Benoit, Le Chartier & Terminus Nord

The benoit salad!

Me & my folks for a Christmas prezzy decided to go for a new year trip to Paris for a few days so I booked lunch at Benoit, a Michelin starred Alain Ducasse bistro, http://www.benoit-paris.com/ which looked rather tasty. They do a 3 course 36 Euro lunch menu which thought sounded rather good.
It's very classic looking inside with a nice buzzing atmosphere & we are shown to a lovely table in a corner so we can see the whole restaurant. I ordered a caraffe of dry white wine which was quite small & pretty expensive I thought at 40 Euros but tasted nice & we were given a little snack of 6 Cheese galette balls which went down very well. I had to ask our waiter for the lunch menu as he had "forgotten" & we ordered!

I ordered for starter the "Saucisson brioche, mache et vinaigrette truffee" which was sausage meat with pistachios surrounded in brioche served with a little side salad (see main photo). It was parfait & delicious! My ma had the "Salade Benoit" which was a meat feast of duck, chicken, pork, Mushrooms & eggs which was excellent & my pa had the "Veloute de topinambours et royale de fois grois" which was cream of artichoke with some lardons & a bit of foie gras thrown in. He ate it pretty fast & didn't say to much so I think he liked it quite a lot.

The Bomb!

On to mains, I went for "Lieu jaune roti, choux braises et au vin d'arbois" which was the bomb! It was roast pollack served on a stuffed cabbage with vegetables & a wine sauce/gravy. It was really delicious, tender & flavoursome! I could of ate it again.
Ma went for "Longe de cochon fermier cuisinee en cocotte, gratin de potiron au jus" which was a slab of pork with a pumpkin gratin. I had a bite & it was pretty tasty but the pork was slightly overcooked.
Pa had "Tranche de boudin noir risolee aux deux pommes" which was black pudding with mash, raw apple & a cooked apple! I had a bite to & the black pudding was lovely & spicy & the mash was really creamy. Quite a winner.

The Bomb of desserts!

So onto the really incredible desserts! My pa started chatting to the maitre d' as my dad is a pastry chef & trained in Lausanne & basically likes all things sweet. The Maitre d' liked this & said we could order desserts of the a la carte menu! Pretty pretty sweet! I went stright in & ordered the "Souffle glace a l'orange et au Grand-Marnier" which was cold orange souffle with lovely spongey cake in the middle with loads of Grand Marnier poured on top! The waiter left the Grand-Marnier on the table & when he left I poured a lot more on. It really was amazing! Possibly best dessert for quite a few years & I ate the lot. It was large to.
Ma had "Nougat glace pistache/passion" which was nougat ice cream with pistachio & passion fruit obviously which was beautiful to look at & pretty tasty & my dad had the "Millefueille classique" which had crumbly pastry & looked very good. We had a lovely red dessert wine with this & at the end after we paid the bill one of the waiters gave us free coffee, madeleines & chocolates! Definitely good excuse to go back & try it again, a lovely restaurant & lovely staff!

Frisee

Whilst I'm waffling about Paris, we also had a lovely meal at "Le Chartier" http://www.restaurant-chartier.com/www/visit/filsdesans.php, a real busy & atmospheric restaurant & very well priced! The waiters are pretty rude but it's all quite fun & I had a lovely steak & chips with garlic butter & a starter of frisee salad with lardons (only 3 Euros) & a nice & simple peach melba. Get there early, it get's really busy!

Yummy

And the last was "Terminus Nord" http://www.terminusnord.com/fr,  exactly opposite Gare du Nord station, a beautiful art deco restaurant with lot's of seafood as well as all the classics. I had some snails here followed by another steak (Pretty filling  weekend), with Bernaise sauce this time & we all shared a il flotante which was delicious. Even saw Juliette Binoche in there!
Thanks to Matt & Anne for Le Chartier & Terminus Nord recommendations!

Hakkasan Mayfair

So I met up with my brother last night who also has a love for food. Especially fine dining. He is a massive fan of Alan Yau's restaurants. If you don't know who he is, he opened up Wagamama in the early nineties then sold it off & opened up Hakkasan Hanway Place, a Michelin starred chinese restaurant off Tottenham court road & has since opened up a string of amazing restaurants http://www.alanyau.cn/.

Salty Crab

So anyway we went to try the new Hakkasan Mayfair branch. First impressions when walking in is it's very darkly lit & I keep on thinking I'm going to walk through a glass door. Everyone is very friendly & we get shown to our table which is not unlike the old Hakkasan. We only order glasses of white wine because of heavy nights the night before & we both decide to have the soft shell crab as a starter. Unfortunately when it comes it's a little disapointing. The Crab is cooked very well but it's very salty & can't actually taste much apart from the salt! My brother couldn't finish his crab.

The mains came not to far behind & were a lot better. We had the grilled wagyu beef with enoki mushroom which was deliciously tender & flavoursome, Steamed New Zealand lobster wrapped in glass vermicelli was beautifully fine & fragrant with a hint of chilli just giving it a little heat & the sweet & sour duke of Berkshire pork with pomegranate which was really tangy & sweet which is what it's supposed to taste like I suppose. My brother thought the pork tasted to vinegary & wasn't as refined as the other dishes that we had ordered. I have to say I enjoyed it though & finished the plate off. 

For dessert I had a Grand marnier mousse concoction. Unfortunately I can't remember the full name of it but it had a chocolate disc at the top of the glass that i had to pierce in to which then revealed underneath a mousse & ice cream with some sort of apricot jam dollops here & there. It was amazingly tasty! My brother had the petit fours  which came in 3 different sections containing mini ice cream cones, madeleines & fruit jellies. It looked very impressive.  

Petit

The service was a little lax & I did have to wait for 10 minutes for my glass of wine & that was after reminding the waitress but overall it was a very good meal, not excellent but good & I would definitely go back as there are lot's more delicious dishes to be tried.