Paris Trip Report, Plus Any Final Recommendations?

Thanks for the suggestions. I will definitely try to do lunch at Chez L'Ami Jean before I leave... And in a stroke of good fortune, my friend managed to get us reservations at Frenchie for tonight!

cindyum in France

Paris Trip Report, Plus Any Final Recommendations?

I've been in Paris for an amazing three weeks (extended vacation...feeling very lucky), and I am down to my last 5 days here... I've had some great dining experiences so far (which I'll chronicle below), but am starting to feel pangs of regret for missing out on some of the places that get recommended on this board frequently (Chez L'Ami Jean and Frenchie, for two). And so, I'd appreciate any input on these, or other not-to-miss places, based on your reaction to the report below.

My dining choices have been either (1) places I researched on this board (or the blogs) or (2) places that Parisian friends have taken me while I'm here. I've organized my report accordingly! As you see, I tend to prefer a casual/approachable setting to anything overly formal. I also like thoughtful, ingredient-driven food... which has not been hard to come by in Paris. : )

First, My Picks

Cafe Constant (lunch) - I had a very light lunch here plus a few glasses of Sancerre at the bar. The bartenders were really nice (very accommodating with my rudimentary French vocab), and the breaded soft boiled egg with mushrooms was both delicate and delicious.

Au Passage (lunch and dinner) - I love the vibe here. Also, while it's been mentioned on this board lots of times, my Parisian friend hadn't heard of it... which I loved. : ) Now onto the food... As I am staying within walking distance of Au Passage, I tried both lunch and dinner here. I preferred the lunch, which I had on my own at the bar, and which was a set menu of three courses (trout gravlax style, pork and chocolate ganache). For dinner, we had a selection of the small plates (burrata, trout with fennel, soft boiled egg with onion, mackerel brule, steak tartare). The stand-outs for me were the trout (both lunch and dinner dishes were incredibly fresh and clean), the steak tartare (very well seasoned and cut more roughly than I am used to seeing, to my pleasant surprise) and the chocolate ganache (simple and rich - I'm usually a fruit dessert person, but this may convert me). The soft boiled egg was a little too softly boiled for my liking, but my Parisian friend loved it. The burrata was fine, but not memorable (maybe burrata has just stopped being memorable for me?). As an aside, I am fascinated by the seeming obsession with burrata in Paris. And also, I agree with David Lebovitz that the French style of calling all small plates "tapas" is amusing. But back to Au Passage... The service can be a bit spotty -- at dinner, our plates were oddly timed, and they also forgot to bring one of the dishes we ordered (they of course removed it from the bill, and all was well). All in all though, I really like this place. Plus, the bar Pop In, which is just down the street, is fun to hit up afterwards if you are looking for a pint-size nightcap. :)

Verjus wine bar (dinner) - pulling from my yelp review... This wine bar is tiny and has a pretty relaxed vibe. It reminded me of places I loved when I lived in NYC. I thought that the small menu of bar snacks and fairly short list of wines by the glass were both kind of the perfect length for the venue. I loved the clams and the fried chicken (which was more like fried chicken bites, so easy to eat). I wasn't blown away by the celery root dumplings, which is saying a lot since I have a weird obsession with celery root. They just didn't have as much flavor as I was hoping for. I liked all the wines I tried, and the bartender was really helpful in directing me to wines I would like. I also welcomed the English being spoken here, after a few weeks of mustering my not-great French.

Les Papilles (lunch) - The rustic food and the ambiance of this wine shop / bistro were perfect after a walk around the jardin. The only decision we had to make was which wine bottle to pair with the fixed lunch menu of creamy zucchini soup, braised beef cheek, blue cheese and apple panacotta. The folks here were incredibly helpful in selecting wine - we were immediately pointed to a reasonably priced cote du rhone that matched well with the meal. Everything we had here was simple and delicious. While the texture of the beef cheek was a bit uneven, but the flavor was rich and comforting. The apple panacotta was something I will crave - it was topped with a foam that can best be described as rootbeer float-like in texture and flavor (a very good thing).

L'Entree des Artistes on rue de Crussol (dinner-ish) - I really like this small cocktail bar, which we made our way over to after a concert at Bataclan. Of the small plates, my favorite was the rillette (pork). Someone on this board had compared rillette to pulled pork in the US south, which I agree with completely (and would also add that rillette is a bit like chicken salad, if you replaced the mayo with animal fat... can't complain). This is the only rillette I've had, so I don't know if I just really like rillette as a concept or if this is a nice example of it. But it was delicious. We also had saucisse seche, a chicken/veggie dish served over rice and the cheese plate. Everything was tasty here, and the cocktails don't hold back either!

