Restaurants

Food Matters: Paris 2025

In January, Jill, her daughter, my son, and I spent four days in Paris after visiting Belgium. The food is a major draw, and this trip yielded some gems. But first, I need to pour one out for Le Village. In my last Paris restaurant update, I mentioned that it was one of the last true Montmartre bars, and I was disappointed to see that it closed its doors a few months before we arrived. It was an unpretentious spot full of locals, and it will be missed.

This time around, we visited only a couple of restaurants/bars I’ve been to before: No Entry (the speakeasy in the basement of Pink Mamma) and Babalou. Discovering No Entry is part of its charm, and knowing that we had to ignore the “No Entry” sign on the walk in freezer to enter the bar took away a little bit of the joy in the experience. Still, they offer delightful cocktails and the servers know their stuff.

I’ve eaten at Babalou, a cozy place around the corner from Sacre Coeur, since 2010 and the kitchen still turns out a satisfying pizza. We had a wonderful lunch there that could have only been better if the snotty California mom at the next table, who rebuffed Jill’s directions to the WC (“Don’t listen to an American,” she said to her daughter. “Ask someone who lives here.”), had chosen to eat somewhere else.

These are new to my list of recommendations:

Un Zèbre à Montmartre is newish and sits on Rue Lepic. It’s easy to miss (for me, anyway) as I walked past it twice before finding the door. The food is simple, inexpensive, and glorious. Jill says her duck with honey and grape sauce is the best thing she ate in Paris. I’m a fan of their steak tartare, which made me forget about the need to travel to the 14th and eat it at Le Severo. Have a cocktail while you wait for food, then pick one of their excellent wines by the glass.

Le Mansart in Pigalle is the place if you want to immerse yourself in a noisy crowd and share lots of tasty small plates and consume a few drinks. I have no complaints. The steak tartare, falafel, and peppers with pimento were three of my favorites.

Boullion in Pigalle has cracked the code for serving classic French dishes to a million people a night (okay, maybe fewer than a million) at McDonald’s prices (well, not quite). We went our first night in Paris and it was a great way to decompress from travel. French comfort food has a lot going for it, and the duck that Eli and I ate reminded me of why I love French cuisine so much.

Double is a twelve-seat restaurant on Rue Lamarck that serves onigiri through a tiny window during lunch, then offers a prix fixe eight course meal for dinner, with optional wine pairings. It’s a hot ticket in Paris, so reservations are needed. We booked the first seating, and sat at the counter facing the tiny kitchen where the chef and an assistant produced eight perfect courses and made it look effortless. The menu is French/Asian/Italian, and our meal included courses like a maki roll with radish and soybean, crab ravioli with black garlic, red pepper risotto with shrimp, pigeon breast with yellow beetroot, and a combination of chocolate and lemon creams with tajine. The entire experience was delightful.

Clove is my new favorite Montmartre coffee shop. Superb coffee, no wifi, and lots of dogs. Perfect.

The smell of butter from Pain Pain hits you a block away. The croissants, pain au chocolat, and pain au raisin are delightful. I can’t tell you about anything else there because we ordered the same pastries every visit and were never disappointed.

Patoche is a microbrewery in Montmartre where I enjoyed a flight of beers (pale ale, IPA, DIPA, blonde) before dinner one night. It has a nice vibe (families playing board games the night I was there), and the beers are as good as any local, Paris brews I’ve had before.

Le Butcher is an halal restaurant in the 9th arrondissement, and if you’re in that part of town and craving a burger, you cannot go wrong there. I can’t tell you what I ordered, but it all looked good and they make excellent pommes frites. I had my first encounter with a French milkshake. Think milk and additives (in my case, Nutella), no ice cream.

Eating in New Orleans: My favorites

Our trip to New Orleans this week was my first since the early ’90s. I don’t remember a lot about that visit, other than watching a man carry a goat up Bourbon Street at 2 AM. Sorry to disappoint, but that episode didn’t repeat itself during this trip.

There’s plenty to share about our time in New Orleans, and I’ll start with the food, which mostly ranged from wonderful to exquisite. There was also a bad restaurant (we nicknamed it The Cre-Hole), but that was an outlier.

These were my five favorite meals. Be forewarned that I’m not comparing apples to apples, and Jill’s list may be different from mine. This is a completely subjective accounting of the delight I experienced at a range of restaurants.

First, Luvi. It looks tiny, but appearances are deceiving. The interior is merely small, or in restaurant-speak, intimate. Jill started with a Pom Coco, and I had a Mr. Miyagi while we debated the menu. “Feed Me” or a la carte? While we thought about it, Jill praised her cocktail. I tasted it, and while mine was great, her’s was on a different plane. If it’s on the menu, try it.

