This past weekend Dusty and I got out of the apartment and spent a great day sightseeing around Paris. As I mentioned in another post we went to Galeries Lafayette, a huge upscale department store to visit the grocery department, which is like a gourmet supermarket with kiosks of some of the highest end products you’ll ever see. After Galeries Lafayette we strolled around the Eiffel Tower and then ended up at Cafe Constant.
Christian Constant owns three restaurants on the same block near the Eiffel Tour: Le Violon d’Ingres, Les Cocottes and Café Constant. Le Violon is considered his Michelin star high-end establishment, Les Cocottes is somewhere in the middle and then Cafe Constant is your traditional everyday dining bistro. Even though the later two aren’t high-end establishments, they still use high quality ingredients and are absolutely wonderful places. We’ve been to Les Cocottes twice (once this summer and once last summer) and absolutely love it.
They don’t take reservations at Cafe Constant and so you must wait your turn to get a spot in this coveted place. The restaurant opens at 7pm and we arrived just five minutes after. Everything you read says to get there early. The place is small so the line forms outside (thank goodness it wasn’t raining). There was a line but nothing we couldn’t handle. We waited about 20 minutes before getting to the front and happened to get the last 2 spots at the bar. What we missed before we got there was that there must have been a much longer line because if I were to guess, the place seats less than 55 people. What we found out was that those behind us could put their name on a list and have a drink while lingering outside or come back at whatever time they were told. I didn’t think this was too bad considering their are plenty of cafes close by to have a glass of wine and if you have an hour to waste, the Eiffel Tour is very close.
Dusty started out with tartare de saumon, hitres et bar au gingembre (salmon tartare on top of three raw oysters with shallots and ginger) and I started out with one of their specials for the evening, squid with bit of chorizo in the middle and this wonderful broth. We both loved our starters.
For our main dish Dusty had the Escalope de veau Cordon-Bleu comme l’aiment nos enfants (veal cordon bleu “as the kids like it”) and I had the parmentier de cuisse de canard cruise au win rough, pommes gaufrettes (duck with a red wine sauce, potatoes, apples, wafers). We thought the cordon bleu “as the kids like it” was a play on words and would be more of a gourmet cordon bleu but it wasn’t and nothing to write home about. It tasted good but we were hoping for something a little more elevated. We loved my dish and thought it was well executed. Dusty obliged and helped me finish my dish so I didn’t have to leave anything on the plate uneaten.
We ended the meal by sharing the riz au lait a la vanille (rice pudding with caramel sauce) for dessert. It was a very good rice pudding. It’s not my favorite Paris rice pudding but I’d eat it again. The prices were very reasonable as well. Entrees (starters or appetizers) were 11 euros, plats (main dishes) were 16 euros, and desserts were 7 euros.
Dusty and I eat late, especially while we’re in Paris. The locals don’t eat until well after 8 or 9pm. We even had dinner reservations at 10:30pm once. Restaurants don’t even open until 7pm and when you see people in restaurants or cafe’s that early you know they’re Americans. At Cafe Constant eating late is a bit hard to do because you must wait in line to get a spot. It was well worth eating early though and we crossed another item off of our Paris bucket list!