Now, Where the Locals Took Me

Cul de Poule (lunch and dinner) - My friend and I came for dinner after we saw a concert at La Cigale. I liked it so much that I decided to come back for lunch. I liked dinner much better than the limited fixed menu at lunch. For dinner, I had the beet salad and turkey leg. My friend had the ceviche and the ratatouille with polenta. As a native Texan, I have a fondness for turkey legs (usually consumed Flinstones-style while walking around the state fair). This turkey leg was perfectly cooked (crispy skin, moist inside) - it put the state fair and many a Thanksgiving table to shame. I also really liked the ceviche (it was fresh and well-seasoned) - I hadn't expected it to be executed as well as it was. The ratatouille was just fine. Lunch was also fine, but not particularly memorable - the steak was a bit flavorless and the salmon was overcooked.

Le Tambour on rue Montmartre (dinner) - A friend brought my sister and me here late night, and I loved the bustling atmosphere and our incredibly outgoing server. Our steaks were perfectly cooked, and we had a great bottle of wine to go along. This definitely seems to be a place that is off the tourist grid.

Corso on Place Franz Liszt (lunch/brunch) - I had an unexpected and delicious fixed menu brunch here one lazy Saturday. Eggs, prosciutto, antipasti-style veggies, fruit, coffee, juice.

Also, on one particularly lazy Saturday night, I had an Italian dinner at Restaurant Caruso on rue de Turenne. The antipasti was not memorable, but the pastas (penne arrabiata and beef tortelloni in a cream sauce) really hit the spot.

So, with that... Are there any huge gaps here? Either something comparable that I might really like or something that will contrast well with the places I've tried? Chez L'Ami Jean and Frenchie (at least the wine bar) are on the list. Also, I've had a healthy (unhealthy?) dose of amazing baguettes, caramels, macarons, cheese, croissants and food market finds based on recommendations from this board. At this point, I'm really just looking for restaurant recs (and ones that don't require reservations weeks in advance, at that). Thanks in advance!

cindyum in France

Seattle/Portland - Itinerary Critique

Well, we're back from the Pacific NW, so I wanted to report back on our food adventures in Seattle and Portland! We were able to hit a lot of the places we had planned, with a few deviations.

I'll start with Seattle and post separately on Portland. I've done my best to rank the experiences from most amazing to least exciting (from top to bottom).

Sitka & Spruce -- by far our favorite meal in Seattle... and it almost didn't happen. We showed up for dinner on a Sunday night, and much to our sadness they were closed. Kicking myself for the failure of planning on my part, we headed over to Lark instead (more on that below). However, a family dinner happened to be planned for Bastille Day at Le Pichet, and when that turned out to be a madhouse, I was able to step in and point folks in the direction of S&S. Everyone ended up being thrilled. We were able to get in after about a half hour wait at a nearby bar, and the service and setting were exactly what we were hoping for. Totally relaxed, with knowledgeable service and delicious food. The favorites at our table were the beef tongue with beets (completely tender and a wonderful first "beef tongue experience" for all of us), a delicious green salad, braised lamb (not usually a favorite of mine, but this was delicious), and the simple desserts -- olive oil ice cream and a cheese plate with blueberry compote. We also had delicious heirloom tomatoes, but these were mildly overshadowed by the World's Most Amazing Tomatoes that we'd had at Lark a few nights before (see below). The weak link, if I had to name one, was the salmon crudo. Nothing really spectacular about that dish, but we ate it all, nonetheless.

Cafe Juanita -- This was a great spot, and perfect for a nice meal after spending a beautiful day out at Snoqualmie falls. The food was fresh, well-crafted and delicious -- certainly on par with great New York Italian spots -- but also uniquely Northwestern/local. We started with the foie gras bite (fine), smoked salmon (very good, although "not as good as Russ & Daughters" - per my bf) and english pea salad (this was our first good meal in the Seattle area and our first exposure to the amazing produce in the area). We then split the crab risotto and the tagliatelle bolognese. Both were great dishes - the bolognese in particular was lighter than I would typically see in NY, and the flavor was spot on. For dessert, we got gelato to go, which was fine, but not spectacular.

Elliott's for happy hour -- 1 hour and 3 dozen oysters later, we were happy happy campers. The happy hour is a steal, especially if you can get there at 3:00 (like we did).

