Customer Reviews

Pudlo Paris 2007-2008: A Restaurant Guide

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A year or so ago, a blogger with a special love for Paris bemoaned the way Americans read English-language restaurant guides and then make predictable choices:

"I've given up the occasionally useful Patricia Wells [The Food Lover's Guide to Paris, because every self-respecting American foodie would never find herself eating anywhere in Paris without first checking with the good Ms. Wells. This often results in the mass descending of American food tourists on places she favored. Walking through the door of La Regalade these days feels like one has just been magically transported to Manhattan."

The blogger took solace in one enduring reality: "My Pudlo is still only available in French. When a translated version is published, then I will really scream."

Well, scream your head off, darling. It's here: the first-ever English language edition of Gilles Pudlowski's voluminous-yet-handy guide to 1,000 Paris restaurants, 300 wine bars, tea shops, cafes and several hundred gourmet groceries. He gives awards: best chef of the year, international restaurant of the year, young chef of the year, bistro of the year --- even best hostess of the year. He lists new restaurants, with ratings (one to three "plates") and prices. He summarizes the "best" restaurants. He collects restaurants that are the "best value for the money." And he smartly organizes this mass of information and opinion by collecting restaurants in arrondisements, with informative short essays at the beginning of each one.

Gilles Pudlowski is not just a critic. In that French way, he's a public intellectual: a historian of regional French cooking, a novelist, cookbook author. As a foodie, he's a bit limited; he seems to be obsessed with "produce". And he ends almost every mini-review the same way, with praise for the restaurant's wine list. Still, if you're off to Paris --- or, given the exchange rate, of a mind to read and dream about Paris --- this is the book to buy.

Not Zagat?

Not Zagat, except as a handy --- because it's alphabetical --- backup.

And for a very simple reason: Zagat tells you what tens of thousands of unknown people liked, Pudlo is one man's opinion. Okay, with a little help --- he uses "twenty or so professional and amateur researchers." Still, I think my point holds: You do better dealing with one, reasonably consistent point-of-view than with a legion of unknowns.

Pudlo's point-of-view comes across as one of sensible optimism. He finds this a very good time: "Paris has never provided us with as many new opportunities to celebrate at reasonable prices." [Looking at those prices, you may conclude there was a problem in the translation here.] His chef of the year is female. And he has a knack for suggesting restaurants you've never heard of in a way that makes you want to go immediately.

The quickest way to test a critic is to compare his impressions of restaurants you know well with your take on those establishments. I was with him on Le Caveau du Palais, an old favorite on the Place Dauphine: "There is not a single false note..." Yes, Vaudeville is "the archetypal Parisian brasserie." I thought there was much more to say about Benoit than to recite the menu and note that it now takes Visa. I found Bofinger overrated; Pudlo wrote around the subject, avoiding a negative opinion. He raved about the view at Georges, on the roof of the Pompidou Center --- well, duh. He nailed L'Orangerie for its devotion to "chic little suppers." Amen. His enthusiasm for Rotisserie du Beaujolais could not equal mine; I forgive him. He overpraises the fading Vietnamese classic, Tan Dinh, and fails to include the outrageously great Cambodian restaurant, Au Coin des Gourmets --- for shame. And he has a weakness for killer expensive, big name restaurants that I don't share.

No matter. Reading Pudlo is to be in a conversation. I thrilled when he turned sour: Maxim's customers are "in search of a culinary museum." And it's great to hear a voice that's a monotone for most of the book break out in wild praise. The Mori Venice Bar "will convince you that the Grand Canal is to be found in the heart of Paris." Helene Darroze "looms over the Parisian culinary stage alongside all those she formerly admired." And he finds the food at the Jules Verne --- the Eiffel Tower restaurant I recall as an overpriced tourist trap --- so great that he could almost "step over the balustrade and take to the air." Nice touches, all.

Pudlo --- don't leave home without him.

We've spent a lot of time in Paris, especially for the last 15 years on business.

We're not big name restaurant people. It's not that we avoid them, we just don't always have time or the inclination to drop half the family fortune. We've never had a bad meal in Paris. Sometimes you just don't feel like making a meal an expedition. Other times, you have your mouth set on something. Pudlo sorts it out by districts in a way anyone who understands the system will find agreeable..

Pudlo is an old new reliable for the French. This is the first time it's been in English, but it's worthwhile. As a test we picked some our favorite restaurants. Most of them were there, including the dishes that we thought we most noteworthy (some exotic). A few were not - and many of the ordinary restaurants we choose would not be in anyone's guide. But it's more useful that most other guides. Just check the menus for price before you eat.

I was just in Paris for five weeks, and I must have spent many hours reading Pudlo over the course of the trip. I did not find it all that helpful, mainly because I found the paragraphs that accompany each restaurant listing insufficiently critical. Nearly every restaurant in the book gets a good review. A few are praised to the ceiling (mostly the grand restaurants, which obviously have fantastic food), and a few are condemned as disappointing, but the vast majority of the reviews are fairly bland: Pudlo describes a few signature dishes, relates some tidbit about the decor or location or the new chef, and says that they were left happy and satisfied. I wanted the guidebook to help me find the best restaurants in the city, of every size and price: the places that serve unusually good food. But Pudlo did not help with that, because it doesn't discriminate between the vast majority of restaurants it reviews.

