Family with kids, August in Paris, 5 Nights including a Sunday and Monday - Long Report

Thanks for the very useful report. I was looking for Domaine de Lentillac on the internet but found Domaine de Lintillac with at least 3 locations and at least 2 different web sites. Which place did you visit?

http://www.restaurant-lintillac.com/english/carte.html
http://www.lintillac-paris.com/

azlefty in France

Paris 19th arrondissement and thefork.com

These are exactly the kind of suggestions I had in mind, and I would trust anyone named Mangeur. Merci.

azlefty in France

Paris 19th arrondissement and thefork.com

As for cuisines, I'm mainly interested in things we can't eat at home. This would include any kind of traditional or regional French, west African, caribbean, or anything else that you might think is worthwhile. We prefer casual, friendly, family neighborhood restaurants to hip or fancy places, and are not really into a social scene.

We also would be interested in restaurants that feature live music, if such a thing exists in Paris, but that is not essential.

Here in Sacramento or nearby we have easy access to good Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Persian, Mexican, Italian, Ethiopian, Ukranian, and of course American restaurants, so I don't feel the need to visit those kinds of places in France. What we have very little of is French food, which is one of the reasons we are going to France. We do have several middle-eastern restaurants here but we may eat it in Paris anyway because we love it and we have heard it is excellent there. Also, California is passing a law prohibiting the cultivation of poultry for foie gras so we will definitely want to get our fill while in France.

To clarify, I'd be willing to spend up to 100 euros total for two people for one great traditional French dinner. That may not sound like much in Paris, but $150 USD is a big splurge for us, considering a usual dinner out at home costs us $35 including tip. Again, it need not be fancy, just delicious and satisfying. We are more concerned about taste, quality, and value than elegant presentation. We could go slightly above this range for a once in a lifetime experience, but one of the EU300-range places is not even a consideration, and we probably wouldn't really like it anyway. We are moderate drinkers, maybe one glass of wine each, although I do have a stereotypically American appetite and will probably feel disappointed if I leave feeling hungry.

The other evenings will need to be quite a bit more modest. From what I can gather, it looks like it will be hard to spend much less than 25 euros per person so I guess we will have to contend with something in that range for the non-splurge nights, although I would prefer to spend less if that is possible. On the plus side, I have 7 months to save my pennies.

We are also planning on a couple days in the pays de Loire where I've heard (and read on these pages) that there is some great food, perhaps at lower cost?

From what I have read here, it sounds like most full-service restaurants require reservations, which I guess means we can't just walk down the street and wander into someplace that looks interesting. Is that generally the case?

We are happy to go beyond the confines of the 19th, but really wouldn't know which direction to go, so any of your thoughts are welcome. The 10th seems to be within walking or bicycling distance so specific suggestions there are welcome. Also if you have any suggestions beyond restaurants (fromageries/markets/etc in 19th) that would be useful.

thanks again for your ideas.

azlefty in France

Paris 19th arrondissement and thefork.com

Any suggestions for restaurants or other experiences in or not too far from the 19th arrondissement? My wife and I are going to Paris in March 2012, and as Americans, we are paid in increasingly worthless US dollars. I found a hotel in the 19th that we can stay at using points (allowing more $ for food, although still on a budget) and hopefully will allow us not to be confined to tourist traps. Most tour books largely ignore the 19th. We hope to get around town primarily using velib bikes as well as the metro.

I'm looking for good traditional French food, and other things that we can't get at home. Hope to buy lunch at markets where possible, supplemented with a steady diet of cheese and bread. For dinner, I have an image (stereotype? fantasy?) of the corner Parisian restaurant that families go to once a month, everyone is relaxed, and the food is sublime . I don't need fancy, couldn't care less about celebrity chefs, and want to avoid feeling tourist-trapped. I studied high school level French, so I can converse in simple (slow) conversations if that helps, although it's been quite a while since I've used it.

Also: does anyone have experience using thefork.com, (or groupon, livingsocial, etc.) in Paris, and how are the restaurants generally? Is it the case that they are not that great, and need to use extra marketing like thefork.com to get customers, or are they usually satisfactory? (I have had both experiences at home using restaurant.com.) Do you get treated with equal respect if using a discount? What about tipping - do you need ot add extra if you use the discount? Are there any other similar web sites worth looking at?

And what does "hors menu" mean?

Merci beaucoup.

azlefty in France

Best Burger & Fries in Sacramento

Marion, we must be neighbors geographically and gastronomically because I too live around the corner from the Flaming Grille and happen to think their burgers are terrific. They have a coupon on restaurant.com but it's almost not worth using unless you have several people going for the exotic meats, since their basic burger is so cheap. Rex is right about the sweet potato fries and the fried onions are dynamite also. I tried the yak and ostrich burgers, but I've found that it's pretty hard to beat beef in a hamburger. The basic burger + fries is about $6 and another bonus is that they have a kids' burger and fries for $2.49.

