One of my favorite facets of planning any business or pleasure trip is the process of choosing the restaurants at which we will eat. Whether it’s choosing to buy groceries at the local farmers’ market for a picnic or to dine at a storybook restaurant, I love to make my way through other diners’ experiences and reviews to gain my own perspective and fix our itinerary. In addition simply to creating a Google search, I also search websites like Frommer’s and Fodors’ travel forums, Chowhound, Yelp, and TripAdvisor. It’s amazing what a search engine will turn up these days, both positive and negative. Most restaurants have their own websites, Facebook pages, and Google map pages that have pertinent information as well as reviews. I read most of these reviews word for word in order to see how similar the reviewers' situations and expectations are to my own. Often, I disregard a negative review merely because my parameters are dissimilar to those of the reviewer.
As I began the process of choosing restaurants for our Paris trip, I had very few prerequisites. First, since I was gathering information for my restaurateur client, the restaurants had to receive favorable reviews consistently from the Paris food bloggers, like the team at ParisByMouth. It’s one thing to wow the tastebuds of your diners on a single evening and another thing altogether to do so on a regular basis (which is why I love Nashville’s Virago). Secondly, the restaurant needed to offer me the opportunity to book my table in advance so my itinerary was in place for both my clients’ sake as well as for my own interest. Thirdly, I wanted restaurants we could walk to from our apartment, or at least walk easily from the Metro to the restaurant, which is the case for almost any restaurant in Paris. Fourthly, I wanted restaurants that offered creative contemporary food like that of my client, restaurants that did not rest on the recipes from 50 years ago. Finally, I wanted restaurants that didn’t cost an arm and a leg for a meal.
Even though we had 7 nights in Paris, it was a monumental task to select only 7 restaurants for dinner. That final parameter, the cost, helped eliminate many of the Michelin-starred restaurants of Paris. Ultimately, however, we were privileged to be included in a dinner party at one 5-star restaurant, The Jules Verne Restaurant atop the Eiffel Tower. With Sunday night set aside for our business dinner party, I had six slots to fill and thousands of likely candidates.
As such, I narrowed my parameters further to include only those nearest the apartment where we stayed. Directly across the street from Notre Dame Cathedral, this apartment served as a perfect location for both my business interests as well as our vacation ideas, being in the center of the heart of Paris. Therefore, I decided to limit our choices to restaurants located in the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th arrondisements of Paris. This limitation helped narrow the field tremendously.
In addition to reading the online reviews of my dining possibilities, I discovered the French version of Open Table, an online booking/review site. La Fourchette offered an incredibly easy solution to very long distant booking. Later, after I had completed my reservation process, I discovered another online booking resource, Book A Table. This site offers additional restaurants to those at La Fourchette. Yum.
Finally, my list narrowed to eight restaurants: Spring Restaurant, Ze Kitchen Galerie, Les Bouquinistes, Mini Palais, Sola, Flottes O.trement, Bar a Manger, and Christophe. Reservations at five of the eight were attainable either via La Fouchette or by directly emailing the restaurant. Unfortunately, because he required telephone booking, I removed Christophe from my list, thinking I might drop in for lunch. Albeit Spring also required telephone booking, I determined we were going to eat there, so I enlisted help to get that reservation. Ultimately, we arranged to have dinner, in chronological order, at Jules Verne, Ze Kitchen Galerie, Les Bouquinistes, Spring Restaurant, and Sola. We booked lunch at Flottes O.trement, Bar a Manger, and Mini Palais, again based on the neighborhoods we were visiting on a particular. As the day unfolded, we were unable to eat at Flottes O.trement as a business meeting conflicted with that reservation. Additionally, we spent one day visiting Versailles, where we were invited to a fantastic lunch at Veranda Restaurant at the Trianon Palace Hotel. Wow! But more about that spot on another day.
If I can make one suggestion to fellow foodies, it is to avoid trying to fill every meal with a storybook restaurant. How much more delightful to pick up a quick bite at a recommended wine bar or a crepe stand or to collapse into the seat at a strategically situated cafe to fill your eyes as well as your tummy! Be armed with options, but be ready for spontaneity. I had a short list for each day of bars and restaurants in the neighborhood we visited that did not require reservations, though most days at lunch we just dropped in to spots along our path or bought picnic supplies to eat in one of Paris’ many parks.
If I go back to Paris soon, will I choose to return to my carefully selected restaurants? Some, yes. Others, no. My reasons will be revealed as I review my chosen restaurants.
Each year, my job as travel matchmaker becomes exponentially easier with the availability of information on the internet. Sifting through all the information is a fun though sometimes frustrating job. And the best part -- I don’t gain weight just reading about the food.
--Hungry for Paris by Alexander Lobrano served as a trusted guide through the maze of restaurants.
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