Bakery Nouveau -- We had intended to check out Spring Hill, but decided to opt for something lighter while out in West Seattle one morning. A turkey/swiss croissant, a piece of pizza and an almond croissant later, we were happy we had overdone it, yet again. This place was totally charming, and the food is just as delicious as it is beautiful. This is the kind of place you wish was in your hometown.

Lark -- This wasn't originally on our agenda, but was a nice pinch hitter for S&S when we got rejected on our first try. We were there on a Sunday night, so it was very serene. I love the simple but elegant (without trying too hard) look of the place. Our meal was just as relaxed, and there were some high and low points. The high: the most delicious burrata and cherry tomato dish we have ever had. My bf and I are burrata fiends, so this was destined to be a winner. But the details in this dish made it the best of the breed -- the World's Most Amazing Tomatoes were just bursting with intense flavor and will forever serve as fodder for "Remember those tomatoes...?" stories. The dish was rounded out by the perfect amount of salt. Unfortunately, I felt like some of the other dishes were a bit over-salted. Other things we got: scallops (fine), yellowtail carpaccio with fennel and olive (a bit muddled flavor-wise, and too salty, but very fresh), duck leg confit with pickled currants (quite good), summer pudding with berries (wow). I think we liked this place more because we didn't have any expectations for it -- and I have a feeling I would have liked it less on a busy Saturday night.

Dahlia Bakery -- We ended up getting breakfast sandwiches here two mornings in a row. The egg sandwich with tomato and bacon was perfect. I also tried the coconut cream pie bit, which made me happy.

Pho Cyclo -- we stopped in for lunch when we were in the neighborhood, and both the pho and the banh mi were good.

The Market was lots of fun -- we had a decent (though not spectacular) fish and chips experience at Jack's, and we followed up our Elliott's happy hour with the Maximilien happy hour. Food there was a total disappointment (not that our expectations were that high), but the view from the patio was nice. The place we missed that I would have liked to try was Matt's.

Salumi -- I really wanted to love this place. I am such a fan of meat, of cured meat, of Batalis, etc. I didn't mind the wait, and I loved the gruffness of the counter service. However, the real problem I had was that Salumi skimped on the salumi. We ordered the muffaletta (which happens to be my favorite sandwich of all time) and the prosciutto/fig sandwich. Both tasted more like bread (or bread and fig) than anything else. Why serve artisanal, lovingly crafted meat in a way that doesn't allow it to shine? As I watched our tiny layers of meat being sandwiched between two halves of lovely ciabatta, I felt a definite pang of "we should have ordered the porchetta". So sad.

Coffee -- We were a bit disappointed by Vivace, but Victrola hit the spot. I ordered lattes, bf ordered iced coffees.

I will post separately on Portland... To preview - the spots we hit there were Pok Pok, Navarre, Toro Bravo, Ken's Artisan Bakery and Pine State Biscuits. I was bummed not to be able to fit Tanuki into the plan.

cindyum in Pacific Northwest

In Seattle for Three Days, need recs

Well, we went to Sitka & Spruce last night (Tuesday night), and for a party of 4 we had to wait about 20-30 minutes for a table (which was the time quoted). The kind people at S&S took our cell phone number and suggested a drink at Serafina down the block while we waited. Worked out perfectly for us. We showed up at 8:30 or so and were seated by 9:00. I will be sure to come back with my full report on Seattle, but as a preview, S&S was my favorite meal in the city. Service and food were a highlight of the trip. On to Portland this morning!

cindyum in Greater Seattle

Seattle/Portland - Itinerary Critique

This is absolutely the kind of thing I was thinking. Appreciate you giving it some more thought. (And you've also inspired me to get off my butt and look for some more challenging/rewarding hikes in the area.)

cindyum in Pacific Northwest

Seattle/Portland - Itinerary Critique

Thanks everyone for the feedback so far.

As far as Seattle goes, the Snoqualmie day is clearly the weak link. I'll need to rethink that a bit. (And maybe try to squeeze in Paseo in the meantime.) I'll keep Cafe Juanita on the agenda for the time being though.

As for Portland, looks like we'll do Ken's for breakfast and replace Clarklewis with a late lunch at Tanuki. SusanC - thanks for the tip on the Pok Pok menu change. The wings sound like a must, so we'll definitely get there early for lunch. The PDX leg of the trip is definitely too short -- we'll grab Pine State Biscuits on our way out of town to try and make it last a little longer.

cindyum in Pacific Northwest