Moelle.  With only a few exceptions and a few places I don’t know yet but plan on eating at soon, I think their list is superb.  L’Abadache, Le Temps au Temps and La Cerisaie are wonderful Mom and Pop (albeit young Moms and Pops) places that are really trying hard and succeeding.  The former two buy good but affordable product and cook it perfectly – for instance, Temps au Temps serves up great rillettes of rabbit, palourdes stuffed with veggies, sautéed scallops and beef from Salers, as well as a mound of various chocolate desserts with a praline wrap and La Cerisaie goes a bit more upscale but still charges affordable prices for foie gras, wild duck and moelleux of chocolate.  On the other hand La Ferrandaise serves up good classic “old school” food with a twist – like their potato stuffed with escargots and milk-fed pork with salsify and foie gras sauce.      Then Wednesday, Figaroscope went the under 30 Euro route too and wouldn’t you know it – there’s a huge overlap of their list with A Nous’: Le Bis du Severo, Les Symples de l’Os a Moelle, La Ferrandaise, Miss Betsey, Carpediem, Carte Blanche, Les Fils de la Ferme, Au Fils des Saisons, Beurre Noisette, Frugier, Le Bistral and Fish La Boissonnerie.  Except for Miss Betsey, which to my taste is simply too cru and goody-goody and edgy, this is another fine list.   Beurre Noisette has been around most of the decade but still delivers what it promises – dishes such as a huge piece of bar, Serrano ham with veggies, duck, scallops, lamb and terrific fruit. And I think Carte Blanche is the next best thing in avant garde cooking to Ze Kitchen Galerie, which says a lot.  Their food often is described and looks like nothing I’ve seen before; a ring (called a declinasion) of slightly warmed celery stuff and chips of apple, microtomed raw scallops set on a bed of granny smiths and mangoes; confited pork, almost sausage-like, in a casserole of fall veggies and a rollatine of veal with veal kidney inside and “smoked” mashed potatoes outside; finished by a “moelleux” of caramel on top of chocolate and huge “bonbons” of rolled chocolate in a crusty wrap.  And Le Bistral and Les Fils de la Ferme, are places that snuck into town virtually unnoticed for about a year and present honest and wholesome grub.  Le Bistral’s food is a welcome addition to a funny area that is in process of exploding, with or without the Olympic village.  Listen to these descriptions: pumpkin soup with cream and iced oyster(s), sliceable sausage and a “fudge” of leeks, beef on mashed potatoes with the marrow bone and gingerbread with chestnut vinaigrette, saddle of lamb in a crust of pralines with a fricassee of cabbage and cumin, a “cutlet” of pigeon stuffed as if with frangipane, cream of parsnip and bitter cherry juice, a brochette of poached scallops with a “barigoule” of root veggies a la clementines, coffee syrup and cardamom foam, pastry with three apples, a mousse of Carambar and fleur de sel and French toast with tumeric, caramelized raspberries, iced “Petit Suisse” and a “milkshake” of banana.     And then Zurban published a special supplement on restos under 30 E. It included many more old reliables, such as Les Enfants Rouges, Les Papilles, Le Pre Verre, Le Villaret, Louis Vins, Le Timbre, Le Bistrot Paul Bert, l’Avant Gout, l’Ami Jean, La Cerisaie, Le Temps Au Temps and La Regalade. But it too went for a few of the newer places, for instance La Ferrandaise, La Cave de l’Os a Moelle, La Boulangerie, Le Baratin and La Cave est Restaurant.  Once again, they represent a spread – from the gutsiness of Les Papilles and La Cave est Restaurant, which both make you feel like you are really eating in a wine shop (which you are of course) to the range of flavors at Le Pre Verre and Le Timbre; and from the charming host at Louis Vins to the beguiling Portuguese-born chef at Le Baratin.    Who says you can’t eat well for little in Paris?  These places, and there must be 30 they’ve chosen, are proof that quality and economy can co-travel.    This week I’m going to not only list my top five favorites, but rank-order them (at the top,…
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By John Talbott