The 10 best things we ate in Paris

The week we've just spent in Paris was not a great gastronomic pilgrimage. We actually went to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary and to check out the flourishing natural wine scene in which we're both interested. We deliberately didn't make advance reservations or hit any two or three star restaurants, preferring the casual informality of bistros and wine bars. But we still ate well and here are - in no particular order - the 10 best dishes we had.

Steak frites at Café des Musées
Every trip to Paris should include a classic steak and chips and this was a cracker. Admittedly there was more fat than the average steak you'd get in a British restaurant but the taste was superb and the accompanying sauce béarnaise and very crisp hand-cut chips just perfect. The only thing that spoilt it were the loud Americans on a neighbouring table.


Radis beurre at Aux Deux Amis
Another French classic given a contemporary twist by including heirloom varieties at Aux Deux Amis, a tiny bistro on the Oberkampf (11e). Beautifully presented - I also love the whipped butter and the smoked sea salt. An ideal light start to a meal


Brandade and salad at Aux Deux Amis
OK, this doesn't look much but you have to trust me. Brandade which is made from salt cod normally comes as a sloppy purée you have with toast but this had been turned into a deconstructed fish pie. The old fashioned lettuce salad with it was the perfect accompaniment. I'm going to try this at home


Hake with crushed jerusalem artichokes, mint and olives at Rino
My husband who is more of a carnivore than I am probably wouldn't agree but this was the best dish at the best meal we had all week - at a tiny modern bistro in the 11th which serves a very short set-price lunch on Fridays and Saturdays for 20€ for two courses. A wonderfully subtle, imaginative combination of flavours. We ate it very slowly to make it last longer.


Red mullet with grains at Rino (top of post)
This was the first course at the same meal - red mullet with what they described as a 'soupe' of grains and lentils and some chard. Again, very clean and pure with a slightly Asian twist I couldn't quite put my finger on.

Joue de veau at Le Baratin
Le Baratin is probably Paris's most famous natural wine bistro - with a reputation for famously rude service as you can read here. But we found them politeness itself and the food was great. There were two main courses involving cheeks - ox cheek and veal cheek - both stellar. The ox cheek was better with the wine we ordered but the veal cheek was the lighter and more elegant dish.


Saucisse en cocotte at Vivant
Vivant, in the rue des Petites Ecuries in the 10th, is the new up and coming rival to Le Baratin. You can read my review here but I particularly liked this dish of robust Toulouse sausage served with all kinds of amazing root veg - beets, radish and turnips - steamed in their own juices en cocotte. Much lighter than the classic sausage and mash.


Oxtail croque at l’Avant Comptoir
We were pretty pleased with ourselves at squeezing into a small corner of the bar at Yves Camdeborde's ultra fashionable L'Avant Comptoir but it took a while for us to work out how to order. You think at first there's just the regulation charcuterie but there are lots of imaginative small dishes or tapas listed on cards that hang from the ceiling. This was my favourite - an oxtail 'croque' (fried sandwich) with horseradish chantilly (whipped cream). Totally delicious.


Poached pear at Philou
As you may have gathered we're not great ones for desserts - and were eating so much it was probably just as well - but this was a really lovely poached pear with salted caramel with some kind of baba-ish thingy we ate at a newish bistro Philou, just off the Canal St Martin.


Pistachio eclairs at Gosselin
And finally we did succumb to the pastry shops just once when we'd had a lighter than usual lunch, picking a pistachio eclair (at the back) from the multi-coloured selection at Gosselin in the rue St Honoré. So much more stylish than a cupcake. Just as well we didn't make patisserie the main focus of the trip . . .

Paris without a reservation

We took a different approach to our latest trip to Paris which was not to make any reservations. Partly because we'd had to cancel two trips here already and didn't want to tempt fate by booking yet another swathe of tables we might have to cancel and partly because the plan was to visit as many small bistros and wine bars as possible. Actually I tell a lie. We booked a table for our first night but we've booked nothing else more than a day ahead. For hard to get reservations like Le Baratin we rang up earlier the same day and still got a table.

So far it's worked like a dream. There's been nowhere we haven't managed to get into including Inaki Aizpitarte's new wine bar Le Dauphin, Yves Camdeborde's L'Avant Comptoir, Vivant and Rino, a restaurant we'd spent hours trying to get a booking for our last trip without success. A lot of these don't take bookings anyway or are so small that they won't take reservations on the phone especially from tourists

It's made me think that we go about visiting cities quite the wrong way these days, frantically trying to get a reservation at the most sought after restaurants and bars. Committing ourselves to a particular time slot which might not suit us because we're doing something else more interesting at the time. Squeezing in two meals a day when we might only fancy eating one. Stressing because we'll not be able to write up the hottest restaurants on our blog or for a future feature.

What we've done is wander in and have a glass of wine and a plate of charcuterie or couple of small plates then find somewhere else to have a main course or skip that and find a gorgeous cake from some enticing patisserie. We have had some fixed price meals - mainly at lunchtime - but have then eaten lightly in the evening.

Of course it's helped that there are only two of us and that we've been here for the week which removes the sense of urgency from the exercise but even if I was staying 3 to 4 nights another time I think - hope - I'd deploy the same tactics. It's also hugely reduced the cost of eating out.

What you do need so far as Paris is concerned is to come at the right time of the week. And that, unfortunately, is not at the weekend when many restaurants are shut or insanely busy but midweek from Tuesday to Friday (Mondays are also a popular closing day). Even then Parisien restaurants have erratic opening hours so do your homework, find out when the places you might fancy going are open and have a back up plan of a restaurant you could go to nearby if you don't manage to walk in. I admit I'm lucky to have a husband who likes nothing better than devising such strategies.

You also need to be prepared to eat at lunchtime rather than in the evening and earlier than might seem comfortable - the French start lunch at 12 so 12-12.30 is a good time to get a table. The added bonus is that the lunch menu is often cheaper than the dinner one.

There's always the delightful possibility you might walk past somewhere that's not on anyone's radar, where the locals themselves eat and which is a genuine find. One of the main problems these days - and I'm guilty of this myself - is that everyone goes to the same restaurants so your fellow diners are likely to be food critics and bloggers. Is that would you really want when you're exploring a city?

So how do you handle weekends - or midweek trips - to major destinations like Paris or New York? Plan ahead, leave things to chance or a bit of both?