Travel Stop: Pretty Paris
Even though Laduree is more famous and boasts longer queues, Pierre Herme's quality trumps them. Be prepared to pay premiums though, this box of 20 pieces cost €42, definitely not cheap stuff. The Macarons are also surprisingly filling, probably cause of the richness of the flavor, the thickness of the macaron shells, and generous portions of cream ganache.
Pierre Hermé creates inventive flavour combinations too; the bright pink/red one with the chocolate ganache is 'Foie Gras & Chocolate'.
Hearty / Tasty / Worthy: 2.5 / 5 / 3
*all ratings are out of 5
Crepes can be found everywhere around Paris and they are mostly pretty good. Of course, what better flavour than having a banana Nutella crepe. This absolutely humongous one was at a booth outside the Moulin Rouge (Blanche Station), just at the entrance of the village of Montmatre.
Hearty / Tasty / Worthy: 5 / 4 / 5
Here, they only have steak frites as the main course, apart from drinks and desserts.
Steak Frites [€27.50]
Decent beef with an interesting sauce; tasted hints of olive oil and yogurt. A lot nicer and more flavorful than l'entrecote's gravy. Shoestring fries were well fried and not too salty. Amazing thing was that I was served a double portion (see bottom right) of beef on top of my original serving! Not sure why though, I was doubting if it was leftovers... but whatever I had my fill. There's refill on the fries as well. Extremely sumptuous.
Profiteroles [€7.00]
Essentially cream puffs but with ice cream inside, topped with a generous wallop of chocolate sauce. A decent French dessert.
Hearty / Tasty / Worthy: 5 / 4 / 4
Cute restaurant name lol.
Foie gras portion was extremely generous and cooked perfectly - seared on the outside and creamy on the inside. Flavours and oils were oozing out of the foie, adding to the flavours of the mash and onion purée. Careful what type of foie you order in France though, they might serve up a terrine which is raw and tastes very different from what you would normally expect.
Hearty / Tasty / Worthy: 4 / 4 / 3.5
Stumbled upon this shop walking along the street. I think these are artisan cream puffs. Each flavour has a flavoured icing cap and stuffed with flavoured cream. Even though they were really tasty, each piece is more expensive than a Pierre Herme macaroon :/ maybe it's worth trying just 1 piece.
Hearty / Tasty / Worthy: 1 / 5 / 2
Queued at least for 20 mins before getting a seat for 5. Expectations are high.
Plain Buckwheat Gallette [€8.50]
Expectations kill and this dish suffered. The supposedly special buckwheat gallette tasted like slightly burnt crepe. The accompanying farmhouse buttermilk was not to my liking either; if you don't know what buttermilk tastes like, it's basically sour and bland.
Crepe with Homemade Salted Caramel [€5.80] and Valrhona Chocolate [€5.80]
The sweet crepes were more promising. The texture was soft and was quite tasty. The homemade caramel sauce really tasted homemade as there was that hint of burnt sugar. Valrhona chocolate would be my choice though, with the intensity of the dark chocolate meeting the softness of the crepes. Not enough for me to want to come back.
Hearty / Tasty / Worthy: 2 / 2.5 / 3.5
A classic French sandwich with melted Emmental cheese on top some ham and toast. Can't really go too wrong with cheese unless you don't really like cheese. At the same time it's not often that you find an absolutely amazing one, at least I haven't. If you do, please let me know ^^
Hearty / Tasty / Worthy: 4 / 3 / 3.5
Level 7 Burppler · 406 Reviews
"I love eating. But I hate getting fat. I love eating. But I only want to eat the best. I love eating. But I'm reluctant to spend too much." The above are a few paradoxes that describe my love-hate relationship with food. Yet at the same time they define my principles for choosing the places which I love to eat: 1) Hearty 2) Tasty 3) Worthy (of my money)