Tables - France

Once again, guides are full of top restaurants and there's no point of listing them here. I'm just keeping track of some places I enjoyed. At my pace. This is not about the most glamorous places but about food I like.

Restaurants in Paris (see other lists of tables worldwide) :
- Korean restaurants
- Chinese restaurants
- Vietnamese restaurants
- Japanese restaurants
- Italian restaurants
- Turkish restaurants
- Uyghur restaurants
- French restaurants

Eat Korean in Paris :

KOREAN BARBECUE
1 rue du Dragon 75006 PARIS, FRANCE
Tel : +33.1.42.22.26.63 (SEE NEW ADDRESS BELOW)
Maybe the best beef bulgogi on earth : mouthwatering and meltingly good. The key factors for success : the quality of the meat (from Belgium, a perfect mix of meat and fat) and the way it's been marinated : there's someting about the soy sauce - actually, this is not an actual bulgogi but fusion food : the owner is... Japanese !!! There's a similar marinating technique at Toraji's in Tokyo but with thicker slices of meat. Open sundays and overcrowded most of the time. You want to book that one. SM2003
PS : there are other Korean Barbecue restaurants in Paris, owned by the same family, but that's as close as it gets.
UPDATE 200812 : sad news for this restaurant (see "Annus Horribilis").
UPDATE 20101215 : Korean Barbecue reopens today !!! 7 rue de Ponthieu 75008 Paris, (Tel: +33.1.42.25.35.41)


WOO-JUNG
8 boulevard Delessert 75016 PARIS, FRANCE
Tel : +33.1.45.20.72.82
The finest Korean restaurant in Paris, even if you may prefer the Korean Barbecue at rue du Dragon for the bulgogi (see below). SM2003.

GWON'S DINING
51 rue Cambronne - 75015 PARIS, FRANCE
Tel : +33.1.47.34.53.17

The new reference for fine Korean dining in Paris. SM2008

Eat Chinese in Paris :

FLEURS DE MAI
61 avenue de Choisy 75013 PARIS, FRANCE
Tel : +33.1.44.24.37.71
Don't miss : mussels with basil, steamed chicken with ginger... the best Cantonese restaurant in Paris. Not the most glamourous, but who gives a clam ? SM2003

Eat Vietnamese in Paris :

KIM ANH
51 avenue Emile Zola 75015 PARIS, FRANCE
Tel : +33.1.45.79.40.96
Supposedly the finest Vietnamese restaurant in Paris : a very refined cuisine, a quiet place and kind people... Need anything else ?

PHO BIDA SAIGON
44 avenue d'Ivry - 75013 PARIS, FRANCE
Tel : +33.1.45.84.04.85
The best Pho in town is hiding in the furthest corner of an ugly shopping center (Centre Commercial des Olympiades). If you prefer a seat outdoor, there's a Pho cluster on avenue de Choisy (ie PHO 14 and Pho Banh Cuon both at # 129).

Eat Japanese in Paris :

SANKI
38 avenue Edouard Vaillant 92100 BOULOGNE BILLANCOURT, FRANCE
Tel : +33.1.46.08.38.38
You want to book that one if you intend to come for dinner. If you don't mind the smoke* and sake from Japanese office clerks and execs, you can enjoy good sushi and sashimi along with actual cuisine (boiled or grilled fish, sunomono - vinegar and miso - tuna and veggies...). Better and deeper than your usual joint and you don't even have to dress up. SM2006
* 2008 update : thanks to the new regulation, smoke is gone for good.

