Walking around Paris at 7pm, you’d think you have the pick of the restaurants. Everywhere you look there are rows of empty seats, especially those with great reviews and a fantastic looking menu, but step inside and all you’ll hear is “we’re fully booked”. Apparently the French don’t eat until later.
Luckily we found one restaurant that was happy to accommodate us, despite apparently being fully booked themselves, at least there were actually two other people dining at the same time though. And to be honest, I’m happy we weren’t there at the peak, because every table down one side is literally touching the next one, having to be slid out to let patrons sit down.
Starting with a superb soup – although the usually perfect French bread was a little stale – our mains were even better. With a subtle hake on one side of the table, I had the pork neck (not entirely what I had expected after some details getting lost in translation) but it was simply delicious. So tender and flavourful, both were accompanied with a smooth and tasty celeriac mash and the most beautiful of sauces. Both dishes were the perfect blend of warmer home cooking with more technical and enticing flavours.
Both pretty full, for desert we got something to share, but if was our best pudding of the holiday. A delicate apple tart with salted caramel ice cream, it was as good as anything from the very best patisseries in Paris and almost worth the price of the whole dinner alone.
Le Garde Temps, 19 bis rue Pierre Fontaine, 75009, Paris, France