My niece just told me that Genin's shop now only carries 2 pastry selections each day. This is heartbreaking news!

I am thrilled that I'll be visiting Paris again in a few months. Last year, my family of 5 spent five days and had fabulous meals at CAJ, Kei, Agape Substance, Pinxo and La Regalada (St Honore) and some decadent pastries from Cafe Pouchkine, Jacques Genin, Pierre Herme and Un Dimanche a Paris.

Our next trip, however, will be spent mostly in Provence (7 nights) and 1 night in Lyon (am thinking 14 Fevrier or Paul Bocuse) before spending 2 nights in Paris.

At the moment, I am thinking of 1 dinner and 1 lunch (and side trips to Herme, Genin and Pouchkine)

Dinner -
Ze Kitchen Galerie or Septime

Lunch -
Ledoyen (Do they still offer the EUR88 lunch prix-fixe?)
or
Pierre Gagnaire

Opinions, please...

Just as a side note, on previous Paris trips we also dined at Le Cinq, L'Astrance, Taillevent, Guy Savoy, Les Bookinistes, L'Atelier Joel Robuchon

I would seriously consider replacing MARKET with something else. Nothing special at all.

Oh wow, they have that for dessert? Good to know! I usually have that for breakfast but I am a firm believer in eating as much Kouign Amman as possible.

I think my heart is set on Ledoyen for my next trip. Do they still offer the EUR88 lunch menu? Is it possible to add the spaghetti to share for 2 to the prix-fixe menu?

I was lucky enough to be in Paris twice in 2 months recently. My absolute personal favorite pastries are Tarte Vanille (PIERRE HERME), Napoleon and Or Noir (POUCHKINE) and Tarte Citron (JACQUES GENIN). All those are worth a detour in my book - simply incredible!

Thanks, guys! Maloney Porcelli.... that's a name from the past. I used to have their crackling pork shank for lunch back in 1996 1997. Great memories! I see that it's undergoing a renovation. I'll think I'll go back and revisit this one.

I heard really good thing about the duck at Momofoku Ssam. But isn't a reservation hard to come by? I wonder if I should replace THE DUTCH with SSAM?

I left NYC three years ago and am thrilled to be visiting it in a few weeks. I have some old favorites, but would also love to try new places.

This is what I've got so far...

Tue - Lunch at Eleven Mad Park. I haven't been since the menu was revamped.

Wed - Lunch at The Modern. Dinner at Sushi of Gari.

Thu - Dinner at Salinas. I am a big suckling pig fan, thus this choice.

Fri - Lunch at Nomad, for the chicken.

Sat - Lunch at Jean Georges. Been many many times, would love to go back. Pizza at Don Antonio pre or post theatre.

Sun - Lunch at The Dutch, for the fried chicken. Shake-Shack 8th avenue post theatre.

Mon - Lunch or early dinner at Maialino. Suckling pig, of course...

I am not that set on The Modern (was thinking of Gramercy Tavern, an old favorite), so am open for suggestions...

Has anyone been to Salinas? Is the pig dish really outstanding?

We have 2 nights planned in Brussels, sandwiched between London and Paris. We'll be arriving Sunday night and leave on Tuesday morning. Unfortunately most of the restaurants we wanted to try are closed on Sundays and Mondays.

So far, I've only found BELGA QUEEN and LOLA from my list that are open on Sundays/Mondays. Do you guys have any other suggestions? We're looking for something modern, casual, European cuisine - preferably with very good mussels (are mussels in season mid June?). We'll be staying at Conrad at Avenue Louise - walking distance is great, but we won't mind short cab rides...

Thank you!

Five of us will be spending 5 days in Paris in a couple of weeks and we're very excited.

We have the following planned and I'm wondering if you guys could comment on them (too similar, too heavy for 1 day, there's better choice, better for lunch/dinner vv, etc).