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Flaming Grille Cafe
2319 El Camino Ave, Sacramento, CA 95821

azlefty in California

visiting Vancouver with young children

Doh! we will be there Monday thru Friday and thus will miss the night market, as apparently it is only on weekends. Is there anything comparable during the week?

thanks again
doug

azlefty in B.C. (including Vancouver)

visiting Seattle with young children

Thanks everyone. These are great suggestions. We'll get to about 3 or 4 of them and then we'll need to come back sometime to do the rest.

azlefty in Pacific Northwest

visiting Vancouver with young children

These are great. Thanks everyone. I think we will attempt the night market, we can always leave if it is intractable.

azlefty in B.C. (including Vancouver)

visiting Seattle with young children

We are visiting Seattle next weekend with 2 young kids, age 1 and 4. Anyone have any suggestions including the following?

good restaurants, preferably inexpensive or dirt cheap, all types of food welcome

Interesting or offbeat things to do or see that we might not find in a guide book

Other helpful hints (transportation, whatever) that you think might be useful to someone visiting for the first time (actually I was there about 25 years agobut I don't remember much)

Also: If anyone knows of a jewish-style deli restaurant (not kosher) that is good, please let us know.

We will be staying in a hotel in Bellevue and will have a car. Addresses, directions, or websites are very welcome, as we will have no idea where we are going, although we will have a gps navigator.

Thanks very much!

azlefty in Pacific Northwest

visiting Vancouver with young children

Hello, my family will be visiting Vancouver in a couple of weeks with our 2 kids, aged 1 and 4, and we are looking for some suggestions:

Good restaurants, preferably inexpensive to rock-bottom cheap, Chinese (dim sum or other) or other interesting places of all ethnic varieties, including but not limited to Canadian food (is there such a thing? we are from California)

Interesting or offbeat things to do that we might not find in a guide book - I'm sure we will hit the usual recommendations such as Stanley Park also

Other helpful hints (transportation, whatever) that you think might be useful to someone visiting for the first time.

We will probably have a car.

Thanks very much and looking forward to coming to Canada.

Note: addresses, directions, or at least websites would be very helpful as we don't know where we are going at all. Thanks.

azlefty in B.C. (including Vancouver)

Foodie souvenirs from Vegas

I once stole a chopstick rest that looks like a dragon from an upscale chinese restaurant at Caesars palace. (I doubt the restaurant is still there) It's a souvenir I cherish from an otherwise unmemorable and somewhat disappointing trip to vegas.

azlefty in Southwest

Binion's Ranch Steakhouse

Has anyone been there lately and how is it? I went a several times few years back and it was great, but I was wondering if anyone has been there in the last few months. Have the management changes at Binion's kept the quality up? It's pretty hard to find a recent review of it on the web.

azlefty in Southwest

Lobster in Reno

Greetings Hounds,

We will be in Reno for my wife's birthday and she needs lobster. Not a so-called lobster tail, but a big whole lobster, 2 lb or more with claws, that is alive when we order it and dead when we eat it. That said, she is open to various types of restaurants (chinese, american, or other) and appreciates the non-obvious, and it doesn't necessarily need to be a fancy place.

Suggestions? What else can they serve me and how is that? e.g. if it is a steak restaurant, how are the steaks? Menus and prices? (I'm expecting to spend big money but I still appreciate value.) It will be the Saturday night before Christmas.

azlefty in California

good restaurants in south lake tahoe nevada

Try the burger lounge. You can rent bicycles nearby and a burger and milk shake or root beer float is very nice after a non-strenuous bike ride.

In my experience, the best casino coffee shop is at the Lakeside Inn, about a mile east of the border.

Also there is a small breakfast diner called the Driftwood Cafe (?) on one of the little streets with motels just on the CA side. Good for breakfast.

Also, if you don't mind driving a little bit, go over Kingsbury Grade to Minden or Gardnerville in Nevada to one of the two or three Basque restaurants on 395.

azlefty in California

Palm Springs?

Palm springs has some excellent restaurants. You can't go wrong for any meal at the Manhattan in the Desert deli/bakery. Jewish style deli restaurant and better than just about any other restaurant of its ilk in Los Angeles. In fact, a friend of ours from West LA that we took there couldn't stop talking about the corned beef all weekend when staying with us and in fact went back after we had left town. And their bakery products are truly fantastic. Sherman's (same kind of place) is also excellent, although I have mostly eaten at the palm desert location and only once at the downtown PS location. Also really like Michael's (?) coffee shop in Cathedral city, in the same shopping center as the recently burned down and rebuilt albertson's on Date Palm Dr. Try the cathedral city salad if you like chicken salad and tuna salad. We proudly take our 2 year old to all of these places. In fact, since we can't get any food like this up in Sacramento, it's one of the things we like best about palm springs.

There is also a good Chinese restaurant on Date Palm Dr. (Ming's?) between Dinah Shore and Gerald Ford dr's.

Mildly off topic: if you are looking for a park to take the kids to, there is a nice one on Dinah Shore just west of the wash. There's also a children's museum in Rancho Mirage, more appropriate for the 6 year old.

If you happen to finagle a babysitter and go out as adults, Melvyn's lounge is fun for a night out.

enjoy,

Doug & Nancy in Sac (Doug's parents live part time in Rancho Mirage)

azlefty in California