We went with “Feed Me.” Do this.

We were treated to four off-menu fish courses. Each one was a surprise, and though we had our faves, every single course was delightful. They were, to the best of my memory:

  1. Halibut, yuzu vinegar pickled kiwi fruit, truffle oil, and roe. (Jill’s fave)
  2. Tilefish, totatoes and Asian pears.
  3. Two kinds of salmon, manchego, peaches, and smoked soy sauce. (Mine)
  4. Tuna, wasabi roe, watermelon, and feta.

We followed this with dessert: Small scoops of black sesame coconut, dragonfruit, and black magnolia tea ice cream. There was also some wine (a sauvignon blanc) but frankly, the food grabbed our attention in a way that made us forget about the wine.

If you’re visiting NOLA, go to Luvi. Seriously.

Turkey and the Wolf. Until we went to Luvi, this counter service sandwich shop in/near the Garden District served up the best meal of my visit. I’d been longing to try their Collard Greens Melt. It was everything I hoped for and dreamed about. I don’t like frozen margaritas, but their’s made my sandwich even better. Jill bought me their cookbook, which is full of cooking wisdom like “relax a bit” and f-bombs, and I’m going to make this sandwich. And every other sandwich they sell. Go, because you will not regret the time you’ll spend standing in line or searching for a table.

Besamé. I started with a Mole Verde, which is a cocktail that contains tomatillo. I had never had such a thing, and I won’t miss the chance to have one in the future. Wow. Dinner was Peruvian ceviche, arepas, and lamb lollipops smothered in a delicious sauce and roasted pumpkin seeds. Every bite was wonderful, and I wish that dinner could have gone on for hours, with the laughing server feeding us endless lamb lollipops. Put this one on your list.

Palace Café. Yes, we went for a more-or-less traditional creole meal. I had andouille crusted red snapper, and Jill had pecan crusted catfish. Both were excellent. The service was funny, attentive, and thoughtful. It’s everything a restaurant should be, and if I hadn’t eaten at Besamé and Luvi it would be far more memorable.

Dat Dog. Jill had a sausage with blue cheese and blackberry jam/sauce/something and it was not your typical hot dog. Her sister, a Chicago dog. I went for the duck sausage with creole mustard and grilled onions. The french fries were topped with crawfish etoufée. The beer, an IPA by Gnarly Barley. The only thing missing was the option to order a Michigan, but if there was a Dat Dog in Plattsburgh, it would be my go-to hot dog place. Sorry, Clare and Carl’s.

Portugal: Lisbon, Nazaré, Douro Valley

The idea to go back to Portugal started with a half-baked idea to spend part of December working in Ireland. After Jill and sis-in-law Amy signed on, the destination changed to Portugal, the idea of working while there went away, and I dropped tentative plans for a weeklong motorcycle trip.

This post is all about week one of the two-and-a-half weeks I spent there. In this chapter, Jill and I landed in Lisbon where we spent three days, drove up to Nazaré and the Douro Valley for three days, then came back to Lisbon. We had zero plans other than a couple of dinner reservations, and our time could be summarized like this: low stress, high joy.

We saw a lot.

We walked a lot — including many hills and miles — and ate a lot. I’ll give you the greatest hits:

Best dining experience: Oficina do Duque. We climbed a lot of stairs in Lisbon to get there and it was worth every step. The wait staff danced and sang songs and fed us delicious food and wine. Recommendations: The oxtail — wow. And if it’s on the menu, the tuna with whipped root vegetables. It was so good we went back on our return trip to Lisbon. Be sure to glance at the framed Bukowski quote in the bar — it served as a motto for our trip:

“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”

Runner-up for best dining experience: Tasca da Esquina. Stellar food — I loved the creamy cheese that was waiting for us on our table, and the octopus. And the port. Yes, the port. It’s only a runner up because we couldn’t stumble down the stairs, stop for a ginja at the bar at the base of the hill, and wander through the Christmas market on the way to our hotel after eating. Location is everything.

Answering a question: Time Out Market or LX Factory? On my previous trip, a local scoffed at the Time Out Market and said to go to LX Factory. Jill and I went to both. If you want food, there’s no comparison, IMHO. Jill and I ate croquettes, sardines and tomatoes on toast, and pastel de nata, and drank cheap and delicious vino verde at Time Out. Amazing food, and a bargain. Two meals at LX Factory restaurants were mediocre at best. But LX Factory is worth a visit, if only to check out my favorite shop, Ementa. I loved their skate wear, and had to buy something because the woman running the store was so friendly and curious about everyone who came in, and retail needs more of that.

Brunch, anyone? In Lisbon, check out The Folks Sé. I’m obsessed with their syrniki, tiny pancakes made with farmers cheese.

