Lunch in Paris: Le Plat du Jour

When we lived in Paris all of us had, during the weekdays, lunch outside. My wife had her lunch with her colleagues at the school she worked as assistant teacher, the kids in school and me in the simple café/restaurant Le Barbusse across the street of the bank.

Le Barbusse, by the way the same place I had my breakfast or at least an espresso in the morning, offered every day choice of ‘Plat du Jour’, mostly one fish dish and one meat, poultry or in wintertime a stew.

The Plat du Jour are simple, rustic, grandmother–style dishes prepared with seasonal products and offered at a very competitive price. And they are not only prepared ‘grand-mother style”, they are grand-mother serving sizes and quality also!

The variety of the dishes, the fact you can choose makes the Plat du Jour very popular and appreciated by the regulars. In fact, most neighborhood restaurants like La Barbusse make their business with the regular customers of the offices in the street passing by for breakfast, lunch and sometimes for a drink at the counter after work or a boring meeting.

Among my favorite dishes I had as Plat du Jour was without any doubt the ‘Coq au Riesling’ (chicken stew with white wine), a variation of the classic Coq au vin prepared with red Burgundy wine and a typical winter stew. The Coq au Riesling is a dish from the Alsace region in the east of France where the fantastic white wines, like the Riesling and Gewürztraminer are produced. Light, fruity, fresh, a delight during hot days!

The chicken prepared with mushrooms and shallots, cream, a splash of brandy and the Riesling wine simmered on very low heat during 1 or 1 ½ hour. Served with ‘pommes nature’ (boiled potatoes) and a glass of Riesling, the best lunch you can have in autumn! See the recipe here:

During the summer days, and those who lived or stayed in Paris during the summer can tell you that it can be very hot in the city, one of the Plat du Jour was always a salad. It could be what they called an ‘Assiete Parisienne’ (Parisian plate) with lettuce, tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, gurkins, ham and mayonnaise.

Or you could opt for ‘Salade Composee’, the term for a lettuce and tomato salad with additions, which might be ham, cheese, hard egg, potatoes, croutons, crumbled tuna or salmon, smoked salmon, shrimps...almost anything.

The most famous ‘salade composee’ is without doubt Salade Nicoise,

the famous Nice salad with green beans, anchovies, hard-boiled eggs, cold potatoes, olives and tuna. A favorite of the regulars in La Barbusse. Served with an olive oil dressing, crispy baguette and a glass of French rose wine of the Provence….life is good at lunchtime in Le Barbusse.

But ‘the’ favorite dish of the Parisians at lunchtime is ‘steak frites’. In many restaurants ‘steak-frites’ says what you get: a steak with fries. French beef, and you will always get French beef as the French only trust their own produce, is of good quality and has a great taste. But as a Belgian I am used to have my steak with fries and some salad and mayonnaise, the way we eat our steak, a bit our national dish, in Belgium.

I was a happy guy when I found out that the chef of Le Barbusse was trained at the culinary school of Lille in the north of France and served his steak with some garlic butter on top, fries and some mayonnaise. And, honestly, what is better than dipping your crispy fries in the melting garlic butter? Correct, nothing!

But Thierry, the chef, prepared other great dishes I will never

forget. Like his Blanquette de veau (Veal stew), or a big serving of Hache Parmentier (an oven dish with a layer of minced meat and vegetables, topped with creamy mashed potatoes and gratinated with gruyere cheese), his Foie a la Normande, liver with apples and onions with apple cider and a touch of Calavados and, not to forget, his signature dish, ‘Migonette de Porc a la Moutarde et a la Biere’  (pork sirloin with mustard and beer), a typical and very traditional dish of the Nord of France. Prepared with two types of local mustard (no Dijon here!), mushrooms, carrots, cream and local beer! Served with potatoes sprinkled with some parsley.

And no lunch is complete if you don’t have coffee to end with. If you order ‘le café’ you always, note always, an espresso in a small cup with a sugar cube or a small sachet of sugar. Only in France you can have your coffee that way…

Some advice if you are planning to visit Paris and you want to eat good quality food and get real value for money. 

Stay far, far away from the tourist spots and look for your lunch for those places where there are a lot of offices. Check the phonebook and research where the government buildings are, the headquarters of banks and large companies and explore the restaurants there! 

You will eat as the locals at the price the Parisians pay for their lunch. You will get like them, a free pitcher of ice water and a basket of fresh and crispy baguette on your table.  Make your choice of the Plat du Jour you want on the ‘ardoise’, the blackboard menu, order a glass of the humble house wine and enjoy the food and the real Paris!

Have an impression of a typical Parisian restaurant here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDxC5-nOn8w