A sampling of Paris restaurants

Paris is up there with New York and Tokyo when it comes to the challenge of picking just a few restaurants to try. There are too many great options, across every cuisine and price point. Here’s a collection of places where we dined:

Kunitoraya

This was my pick for a Japanese restaurant in Paris (Neige d’été didn’t count!).  It’s the sit-down sister restaurant of a popular udon shop in the 1st arrondissement, which serves both udon (either hot or cold) and a selection of other small dishes.

We shared a blackboard special vegetable tempura to begin, and I had cold yuzu udon in a deeply fishy-umami broth. My mother had the cold zaru (plain) udon with a dipping sauce, D had a mega-bowl of hot udon, and my stepfather had salmon-filled onigiri that were really tasty.

To finish, matcha panna cotta in a Japanese cut glass dish.

Baltard au Louvre

One of my favorite meals of the trip was this lunch for six in an airy dining room opening to a sun-dappled patio, with an icy bottle of white Burgundy.  You select three or four courses from a list of 16 dishes – I suppose you could do all savory, or two desserts if you so choose!

Everything we tried was light, fresh, and delicious, served in beautifully presented portions – just exactly what I imagine a modern Parisian lunch should be.

I had tartare of bass served with soft cooked turnip, followed by foie gras with quinoa and a chocolate citron dessert. All very good, though I was also envious of D’s choices of roasted onion served with peas, and crisp sweetbreads over fat spring asparagus.

Le Dali

I came here on a mission – for one of patissier Cedric Grolet’s fruit creations.  I’ve been following him on Instagram and eagerly awaited the chance to try a peach, a shiny apple, etc.  On our visit, the offering was a red lemon, a fanciful version of a regular lemon with piment d’espelette lending the color.

Mipi

We popped into Mipi for a quick dinner near our hotel, because pizza always hits the spot – even in Paris!  After sharing some Caprese salads, we each selected our own individual pie.  Mine had roasted eggplant and tomato sauce – yum.  It’s a fun, casual place with fast, friendly service.

Le Cinq (at the Four Seasons)

This was our only 3* Michelin restaurant, a big deicision. In the end, I settled on Le Cinq because it got overall positive writeups, the food looked really lovely, and the dining room was beautiful. And yes, the food was lovely and the room beautiful. But the service was uneven, and at times disorganized – not the level one would expect.

One disappointment… but many more meals to remember happily!