HIGUMA
32 bis rue Sainte Anne 75001 PARIS, FRANCE
Tel : +33.1.47.03.38.59
Hungry ? There's better than Nissin's Cup noodle : Sainte-Anne's asylum for empty stomachs. Take a sit where you can - if possible in front of the Chinese cooks banging on their massive woks - and order whatever you please. Not the finest Japanese food - and not the healthiest either - but you'll satisfy your wolf self. I must confess a weakness for their fried rice... SM2003

YEN
SM2010

Eat Italian in Paris :

IANNELLO
17 boulevard Exelmans75016 PARIS, FRANCE
Tel : +33.1.46.47.80.08
That ugly block under the Garigliano bridge could turn into an interesting spot for food lovers (and for not always interesting people from neighboring medialand - TF1, France Televisions...). Where an insanely lousy French restaurant stood, Ignnello proposes one of the finest Italian cuisine this side of the Seine*. Tasty and perfectly served for a reasonable price. SM2006
* addendum 2007-2008 : maybe not so since they changed their parmigiano supplier : the previously wonderful fondue is now too heavy.

Eat Turkish in Paris :

ANAMOUR
99 avenue Edouard Vaillant 92100 BOULOGNE BILLANCOURT, FRANCE
Tel : +33.1.46.20.50.06
Turkish restaurant with a fine and affordable mixed grill - provided the main chef is there and the food kept cool during summer - for the delicious marinated chicken. SM2005

Eat Uyghur in France :

TARIM RESTAURANT
74 Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud 75011 PARIS, FRANCE
Tel : +33.1.43.55.04.73
Walking in the cold Parisian winter, looking for a place to just sit and eat, and suddenly facing this most unexpected restaurant... the magic of the city of light ! I heard about Uyghur food but never tried it. Believe me: it does taste unique. New flavors, subtle yet with a strong character. You may find familiar categories : noodles (the famous handmade laghman, the world's first noodles, which probably gave their name to la mian, ramen, ramyeon), lamb samosa and soup, fried chicken... but with a truly original twist, and completely different from what you can taste in Turkish, Indian, Arabian, or other cuisines. Delicious, at a reasonable price, with very kind Uyghur staff, and on opposite walls two nice pictures from Kashgar in the 1980s.
SM2011

Eat French in France :

More into French food ? I've been looking for new lairs since "Aux Petits Oignons" closed on Boulevard Exelmans and "L'escalier" near Vitrac. If you want both a nice location and good food, try these (not always the cheapest joints around) :

LE COUDE FOU
12, Rue du Bourg-Tibourg - 75004 PARIS, FRANCE
Tel : +33.1.42.77.15.16
Looking for great food, good wine, a friendly atmosphere, in a central location... and a reasonable price ? You want French food as you like it : stimulating for the tastebuds but not too much traditional, creative but not too much artificial...? No problemo : this is the place.
SM2007

Les Grandes Tables du 104
5, Rue Curial, 75019 Paris, FRANCE
Tel : +33.1.40.37.10.07
An excellent aliby to visit the Centquatre. Tasty, inventive, eyecatching, and not too expensive. The service cannot follow (kind but slow), but that's neither the point nor the place for that (and it adds to the back-to-school feeling). The mi-cuit with caramel (actually not even one third baked) was really worth waiting for.
SM2012

and don't forget
L'ATELIER DE JOEL ROBUCHON
5, Rue Montalembert 75007 PARIS, FRANCE
Tel : +33.1.42.22.56.56 (no reservations)
APICIUS
20, Rue d'Artois 75008 PARIS, FRANCE
Tel : +33.1.43.80.19.66

Also :

CREPERIE LE DERWIN
Allee du Derwin 44740 BATZ SUR MER, FRANCE
Tel : +33.2.40.23.90.06 (no reservations)
The coast isn't as wild as it used to be and the atmosphere at Derwin reminds me of a Swiss chalet serving hot wine but I don't care. I'm coming for the "moules Derwin" : mussels with cheese, a fusion of seafood and Fondue Savoyarde. Warm, cheesy, sticky, heavy and tasty. Utterly unhealthy but you only live once.
For the crepes, sorry but I'm sticking to my early childhood and Tante Germaine : a few kilometers away, in Le Croisic :
TANTE GERMAINE
31 rue de l'Eglise 44490 LE CROISIC, FRANCE
Tel : +33.2.40.23.23.78.
SM2003