Fish: One of our Favorite Restaurants

If after a day of sightseeing in the City if Light, you are tired of speaking French or frightened by the thought of ordering a meal from a “scary” French waiter, but would still like to experience the local cuisine, Fish La Boissonnerie is a great place for dinner. Situated in the sixth arrondissement not far from the Seine, the Aussie-owned eatery is a favorite with Anglophones and an easy walk from the Pont Neuf (and thus, Notre Dame or the Louvre). As with many mom and pop establishments in Paris, the restaurant is “intimate” in scale; however there is room to breathe and the atmosphere is pleasantly rustic.  In the height of summer, Fish was full of tourists and locals alike. The welcoming staff speaks fluent French and English...

Sliced cucumbers or root vegetables, dusted with toasted sesame seeds are a typical sort of amuse bouche.  A basket full of fresh bread from Cosi, the sandwich shop across the street is also standard.  Watch out for this stuff. One night, after Kris and I gorged ourselves on bread, I took the remaining pieces, wrapped them in my napkin, and stuck them in my purse, only to have the basket re-filled 10 seconds later.  What happened then was a vicious circle: more purse-stuffing and basket-filling—finally, we had to tell the server not to bring anymore!

The prix fixe menu is two or three courses and for the area, is reasonably priced. Wine of course, is extra. But here again, the staff is helpful, the choices are excellent and the owner/bar keeper is quite knowledgeable; if you have questions, just ask.  In our experience, anything off the “Vin de Jour” is bound to be well priced and fantastic.  In fact, the owner of Fish has recently opened a great little wine shop called “La dernière goutte”.

The first time I went to Fish, I dined alone and felt very comfortable. I started with a glass of the champagne du jour (8 euros) and chose the duck breast Provencal for my plat.  As a general rule, I stay away from anything “Provencal” because I see it and think: tomatoes and black olives, yuck.  However, when in France…

In the end, the thin slices of perfectly pink duck with sweet port sauce were fabulous.  The magret was served atop a bed of sliced zucchini, yellow squash, sun dried tomatoes and black olives (I tried one, and then ate around them). The roasted pearl onions infused with rosemary, rounded out the recipe and were so good that I took the time to cut them in half so as to savor each one. Have you ever tried cutting a pearl onion in half?  It wasn’t easy. The effort was worth it to get a bit of onion and vegetable with each bite of duck—which I had deftly swirled in the sauce before loading up my fourchette.

By the way, ordering duck is like ordering steak. You must specify how you would like it cooked. I chose to have mine “rose”.  Other options include blue, sang, or bien cuit—in other words very bloody, bloody or well done.  It’s generally safe to assume that well done in France is not the same as well done in the states. Should you order meat bien cuit and it arrives a bit more pink than you are used to, relax.  Remember you are here to experience the culture.  Pink meat (unless it is chicken) is not gonna kill you—it hasn’t killed the French, after all.  At least, that’s what I tell myself.

For dessert, I chose the cheese plate, which came with a light salad (read: greens tossed with oil and vinegar).  I also had a glass of Muscat, which for the most part paired very well with the assortment of cheeses.  A typical cheese plate in France will offer examples made from cow, sheep and goat or a blue, as well as a mixture of hard and soft cheeses. I didn’t have any goat cheese on my plate, but there was a blue one, which was very good, mild with a slight flavor of anise.  However, when I followed a bite of blue with a sip of Muscat, the taste was something akin, I imagine, to licking a barn floor. In the world of French cheese, this is probably not a bad thing.  Nevertheless, I decided to follow future bites of blue with water.

The carafe of water, by the way was plentiful, which is not always the case in Paris.  In this city, you must ask for water and if you don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for it you’ll need to specify tap water: “une carafe d’eau” (oon karaff dough).  If you would rather not have tap water, you will be given a choice of bottled water “with” or “without” “gaz”.   If you prefer still water ask for “une bouteille d’eau sans gaz” (oon bootay dough sawn gahz).

Fish is probably our favorite restaurant in Paris (save for Taillevant).  You can’t beat it for the price.  But this is not to diminish the success of the menu.  There is always a significant offering of fish; and foie gras is usually on the menu. The other night I had a fabulous steak, topped with a seared medallion of foie gras and a side of herbed mashed potatoes.  I have had better foie gras, but this was the best steak I have eaten in Paris.  In my experience, they are usually cut thinner than Americans are accustomed to and sometimes cooked to resemble shoe leather.  This steak was thick but not grotesque in size and perfectly cooked.   We have only had one unpleasant course at Fish—the crab and citrus salad.  A good idea in theory—and we should know, hailing form Dungeness country.  Unfortunately, the crab was very “fishy” tasting and generally unpleasant.

Fish is a great place to take your friends—especially those who have never been to Paris. I wouldn’t say it is “quintessential” Parisian dining: escargot, onion soup and steak frites are not on the menu (which is not necessarily bad), but it is food done well and after a day or days, spent sight seeing, the relaxed, inviting atmosphere makes one feel right at home.

Fish La Boissonnerie
Metro : Odeon, Mabillon 
69 Rue de Seine, 75006
Prix fixe : Three courses, 32 euros
Reservations: Accepted until 21h30