After taking a break from a fun day, we decided to head on out before dinner. The destination? One that we consider a must visit during the holiday season in Paris. We are always interested to see the Christmas window displays at Galeries Lafayette. This would the third holiday season we'd be in Paris, so we couldn't miss that, right?
We walked on over from the 3rd Arrondissement to the bright lights of Galeries Lafayette in full Holiday mode. We strolled around and took in the holiday window display.
Every year the display tells a story. The last time we were in Paris during the holiday season (pre-Covid, 2019) the theme was bees and the hive.
This time, the theme….well, we couldn't quite figure it out.
Can you figure out what the story is about?
After making it around to all the windows; it looked like something to do with outer space and aliens?
Later we'd return to Galeries Lafayette and get the full scoop on the story…..
From here we decided to walk to our dinner destination. Of course, this is Paris, so it was a stroll full of landmarks….
I had made reservations at a place we'd enjoyed previously. Les Enfants Rouge, located right around the corner from Marché des Enfants Rouges was a favorite of our from our previous trip. Yes, we'd been to several places of what we call the "Nikkei revolution" in Paris. Chefs from Japan who worked in the highest levels of French restaurants and eventually opened places of their own. We'd been honored and blessed to sample the dishes at places like ERH, Pertinence, and Alliance among others. But what we had enjoyed at Les Enfants Rouge was the unfussy dishes which leaned more toward Japanese cuisine in our opinion.
As before we strolled down the quiet side street and entered the neat and rather austere restaurant and was greeted by the very kind and professional hostess who led us to our table. As before we went with the three course menu for 75€ and one wine pairing.
And like before, we basically shared everything family style and the great service picked up on this and placed dishes in the middle with separate plates for us!
The Lamb Terrine was so very tasty, mildly gamey, and might I say, almost refreshing in a way?
Loved the purple cabbage slaw and the shallot and parsley sauce, all of which went well with the terrine and the bread! The terrine was also perfectly seasoned with an soft texture which belied the look of a farmhouse style terrine.
The Duck Hearts were not as metallic-iron-ny as expected.
In terms of flavor, it was definitely savory and very "ducky" to the tenth power. The foam had a nice sweetness to it, helping to temper the flavor of the duck. We didn't care for the Roquefort Risotto which had some hard pieces and detracted from the overall flavor of the dish.
The Roasted Scallops were fabulous, perfectly cooked, still rare in the center, sweet, with a briny finish.
The seafood based "sauce" was very creamy, hints of savory shellfish, the mushrooms were earthy, with a mild sweetness to them.
And then the dish we were waiting for, the Tempura Fish. On our previous visit, it was the highlight of the meal. Make that "meals" as this again was amazing!
This time the fish was maigre, which I understand is croaker. The fish was coated in a light and crisp batter and was very moist. For us, it's that deeply savory, nori based "dashi" that is so deeply umami and really takes the mild flavored fish to a different level.
There was one dessert that sounded interesting, the Baba with Toki Whiskey, a 10€ upcharge.
The typical looking Baba arrived at the table and then, no kidding, they brought a bottle of Toki out and proceeded to pour around two ounces of it over the Baba. We cracked up! Liked the whiskey, not quite sure about the "Rum Baba".
We both enjoyed the Lychee Mousse which wasn't overly sweet. And surprisingly the grapefruit supreme paired well with this!
This was another wonderful meal at Les Enfants Rouge. Great unpretentious service, great food, we can't wait to return.
Les Enfants Rouges
9 Rue de Beauce
75003 Paris, France
Of course, this in itself presents another interesting issue of sorts. Over time, we've come up with some favorite places to eat. And it seems that it may be hard to try other places without sacrificing a visit to one of our favorites!
Though looking at it another way, if that's the biggest issue we have with Paris; well that's a nice "problem" to have, right?
Hope you're having a wonderful weekend!
There was a sign posted saying that the place wasn't doing takeout orders on this day. I guess they were anticipating a major lunch rush? By the way, this was a weekday. One thing we noticed, that is usually a positive sign were that most of the customers were older folk, which to us is usually a pretty good sign.
These were not very good. The wrapper was chewy and brittle, there was some "soup" in the XLB but it was very bland. The filling was tough and chewy and also pretty much tasteless.
I tucked in quickly when the bowl arrived and was quite pleased with this! The soup, while still on the lighter side of things, had a nice amount of white pepper, there was a decent amount of beefiness, and the MSG level was a lot lower than I recalled. I could have used more xue cai which adds a nice, pleasant sour-acidity to things and textural contrast, but this was fine.
I quickly noticed that some of the basil had gone south already and the portion of sprouts was even smaller than on 
I'm used to Pho Fusion being a bit miserly with the sprouts and basil and they lived up to that reputation; though at least it was of decent quality.
The noodles were in the typical clump, but were not over-cooked. As mediocre as this bowl was, it was still better than what I'd had at Duyen Mai. Kinda sad….
Whoa, this was by far the largest "small bowl" of the three places as well. The soup had a good amount of cilantro and onions.
There was quite a bit of interesting street art in the area. There was a place named Holybelly that was the subject of one of the 
Choices of pizza, Asian fusion, poke, a taco shop and Greek/Mediterranean (as well as a massage parlor)…what a unique mall area with plenty of parking.
We decided on Viktor's after checking out menus on the windows of all the businesses.
