The trendy site for gastronauts awards its prizes annually for eateries all over the country, but inevitably many are to be found in Paris, and two are right by our hotels…


photo (c) christian.adamini

Paris is great for food. Well, it’s great for a lot of things, but it’s really great for food. Some of the best chefs in the world work here, we have some amazing spaces to see, and a walk back home through the city afterwards is something that nowhere else in the world can offer. The most famous spots are pretty well known, and once a month we try to find more for you, but it’s not always easy to keep abreast of the best, newest places. That’s where Le Fooding comes in.

Le Fooding tests restaurants and wine bars, trying to document the newest and best spots to eat, drink and be seen; posing is all part of the process (this is Paris after all). We tested last year’s winner of the ‘best restaurant’ prize for you, and weren’t too happy with it this year’s winner is in Strasbourg), but the awards list is always interesting nonetheless.

The Le Fooding site is all in French, but for the language-challenged out there, we’ve had a look through this year’s winners to show you what’s hot! (You can find the whole listing here on their site)

Best Bourgeois-Bohemian Spot for Wine – Il Vino

This restaurant is 5 minutes away from the Hôtel Eiffel Park, and it’s for those who know their wine… and are prepared to pay for it. Also, the menu only shows the wine (15,000 different bottles available!). What they serve with it is up to them. Now there’s a concept! There’s a blind taste menu at 100 euros, with five different wines served in dark black glasses so you can’t see what you’re drinking. Another menu at 1,000 euros (yep, 1,000 euros) lets you try some mythic vintages. For connoisseurs only…

photo (c) Le blog des champagnes Salon et Delamotte

Il Vino, 13 boulevard de La Tour-Maubourg, Paris 7th arrondissement, métro Latour Maubourg (line 8). Open Tuesday – Saturday, 12.30-2.30pm and 7.30-10.30pm

Best décor – Chez Jeanette

This used to be a smoky, near-empty café/restaurant that served poorish food and catered to old men from the working-class neighbourhood. Hardly very inspiring. However, it did have a very high ceiling, kitsch lamps (that no longer work) and old school neon around the bar. i.e. charm in spades. The bar has recently been taken over by a group of much younger people, and all of a sudden it is the hottest spot in town! It is also, until the end of the year when the no smoking laws come in, one of the smokiest, as the walls prove; I don’t think the wallpaper was nicotine yellow when they put it up (probably some time in the 50s).

But Le Fooding is right, the décor is pretty astounding. Apparently the lamps will be repaired soon, and the floor re-done so it doesn’t stick to your shoes so much. Hopefully, and especially as the clientèle is now pseudo-cool 30-something filmmakers and web designers, nothing else will change.

Chez Jeanette, 47, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis, Paris 10th arrondissement, métro Strasbourg – Saint-Denis (lines 4, 8 & 9) or Château d’Eau (line 4). Open every day from 8am – 11pm (10pm Sundays)

Best “Home Cinema” – Le Salon du Panthéon

30 seconds from the Hôtel de la Sorbonne, 2 minutes from the Hôtel des Grands Hommes and the Hôtel du Panthéon, there’s a little cinema called the Cinéma du Panthéon. And you wouldn’t know it, because it’s not signposted anywhere, on the first floor of the Cinéma du Panthéon is the Salon du Panthéon. So what? Well, firstly, we love this sort of half-secret place. Secondly, not many people have heard about it yet, so you won’t be overrun by tourists. Thirdly, they have the own terrace for the summer. Fourthly, national icon (with near-goddess status here) Catherine Deneuve did the décor. It doesn’t get much more stylish than this, and we’ll be going down there very soon to takes photos just for you…

photo (c) Why Not Productions

Le Salon du Panthéon at the Cinéma du Panthéon, 13 rue Victor-Cousin, Paris 5th arrondissement, métro Cluny – La Sorbonne (line 10). Open weekdays only from 12.30-2.30pm and as a salon de thé until 6pm

Best Tiny Restaurant – Spring

An American in Paris, Daniel Rose, the chef at Spring, has his own blog in English, which is good news because you may never get to meet him; his restaurant is booked up solid until January 2008. It also has fairly strange opening hours, perhaps because Daniel can also be hired to cook out in your very own home. He’s also planning a new website with “Spring TV” (what a busy man!) and has quite a few recipes online on cookshow.com, like this one for scallops with beetroot and vanilla vinaigrette. Should keep your mouth watering until a table becomes free next… Spring! ha ha ha… 🙂

Spring, 28, rue de la Tour d’Auvergne, Paris 9th arrondissement, métro Anvers (line 2) or Cadet (line 7). Open for dinner Tuesdays to Friday and for lunch some Thursdays and Fridays only

Best Bistro – Le Grand Pan

Described as bistronomy (buzzword of the year?), we have to admit to not knowing much about Le Grand Pan, except that the food is cuisine française and it doesn’t look like anything special when seen from the street. However the food sounds amazing… if you like meat (we’re vegetarian). Go get!

photo (c) Une Russe A Paris

Le Grand Pan, 20 rue Rozenwald, Paris 15th arrondissement, métro Convention (line 12) or Plaisance (line 13). Open middays and evenings (except Saturday midday and all day Sunday) from 12.30-2.30pm and 7.30-11pm

Best Wine Bar With Food – Racines

Only open since October, and situated in one of Paris’ covered galleries just off the Grands Boulevards, Racines is said to have great nibbles, including fantastic cheese and balsamic vinegar, stupendous coffee, and some rather spectacular wines – so much so that the won this prize! This is another we will be checking out for you very soon…

photo of the Galerie des Panoramas (c) anneinparis16

Racines, 8 passage des Panoramas, Paris 2nd arrondissement, métro Grands Boulevards (lines 8 & 9). Open weekdays from midday to midnight (but if you arrive at 11.59pm they’ll let you hang around until 2am!)

And here’s the map with all the addresses. Enjoy!:

Bigger map here