Restaurant Chez Clément Elysées
123 Av. des Champs Elysées, 75008 Paris
www.chezclement.com
Reviewed on Sunday 26 April 2009 lunch time

Av. des Champs Elysées. Chez Clément is located on the right side of the avenue.

Chez Clément is a decent chain restaurant. It is open all day so you do not have to wait until 7.30pm to have your dinner for example. Chez Clément Elysées, as its name hints, is located at the beautiful Champs Elysées avenue. It is closer to the Arc de Triomphe than to Le Louvre museum located at the opposite end, as you can see in the background of the photo above I took from the Arc.
I have been here several times and never had a bad surprise. This one is decorated with spoons and forks all over the rooms, walls and handles included. It must be a pain to keep them clean but they were clean This time we ordered l’escalope de volaille (14.90 euros), un souris d’agneau (18.90 euros), une fillette rouge (red wine – 8.70 euros), a bottle of Vittel water (5.30 euros) and ended the lunch with two espresso (5.60 euros).
The souris d’agneau (lamb knuckle joint) was the meal of the day. It was perfectly cooked but it could have been warmer. The vegetables and the sauce were good. The escalope de volaille (chicken breast) was breaded and served with a tomato sauce. It was well hidden under a huge crispy pancake supporting a salad. Please take a look at the photo to see what I mean.

Souris d'agneau

Escalope de volaille

Cost and conclusion:  it was 53.40 euros service charge included. Really not bad considering the decent lunch and the pretty expensive location!

Restaurant La Place
3 Place Cambronne
75015 Paris, France
Tel: 01 47 34 10 59
Reviewed on Saturday 25 April 2009

La Place is a good bistro to stop by in you are near the Eiffel Tower. It is about a 15-minute walk from it, a lot closer if you are at the end of the Champs de Mars near the Ecole Militaire. The nearest metro station is Cambronne, named after the general famous for his reply at Waterloo battle.
The restaurant is nicely decorated, with sophisticated dark walls and rustic wood tables. It feels like a fashionable pub.
As starters we ordered a millefeuille de tomates & mozzarella (7.90 euros) and a tranche de foie gras (13 euros). They were followed by a magret de canard (17 euros) and a tartare poelé (15 euros). The wine, very good by the way, was a carafe of 50cl Chinon (14 euros). We also had two coffee (6.40 euros).
I was curious about the millefeuille of tomato and mozzarella: a millefeuille (French word for thousand leaves) is a pastry made of several layers of puff pastry filled in an alternated way with sweet cream if it is a dessert, or with spinach etc if it is a starter. Well, no pastry here but alternated tomato and mozzarella. It was served cold, with a salad dressing and nice balsamic vinegar sauce that was lightly sweet. It was good. The foie gras was good too, coming with some chutney.

Millefeuille de tomates et mozzarella

Tranche de foie gras

The magret de canard (duck) was great, served with a gratin dauphinois. The tartare poelé aller retour is a raw minced meat mixed with cornichons/shallots/herbs/spices that had been quickly seared on both sides. It was excellent, with a great spicy taste and not too spicy to mask the taste of the meat. It was served with a salad and good crispy frites.

Magret de canard

Tartare poelé aller retour

Cost and conclusion: it was 73.30 euros service charge included. Not cheap but the food was great, the surrounding cosy. Compared to many tourists trap places near the Eiffel tower, this is a good spot!

Café Marco Polo
121 rue Saint Lazare
75008 Paris
Tel 01 43 87 36 05
Reviewed on Saturday 25 April 2009 lunch time

Les galeries Lafayettes

Café Marco Polo is located right in front of the Saint Lazare train station and a 15 minute walk from the Galeries Lafayette on Boulevard Haussmann. I have been there several times and it was always good
We ordered two pizzas: a pizza royale (14.90 euros) and a pizza soufflée/calzone (13.60 euros). As drink we had a bottle of their red wine of the month (14.90 euros). Not much to say beside everything from the pizza to the wine was good! The pizzas were crispy. The pizza royale could have had more cheese though.

Pizza royale

Pizza soufflée

Cost and conclusion: It was 43.40 euro service charge included. I noticed that lately France is really becoming an expensive country and it is not just because of the currency exchange pound-euro.  Almost 15 euros for a pizza is quite a lot, compared to a steak etc. Well, still a good lunch and I am glad to live in “cheap” London!