I was disappointed in other ways as well. Trying to find a restaurant close to the Comedie Française, I chose one of Pudlo's "Special Favorites", a Corsican place called A Casa Luna. It turned out to be mediocre, ordinary, not a restaurant I would want to return to. My main dish was mush, literally mush, with a big slice of cheese on top. (My friend's fish was slightly better.) Not only was the Pudlo guide in general insufficiently discriminating, but the rankings provided did not inspire confidence. How could a serious food critic call this mediocre place "A Special Favorite"?

One would think that Pudlo and his team of assistants would know the city like the palm of their hand, and would reveal the small, inconspicuous places where one can find superb food and drink. Alas, the guide has a prejudice against small casual places--it will list a formal restaurant where the food is quite ordinary over a hole-in-the-wall where the food is divine--and it is often content to stick with places whose fame is already established. Understandable, perhaps (it's harder to find the less well-known gems), but boring. Pudlo lists one ice cream shop in the fourth arrondissement, Berthillon, which is a nice place but already extremely famous. It did not list my favorite ice cream shop in the fourth: Pozetto's, a small independent gelato place, which made truly extraordinary gelato. Pudlo doesn't bother to include these less well-known gems.

Pudlo is helpful as a restaurant phone-book of sorts--it's handy to have the phone numbers, addresses, hours, and prices for such a large number of restaurants. I appreciated that information. But as for guidance, it disappoints.

For a tourist attempting to plan a Paris vacation, one of the most daunting tasks is planning meals. Unlike most cities where there are a couple of city-defining establishments, Paris is simply awash in wonderful restaurants, with over-the-top , bust your budget choices and quaint, simple good value eateries, with everything in between. While some might argue that its difficult to get a truly bad meal in Paris, it is a revelation to find a place that is not on the top ten list of Fodors or Zagat that blows your taste buds away. Pudlo is the book that every tourist planning a Parisian getaway should reference.

There are few establishments missed, few unjustly skewered and few undeservedly lauded. Even some of the old chestnuts that are usually treated with disdain in competing books appear to be freshly reviewed, bringing back into consideration classics such as the Tour D'Argent.

I am certain that the depth of Pudlo's now international reach will disappoint some Parisians who now will find les americains in some of their most precious and heretofore private culinary domains.

In previous visits to Paris we'd relied on recommendations from friends reviews found on travel websites, and luck. Then you're in Paris and find that the recommended restaurants are far from where you are... or that our friends' taste is rather pedestrian. This time we took the Pudlo guide with us. As a result we ate heavenly - yet as inexpensively as it's possible while the $ is low and the Euro high. The guide is conveniently divided by city areas (arrondissments) so wherever you find yourself at lunch or dinner time, you can just pick a nearby restaurant that's recommended. Restaurants are also marked by price range and decor, and there are a handful of "Pudlo's favorites" -- every one of those was fantastic food. We'll never go to Paris again without the most recent Pudlo in hand.

Have to say that this book was one of the most used books on our last trip. We liked how it was written and the reviews seemed to be right on. Fine dining is paramount to us in our travels and this really helped find the spots to try. Highly recommend it.

As always, Pudlo is the best. Easy to use, tersely written text, often amusing, always helpful. You'll be glad you own one,

(Note to the copy editor: Take out the exclamation points.)

We just returned from Paris and I have to say that I wish EVERY major city had a Pudlo guide. I'm sure they're out there in some guise, but this one is simply perfect.

I've used Zagat before and in the States have had pretty good results. However, in Europe, I've found that many Zagat reviewers don't quite get the European dining experience. You find scores of complaints about rude waiters, cramped tables and service taking too long. They don't do these fabulous restaurants justice because they base their experiences on wide-open American restaurants with waiters that speak their language who want to turn their tables as fast as possible. Many of the reviews in Zagat get downright annoying.

The Pudlo Paris guide was fantastic. It didn't matter which arrondissement you were in, you were never more than a block from a perfect dining experince, whether it was in a noisy bistro or a white tablecloth temple of gastronomy.

I'll never go back without it!

There are too many guides for foodies. There are too many guides to Paris. That said, I want Pudlo's Paris by my side before, during and after every visit. I read every entry months in advance of a trip, marking the enticing restaurants, cafes, wine bars, and food shops that are near where I'll be staying or worth a trek to find. He nails it every time and I am always on the look-out for the next edition. Sometimes, I am dining, drinking or stopping for a pastry and coffee with a friend, sometimes I'm alone, so I don't want to waste my euros and palate on a mediocre mouthful or be treated to an indifferent welcome. The guide has served me well and saved me from being part of committee decisions on where to have a meal. I rule or overrule, gently when possible, because I'm willing to do the research. Pudlowski has me in his pocket and I have him in mine.

The book is good for suggestions on restaurants, but I am not sure with all the advise out there on restaurants. It is helpful breaking down where all the restaurants are located and I will bring it with me to Paris