Surprise dining experience: Swagat, in Nazaré. The best Indian food I’ve eaten, and no one else was in the restaurant. We went back two nights later and repeated the experience — great food, amazing hospitality, and a criminally empty restaurant. We appreciated them leaving a bottle of rum on our table the second night, and giving us the green light to empty it (we didn’t).

Stunning vistas and sleeping dogs. We took a day trip up to Miradouro de São Salvador do Mundo, in the Douro Valley. To get there, you hop off the N222 and take a winding, narrow road that ends in a small parking area. Walk up to a chapel, and there’s a stunning panoramic view of the valley. When we were there, an inversion filled the valley with fluffy white clouds. We watched the valley for a while, then went down the road for lunch at São Leonardo, where we ate an okay lunch while enjoying a spectacular view of the valley. Bonus view: When we exited the motorway before heading up the mountain, we came upon a pack of dogs sleeping in the roundabout. I’ve never seen this before, and wish I had video. I know Jill does somewhere.

The 100 Foot Wave. It’s a documentary on HBO about big wave surfers in Nazaré. Watch it — I’m addicted. And Nazaré was a great place to hang out for a few days. We had an apartment overlooking the ocean, plenty of beach to walk, and an out-of-order funicular that forced us to drive up to the vantage point for big waves (there were none — the waves were maybe 15′ when we went). It was a great jumping off point to visit other beaches along the coast.

Final thoughts: Portugal is gorgeous, Lisbon is charming, the people are warm (though a bit chillier to the idea of tourism these days), and it’s an inexpensive destination. Go. You won’t regret it.

Food Matters: Paris 2018

Following a recent trip to Paris, I have some new-to-us recommendations to add to my previous list:

  • Inexpensive and great seems like an oxymoron when it comes to Paris, but Raviolis Nord Est is on point. This hole in the wall near Les Halles offers salads and Chinese dumplings. Beth and I ate a filling, satisfying lunch for about 20 Euros. I recommend the octopus salad and pork and shrimp dumplings, fried. (1st arrondissement)
  • There’s a lot of buzz around Pink Mamma in Pigalle. They don’t take reservations, so be prepared to wait. After two hours cooling our heels with wonderful cocktails in their speakeasy (go down the stairs, then through the meat locker and a door marked “no entry”), we were led past an American woman throwing a tantrum (“I simply must eat here before leaving Paris!”) to our date with some burrata and a kilogram tomahawk ribeye. The food: excellent. The service: Warm and casual. The vibe: Way more hip than us. It made for a fun night. I’d go back. (9th arrondissement)
  • Get in line at Breihz Café. Be patient. Then enjoy savory and sweet Breton crepes. Have a mug of cider from a long list of good options. You won’t be disappointed. (3rd arrondissement, though there are also outposts in Odeon, Japan and Brittany)
  • We have it on good authority that Le Village is one of the last of the true Montmartre bars. I can’t tell you about the food, though the menu looked enticing. Instead, we had a beer (me, a Chouffe) and a cocktail (Beth, a mojito, which is in fashion) and spent a couple hours talking with a French filmmaker we met there. It’s an unpretentious place filled with locals. (18th arrondissment)
  • We liked Pizza Caratello so much we went twice. Don’t be fooled by the name–they offer much more than pizza. The first visit we started with a large serving of Burrata, then I had ravioli with figs and foie gras. The second visit I went for pizza (and more burrata to start); a Napolitana with fat anchovies and capers. Reservations aren’t necessary, though you might have a brief wait. Be patient, the food and hospitality are worth it. (18th arrondissement)
  • Huiteries Regis has been on my list for years, and I finally was able to have lunch there. Unless you love oysters, skip ahead. There’s not much else on offer. I had the menu #2: Six each of two varieties of plump oysters that taste like the sea, a glass of Sancerre and a coffee. If you do love oysters, it’s completely worth trekking to Saint Germain and waiting outside for one of the few tables. (6th arrondissement)
  • Hardware Société gives Hollybelly a run for my favorite brunch spot in Paris. It’s the Parisian outpost of a popular Melbourne restaurant. Long lines are the norm, though we lucked into getting a table right away. The coffee is sublime, and the mushrooms and poached eggs are perfect brunch fare. (18th arrondissement)
  • Overlook the sketchy neighborhood around Gare du Nord, and make a reservation at Chez Michel. It offers old school French cuisine and a deep wine list. I had fish soup with chorizo, croutons and parmesian; duck with mushrooms; and Paris Brest for desert. It’s my new standard for traditional French bistros. (10th arrondissment)

Reservations are still the norm, but English speaking diners will be glad to know many restaurants now offer online reservations.