Walk up, order and pay. Grab your beverages. Your name is called out when everything is ready.
For this initial visit, we chose to share an Ultimate Salad ($14.95). A full serving of Gyros and a full serving of Victor's chicken on top of a Greek Salad. Wow! Plenty of food to share. A standard Greek salad-Romaine, bell peppers, onion, tomato, Feta and Greek olives, topped with a house made VK dressing. The marinated chicken was moist and grilled with a nice char. The beef and lamb gyros was shaved from the vertical rotisserie spit and very good. 
I also ordered this "Feta Melt" from the starter menu ($6.25) and wow-this was great. Feta, red onion, bell peppers, tomatoes on a toasted pita. 
A great bite of flavors and texture. Even though served folded, as above, eating the pita 'open faced' seemed proper.
Then again, the interior decor is unique and focused on types of 'money'.
Walk up, order and pay. You are given a number and find a seat. 
Here is a close up of the menu.
"The Mess" ($9.10) Eggs, cheese, hash browns, bell pepper, onion, ham, bacon, sausage and toast. Everything in every bite. A lot of food, a lot of flavor, a lot of texture. Should be enough for anyone.
Chili Cheese omelette ($8.90) Three eggs filled with house made chili (no beans) and topped with a slice of American cheese. A slab of crispy hash browns and toast. Again a lot of food. A bowl of chili will be a nice meal when the weather cools down. 
We decided to share a side and since it was our first time, a Combo Plate ($6) was ordered. Fries (not too many; a nice surprise), onion rings (whole onion, not diced), zucchini fingers and mushrooms. This large platter was served with two large cups of house made Ranch (you can order more for 50¢). Excellent, fresh, proper fry (even the potatoes were nice and crisp) and leftovers.
A "3 x 3" burger ($6.60) was one order. Three charred beefy patties, three slices of cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle and onion on a toasted bun. Excellent, fresh and, of course, large.
The Chicken Breast Sandwich ($7.75) was a great choice. Served on a lightly toasted Squaw Roll, the grilled chicken breast has a slight char and is moist and flavorful. Lettuce and tomato is all that was needed to compliment this sandwich. 
We decided to share a banana milkshake ($4.50) and it was great! 
A remnant from the vault is now part of the decor.
Having 
Step inside, the sign in sheet is at the door, sushi bar is to your right. There is outdoor seating.
As always, we start with hot tea.
The paper menu is in English and Japanese. If you are early enough (and there are still some of the limited number of bento lunch specials available), you'll be given the daily Special Bento Box menu. You can also read the menus online. 
This Bento Special ($15) included Pot au feu, steamed chicken, fish miso, deep fried Spanish mackerel, deep fried meatloaf, spaghetti and rolled omelet (in addition to miso soup and salad). Pot au feu is steamed beef with vegetables; tender, rich flavored. The steamed chicken was also nicely flavored (no condiments/soy sauce is needed for any of this meal); every bite was well balanced.
Sara Udon ($18) is a crispy noodle based dish. Stir fried seafood (shrimp, fish, scallops) and vegetables with a smooth sauce surrounded by crisp, fried udon. Textures, flavors and comfort-food. 
Homemade gyoza ($7.50) are filled with a juicy pork mix,. The gyoza skins are thin with a light fry.
Chicken Katsu Bowl ($16). Served as a 'Set" (as are all the main dishes), the Katsu chicken on top of rice is light crisp-fried and juicy. 
Ebi Kakiage Udon ($14)- Shrimp with shredded vegetable. This tempura-type dish has the shrimp (ebi) coated with bits of seafood and vegetable fried into a sort of fritter. Pieces can be dipped in the udon, but the crispiness is what was craved this day.
Grouper Hot Pot ($15) (listed as 'Hataki Noko' instead of 'Nabe' on the handwritten receipt).
Arriving like this- with hidden fish and a luxurious topping of mixed vegetables and many types of mushroom in an excellent (not too salty) dashi based broth. Each component of this tray was filled with flavor. The fried grouper did manage to stay crisp for a good part of the meal.
One hot day, I ordered my favorite, Tempura Zaru Soba ($14). Chilled soba noodles with a tasty dipping sauce and tempura shrimp on the side. Soba does not affect my blood sugar levels, making this dish even more satisfying.
One day, we were seated at the back wall and were able to stop to read the display along that adjoining corner wall. Professional golfer, Xander Schauffele has a signed poster and other news items on this portion of the wall. 
That's what things looked like when I opened up the boxes back at the office. I did a quick taste of the tomato topping which was super bland, you couldn't even really taste tomato. The version of Mul Kimchi provided was weird as it had a real strong anise/clove flavor that wasn't very pleasant.
And not a hint of truffle flavor to be found.
The wings had held up better this time. I tried the sides first. The corn slaw was terrible, the "dressing" was really watery and this lacked flavor. Very little corn, you might as well just give me raw coleslaw mix.
The batter had peeled away from two of the pieces, which had been turned face down in the box. The sauce was not overly sweet, but I still would have preferred a bit more saltiness, this was much milder than the versions at other places. The chunks of chicken were on the dry and tough side.
I'm not going to beat a dead horse about that Mul Kimchi. I just don't care for the flavor.
Really friendly folks, a nice selection. I got the Missus a French Press and I got an Americano before we hit the road.
