Paris: Spoon, Food, & Wine...

Would you like to eat at a GREAT place in Paris? Yeah? Well, then take my advice: make a reservation for dinner at Alain Ducasse's restaurant, Spoon, Food, & Wine. Do it! Now!!! It may be too late if you're going to Paris in less than a month, but give it a try anyway.

We ate at "Spoon" for the second time in a year this past Friday night. And, you know what? It was every bit as good as I remembered. I say it's currently my favorite restaurant in Paris with Senderens (a bit stuffier and not as good service) coming in a close second.

The food, service, and atmosphere at "Spoon" are all great. The staff is not in the least bit stuffy, and it's just an excellent dining experience. The menu at "Spoon" can be a bit complicated, but we just opt for the c'xy menu which is basically a "surprise" menu. Neither you nor the server knows what's coming from the kitchen, so you can't really pair up the wine to your food - which is fine because then you can just order any wine that strikes your mood (hey...that rhymed!).

I'm looking over Mrs. TBF's notes (NERD ALERT!), and (oh...and by the way, they served different things to each of us so that we could try twice as much different stuff) I can report that we had the following:

scallop w/wasabi tapioca & grapefruit (starter)

mushroom w/tofu soy foam and poached egg (starter)

tuna w/wok vegetables & satay (fish main)

sesame crusted calamari w/red pepper compote (fish main)

beef w/BBQ sauce & couscous (meat main) & Mrs. TBF's favorite!

spare ribs (meat main) & my favorite, but Mrs. TBF's beef was good too!

various desserts of which my favorite was the bubble gum ice cream

...a couple of coupes de Champagne, a bottle of vin rouge from Burgundy, a couple of espressos and....voila! The dinner was over too soon!

We walked out of the restaurant into the crisp night air just before the stroke of midnight. Wanting to preserve that look of after-dinner contentment, I set the ten-second timer on the camera, placed the camera on top of some Parisian's Smart car (don't worry...didn't scratch it), and...SNAP! Don't we just have that "Life Is Good" look on our faces?

We walked back to the hotel, climbed into bed, and...spooned.