Day 1
Lunch LE CINQ
Dinner LA REGALADE

Day 2
Lunch - LES BISTRONOMES
Dinner CHEZ L'AMI JEAN

Day 3
Lunch KEI
Dinner SEPTIME

Day 4
Lunch PINXO
Dinner L'AGAPE SUBSTANCE

Plus.... ANGELINA for hot chocolate, GENIN for pasties, HERME for macaron,

Should I substitute one of those for SPRING or FRENCHIE?

I went back for the 2nd time - for lunch, this time and was rather disappointed. No option for main course, only red duck curry. Appetizers were the same 3 things served as before, desserts were pretty good. I'll skip Sra Bua for future visits. :-(

We passed by Moluccas a few weeks ago. Didn't think to try it, but decided to go to db (Boulud) and had their burger (absolutely disaster and disappointment compared to NYC few years ago) and a Japanese restaurant on the same level as Moluccas.

But next time, will give Moluccas a try. The rendang looks divine! So, instead of cubes of meat, this is just one piece of steak?

I love Thai food and on my next trip there, have already plan to visit KRUA APSORN and revisit BAAN KHANITA, Bo.Lan, SOMBOON and SRA BUA.

I want to throw in one or two French, Italian or steakhouse, but am a bit clueless. My options are D'SENS, BISCOTTI, ZANOTTI, DELICATEZZA and RIB ROOM AND BAR.

Any thoughts or comments, please?

Awesome! I will give Lao Beijing a try in a few weeks, having had dinner 3-4 times at Xindalu.

I had the black truffle version in DTF Shanghai. I am a big fan of truffle, but for some reason this doesn't work very well for me. I much prefer the liver/pork version.

I just arrived in Shanghai last night and was taken by friends to what considered the best Peking Duck restaurant. My heart sank when the cab stopped in front of KING OF DUCK (Duck King?), as I went there last year and had a very underwhelming experience. Well, this time I can confirm that this is an awful restaurant. We had beef with black pepper (rubbery beef and thick bland gravy), some kind of shoe-string potato(?) vegetable, clay-pot bean curd and worst of all, Peking Duck. Unlike in Guandjuze (sp) or Dadong in Beijing, the duck was prepared differently. Usually top of the skin is sliced off very thinly and presented with a small dab of sugar. Not here. The skin was sliced off rather thickly, placed on the table with nothing. Then a small plate of thinly sliced duck meat came with a small plate of mixed meat/skin. The garnish for the pancake is only scallion and hoisin sauce, no sliced cucumber. It was awful.

That food and amateurish service (waiter threw a bunch of table clothes to Manager, Manager screaming at waiters, a female waiter kept dropping things and a busbuy who perhaps deliberately made so much noise when putting bowls into a cabinet behind us) makes this restaurant a miss. Never again! This ought to be called KING OF YUCK instead.

There are 2 dinner options at THB1800 (7 course) and THB2400 (9, I believe). I finally went there few nights ago and really enjoyed it. The standouts for me were The Harvest (the curry mouse was fabulous) and the frozen curry lobster. My least favorite was the Tom Klong soup -- I just do not get the jelly parts.

I had dinner at NAHM the night before and although the lemongrass salad at NAHM was incredible, I'd say I enjoyed SRA BUA better. I had a spare ribs green curry at NAHM that was so spicy, it was borderline inedible for me.

I guess until I go there myself, I can never understand the polarizing opinions on this restaurant.

KLYEOH - did you ever go to Sra Bua? I am here in BKK now and am thinking of trying it.

I'll save up to be able to afford a meal there one day. Question for those who've been there. Is it OK for two people just to order ONE foie gras and ONE chicken to share?

We had quite a divine lunch at HAJIME recently. After a heavy meal at IPPOH the night before, I thought it would have been too much to schedule a lunch the next day at Hajime. But that was the only day they could accommodate us during our visit to Osaka.

I wish I had known that jacket was required for gentlemen, even on weekend lunch. But the host was very gracious in giving us jackets to loan (mine was quite stylish, actually).

There is only one menu -- without prices.

