On a recent trip to Paris I had the pleasure of eating at three restaurants.On our last night we ate at Chez L'Ami Jean which is situated on a quiet street in the 7th arrondisement.
This is a modern bistro headed up by a chef from the Basque region who bases many of his dishes on food from that region.
The place is small and the decor has lots of wooden panelling. You literally sit elbow-to-elbow with your fellow diners. However, rather than this being a negative it creates a very buzzy atmosphere and you quickly find yourself in conversation with people at nearby tables.
The place was packed - not a surprise given that it was a Saturday night. It seemed like the clientele was split evenly between locals and tourists.
This is clever and inventive food that is full of flavour. In fact the menu descriptions do not do justice to the tastes that you experience. Unlike Chez Georges which serves well-known classic dishes, you will struggle to find a single dish here that you recognise.
The service here is frenetic but friendly. The waiter was even able to joke with us in English. In response to a comment from us that everything on the menu looked good he remarked that "all the food and wine is excellent. It's only the service that's crap!".
As a starter two of us ordered the Croustillant dish. This was like a large piece of filo pastry wrapped around a very tasty filling of carrots, egg and other ingredients which I'm not sure about. Very unusual and very delicious.
I can't even remember what the main dish was as I ordered something that I didn't recognise. I like trying different things so I thought I'd chance my arm. It had the word "Volaille" in it so I was assuming it would be based on chicken.
It was some concoction of chicken with a sauce and spices. Again very unusual and very delicious. One of the other mains was a rabbit dish which I tried. Again nothing but praise for this also.
There were four of us at our table and each one of us raved about our chosen dishes. In fact, at the end of our trip, we all voted Chez L'Ami Jean as the best of the three restaurants we had eaten in. Fine praise indeed given that we all loved Chez Georges also.
And to make matters even better it also was the cheapest of the three restaurants by quite a distance. With three courses, a couple of bottles of wine and some water the bill for four came to just over €200 euros. In my book that represents excellent value.
The only slight negative on the evening is that we got hurried away from the table at 10:30pm as there were people queueing to get in. We had booked the 9:00pm sitting fully expecting the table to be ours until closing time but it seems that this restaurant has a third sitting for late diners.
This is unique cooking and you come away feeling that you've just discovered a little hidden gem.
Just one tip - reserve your table well in advance. This place is popular both with Parisians as well as tourists.
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