I really enjoyed the food and service at Waknine. The atmosphere might normally be very congenial but today our table was impacted by two people having a very loud, almost aggressive conversation next to us. The next time people complain about loud Americans I will respond about very loud French businessmen. Wow.

But let's talk about Waknine and assume the tables aren't always like this.... we were seated on this rainy day promptly and ordered drinks. I had a glass of the red wine of the month and it was surprisingly nice. Often I think the wine of the month is what's left over from last month but at Waknine it was really perfect for lunch. I was remiss in not writing it down though.

For entrees I had the house-made rabbit rillette (more or less pate). And it was good, very good. Often rabbit terrine has an odd flavor, my wife calls it cat food. But this had a nice texture well mixed with spices and my wife liked it and thought maybe it had a hint of ginger. This plate came with a small salad of field greens.

For the main course I had lamb and my wife had the scallops. Both plates were pretty to look at, well-designed but without being too fussy. The lamb was nicely cooked rose. The lamb was served with fried carrots which I loved, a welcome change from normal potatoes.

For lunch for two it was a little spendy (92 euro for 2 entree, 2 plats, 3 glasses of wine, 2 coffees) but I would definitely go back.

I cross-posted this review to Yelp as well.

As yesterday was my weekly sanctioned day to cheat on my diet we decided to have  lunch  at a local Americana-style place, Joe Allen. Living as an expat in Paris you will, sooner or later, get tired of French food. And the alternative cuisines in Paris are not for the most part appealing. Sure, you can get great food from North Africa (Tunisian, Algerian, Moroccan) and at times you can find the occasional Vietnamese place doing a nice business. Good Indian food is hard to find, good Chinese is apparently forbidden by some sort of law, and good Mexican food happens at precisely one restaurant in all of Paris.

But look, you don't visit Paris for the non-French food. So stick with that. But sooner or later, sooner or later, you will crave something from home, wherever that may be. There is a small take-out place nearby which specializes in German food; who knew anyone wanted German food? I thought they kept trying to leave Germany for precisely this reason. But I digress... American food. Paris.

American food shouldn't be hard to do. But in fact it just doesn't happen very well outside the US with a few exceptions (UK & Ireland so maybe I should call this Anglophone food except that Canadians never quite nail it either, go figure). So getting good American food in Paris is hard, you can find good burgers in many places and good fries almost always are available. But somehow the atmosphere is wrong or everyone is eating burgers with a knife and fork (UN should really do something about that, it's wrong). Joe Allen though was recommended and is a favorite on Yelp and really, it worked. The decor is correct enough, the beer is solid and thankfully not 1664 or Kronenbourg which is the normal fare and aren't bad but do get a little old. The burgers are done well (correctly, not well done, another thing the UN should address as a crime) and the hand-cut fries are good. All in all an enjoyable way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

For a tourist note: the wonderful kitchen shop Delherrin is nearby so you can stop there and marvel over the industrial-grade kitchenwares then have lunch. I bought two steel pans for 15 euros each on this trip, wonderful.

Yelp review is here:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/le-square-paris#hrid:pWBJrO3f3zbaz9H0jmOw_Q

A colleague of mine was kind enough to provide a list of restaurants to try in Paris. I plan to try out these and others in our time in Paris. Hopefully I will even write up a quick review on each. I know the world doesn't need another Paris restaurant review site, but my angle is a little different: restaurants for people from Seattle who enjoy great food but are more used to the general swill served on the Eastside but have lived in Zurich for the last year and while they enjoy wurst in all its glories were really in need of some good food. Might not be a big demographic though.

Something nice you can do on Saturdays is “Marché des enfants rouges” (rue de Bretagne , 3ème) to have lunch and a walk in the neighborhood (a really parisian thing).

American food :

Joe Allen,

30 rue Pierre Lescot, Paris 1er

There is one Joe Allen in New York (good sign J )

Coffee Parisien,

7, Rue Gustave-courbet , Paris 16^ème

4, Rue Princesse, Paris 6ème

Mexican food :

La Perla, 26, Rue François Miron, Paris 4^ème

French food :

L’Emile, 8 rue Jean Jacques Rousseau, Paris 1er

Le Petit Marché, 9, rue de Béarn, Paris 3ème

Café Rouge, 32, Rue de Picardie , 75003 Paris

L’auberge Bressane, 16, avenue de la Motte-Piquet , Paris 7^ème

Chez Paul, 13, Rue de Charonne, 75011 Paris

Mollard, 115 rue Saint-Lazare 75008 Paris

Italian Food

Vitelloni, 4, Rue Dupetit Thouars , 75003

L’Altro, 16, rue du Dragon, Paris 6ème

Da mimmo, boulevard magenta , Paris 10ème

Asian food

Le sourire de Saigon, 54, rue du Mont-Cenis, Paris 18^ème   (really good restaurant)

Bistrot de Mme Shawnn ,18, Rue Caffarelli, 75003

And to finish : some places more expensive but view or mood are really amazing (you can just have a drink too) :

-Café Marly (Musée du Louvre)

- Georges , Paris 1er (on top of the Pompidou museum)

-Kong, Paris 1er

-Les ombres, Paris 7ème close to the Alma bridge (on top of the quai Branly Museum)

Enjoy!

We ate at this nice little restaurant for our first lunch in Paris. This is located on rue Benjamin Franklin.

What we ate:

• Mediterranean salad: fresh, nice. Downside was the shrimp appeared to have come from a can
• Steak hache with fries. Very nicely done, medium rare and it looked so good I forwent the fork and knife and just picked it up.
• Kids both had croque monsieurs. Not overly cheesy like you get downtown, these were nicely toasted. The fries of course were a hit with the kids but they also both ate their salads which again were fresh lettuce.

S and I shared a lovely white Burgundy which is so far my favorite wine in the day we've lived in Paris:-)