Here's what we had:

(not listed on the menu):
Pastry-wrapped duck
Egg yolk with almond on egg shell
Pan-seared scallops

66 kinds of seasonal vegetable with shellfish foam
Foie gras with hazelnut pastry and pumpkin puree
Roast lamb with rosemary
Popcorn ice cream
Pear in brown butter with cacao sorbet

There is not a single dish that was not wonderful. Each one is perfectly balanced and at Y7875 per person, the lunch was quite a deal.

The restaurant has a darkish, contemporary feel. There are probably only 8 tables or so with a private dining room. Out of the 8, there were 4 tables celebrating birthdays. Service was fabulous.

We went to IPPOH main restaurant recently. It's about a 15 minute walk from St Regis -- not the easiest restaurant to find, but we managed after being lost for about 5 minutes or so.

We were led to a private room. There was no English menu, but the waitress speaks adequate English to explain the menu choices. Both are identical, except one has sashimi course. We selected one with, one without.

The appetizers were interesting -- walnut tofu with uni (tiny), assorted vegetables, sashimi and the tempura course.

I've only been to Kondo for high-end tempura and I found Ippoh and Kondo completely different. The chef in Ippoh brought a tray with all the items to be fried. In Kondo, prawns were still alive when brought to be cooked, scallops were shucked in front of customers. In Ippoh, they did not change the oil once, while in Kondo, they changed it for each course.

The tempura course in IPPOH (if I remember correctly) -- 2 prawns, mushrooms, potato, daikon, gingko nuts, 2 types of white fish, eel, and finally mixed shrimp/vegetables with nice. Dessert was a panna cotta with sliced grape.

The shock came at the end. The bill for 2 (including 2 glasses of draft beer) was a whopping 42,000 Yen. Sweet Jesus!

Even Kondo, which I much preferred, only charged about 20,000 Yen for 2 persons.

Maybe my palette is just sophisticated enough to distinguish great tempura, but if I were to go to high-end tempura again, I'd return to Kondo. I'll scratch Ippoh from my list. Once is enough for me.

I had been looking forward to sampling Butagumi and finally went last night. I was slightly disappointed that the Iberico one was so fatty. It's very good, but maybe I shold'e selected a more lean meat. Out of the 20 or so types of pork they list on the menu, only a handful was available. We also tried the Hungarian meat (not bad) and one Japanese (sorry forgot the name). The Japanese one is the least expensive, most lean and tastes the best for me.

Has anyone had lunch at UKAI TEI? The price difference between lunch and dinner is quite great and I wonder if there is a limited offering at lunch, or the meat is less stellar than that served at dinner.

Perhaps not ranked among the best, but has anyone had steaks at HAMAYU, YEBISU (Westin Hotel) or AKASAKA (ANA Hotel)?

Wow, I can't believe there is no answer to this.

I've tried Just You and Mee at Hyatt and it's pretty good. The Sathorn Road branch of Baan Khanita is supposedly serving one.

The setting is a knock-out. The fireplace, the open kitchen and the lighting are gorgeous. We found the food; however, to be disappointing.

The three of us had Chinese Barbeque Sampler, King Prawn in Black Pepper, Tenderloin Steak, Mushrooms, Chinese Vegetable and Steamed Rice. With the exception of the Chinese Vegetable, none of these dishes was exceptional. Even the steam rice (at AUD6) was bad.

:-(

Which are considered Melbourne's best steak restaurants?

Has anyone tried these 2 restaurants? Is it too much (of same) to dine 2 nights in a row at these 2, considering chefs from Bo.Lan came from London's Nahm?

URGENT HELP please! I have been having a hard time finding this cake and am running out of time. Anyone can help where I can get a good one? I may have to buy a pie to go and bring it on the plane with me!!!

We're returning in a few weeks and would like to try La Regalade (St Honore one) and Chez L'Ami Jean. What are considered the 2 or 3 best dishes (starter and main) for these 2 restaurants? Thank you, guys!