Restaurant Choices
Before I post the combined list of possible restaurants, I wanted to make sure that we were all “on the same page” with our plans. My thoughts were that:
- We should only make reservations for 3-4 nights, but this will entail giving the hotel more than 3-4 restaurants to choose from as not all may be available.
- We should probably space out the nights that we have reservations from those that are open.
- If we choose one night to make a reservation at a more high-end restaurant, we want to tailor our plans during the day so that we aren’t so tired as to not enjoy the dinner.
And, on that note, we need to come to a concensus re. pricing. Paul, I think I was confused between Taillevent (which you are correct that you had not suggested) and Le Pre Catalan (which you had). Both are in the same price range, along with Le Bristol, which is also on your list. Looking into Guy Savoy more carefully, I realized that it is WAY out of our price range—one of their prix fixe menus is approx. $250/person. But, the question is, and I guess my suggestion would be, do we want to make one of our dinners more of a splurge (approx. $100-115/person), one at a more mid-range place in the $75-100/person range, and then 1-2 more at places in the $40-65/person range.
Another possibility that Peg had mentioned to Chris is that we could plan on lunch at a high-end place, although that does affect plans for the day as you don’t want to try and do a lot of siteseeing after a big, long lunch.
The other question is one of preferences. While you gave us a list of 16 (now 15 with Le Pre Catalan taken out) restaurants, I need somewhat of a better sense of which really struck a chord with you and which are more “if we’re in the neighborhood, let’s try it” places. I have to be honest that some of the ones you reference didn’t sound very appealing based on Zagat’s, so maybe there’s more information in the other restaurant books that you have. We have Patricia Wells’ Food Lovers Guide to Paris as well as the new Zagat’s, so I’m using those for references, as well as articles from Bon Appetit and Gourmet.
In terms of timing, I’m assuming that with the exception of the day we arrive and the day we leave, there are no days that we couldn’t go out for a reservation dinner. Please let me know if I’m wrong in that assumption. Also on the subject of timing, what is the latest that you would feel comfortable dining? (Keeping in mind that most restaurants don’t open until 7:30pm and the earliest seatings are likely to be predominately Americans.)
Finally, I’m compiling a list as well of more bistro/cafe type places that we will have on-hand for lunches and more casual dinners and, of course, I will include those from your list as well. If you have any others that fit into that range, please let me know.
We do need to get at least the reservation dinners settled as Chris needs to send Sophie (the general manager at Relais du Louvre) a list of places we would like her to call.
Posted by Gerette on 5 April 2003