Travelogue: The French Can Cook

While we were in Paris, we of course wanted to check out the local restaurant scene. I've got to say that except for the occassinal stumble, we did pretty well. While we were there, one of our favorite restaurants we found was called Les Pipos. It's located at 2 rue de L'Ecole Polytechnique, Quarter Latin (5th Arrondissement). Some places have it listed as a wine bar, so if you're looking for it, you may need to look at that section of your guide-book. We found it through our Fodor's Paris Guide. It was relatively close to the hotel we were staying in at the time, so we thought we would give looking for it a try (the books say it's a little difficult to come to if you don't know the area well). When we arrived, we found that the menu changes daily depending on what they have available to cook. Also, it's all completely in French (shocking, since we were in France) and only one member of the staff speaks some English. Basically, they write down the menu on a couple of chalk-boards and away they go (there are about 5 main courses, and a bunch of little dishes that stay the same on a daily basis). They also had a huge wine menu over the bar. Luckily for us, there was a very nice English-speaking woman sitting next to us who helped us navigate the menu. I got an amazing lamb dish that night. I also got the house-special wine for the night - I can't remember what it was, but it was red. We had a terrific meal and only for a few Euros. We liked it so much we went back on the night before we came back home. That night we both got the same dish - "different parts of the pig cooked in a pot with vegetables." It was amazing. I love this place and would definately find my way back there if/when I return to Paris. Be warned, however, it's a tiny place, and although we didn't have to wait for a table either time, you are basically sitting with the people sitting next to you. In fact, my wife had the drunk French lady sitting next to her leaning on her shoulder for a good part of our meal one night.
You can read the tiny New York Times review of Les Pipos here.
The write-up in Fodor's can be found here.