La Régalade Saint Honoré - Paris - chef Bruno Doucet

One of our favorite meals during our recent Paris trip was at La Régalade Saint Honoré, which is a bistro-style store front with a comfortably contemporary aesthetic. They offer a €33, 3-course tasting menu that was one of the best values we found in Paris. Specials and supplements are available at very reasonable upcharges. Reservations are necessary but can be obtained with 1-2 weeks lead time. Chef Bruno Doucet is absolutely knocking it out of the park here. Pictures are captioned in my not-very-skilled English translation but for those who'd like to play along at home, the menu and the supplemental board are also pictured . . .


La Régalade Saint Honoré - 123 Rue St Honoré, 75001 Paris, France



Menu
So many great choices, so hard to decide.



House Select Choices
This didn't make ordering one bit easier!



Chicken Terrine
We were served this awesome, rich terrine -- along with bread, pickles and mustard -- as soon as we sat down. It was very cool that the terrines were essentially 'communal.' We ate what we wanted from this one and when we were done, the server came to our table and returned it to a shelf near the kitchen, from which it was eventually served to another table.



Pan-Fried Cepes in a blend of Chopped Parsley and Garlic with Meat Juices
Cepes, which are wild mushrooms native to the Bordeaux region, are meaty and delicious like porcinis, especially when cooked to perfection in meat juices!



Pumpkin Soup with Lardons, Parmesan and Roasted Shrimp with black pepper
Without question, the best pumpkin soup I've ever tasted.



Simply a Basket of Pork Sausages in the Southwestern Style
As with the terrine shown above, this basket was deposited on our table for us to serve ourselves however much we wanted. I loved this but wondered why there was a beautiful deli slicer in the dining room if this was the case. In any event, my son was the only person at our table who ordered this but we all sampled so much of it that we begged the house to charge us for 2 or 3 portions. They refused.



Sausage close up
Not sure if these were made in-house but they were awesome . . . and very cool-looking, too.



Blood Sausage
Utterly delectable and so fantastic, I couldn't stop eating it. Definitely the best rendition I've ever had.



Filet of Rockfish a la plancha with Squid Ink Risotto -- prepared in Chef's way imitating Tiny Eels
A great dish with such depth and complexity of flavor. Needless to say, the fish was flaky and moist and the briny risotto complemented it very well.



Roasted Young Partridge in Garlic with Fresh Thyme and Cepes
Does NOT taste like chicken. Gamey but not overly so. Really juicy and those cepes again . . . damn!



Pork Belly -- crispy skin, creamy inside -- from Ospital's Farm with green De Puy Lentils cooked like salt pork
A crazy-sized portion of pork belly that set a new bar for the pork belly in my world. Never had better and honestly, still thinking about this one all the time.



Celeriac puree
Not sure if we ordered this or not but it was great . . . maybe it had some parsnips in it too, as it was subtley sweet.



Rice Pudding with Vanilla like my Grandmother made, with Caramel Sauce
Caramel sauce is not pictured but this was as great rendition, which almost made me forget the sad fact that we overlooked ordering any chocolate.



Little Vanilla Pots of Cream with Fresh Raspberries and Raspberry Coulis
Yet another bar-setting dish that made me feel I'd never actually had it before. This was a recurring theme at La Regalade, which is just one reason we loved it so much.



Pots de creme, close-up
So good, so effing good.



Grand Marnier Souffle
Textbook . . . light, fluffy and wonderful flavor. You think you've had souffle before and then you realize you kind of haven't . . .



Madeleines
A lovely and delicate last bite, which we actually wrapped in a napkin and took with us because we were so joyously full.

As I mentioned above, this was one of our very favorite meals in Paris. Not only was all the food spectacular and seasonally-focused but at €33 (which includes tax and tip), it was a steal. Service was friendly and helpful (and yes we left some extra tip). Given what we experienced in Paris, I'm really not sure how they can afford to put out food like this at these prices. We ordered a fantastic bottle of bio-dynamic wine from Languedoc, which cost about €30, iirc. That brought the meal in at just under $200, which for this quality -- and for Paris -- made it an incredible value. If I go back to Paris, this is a place that will absolutely return to. An awesome, memorable experience from beginning to end.

=R=

La Régalade Saint Honoré
123 Rue St Honoré
75001 Paris, France
01 42 21 92 40

You are killing me Ronnie. By any chance did you get to sample some andouillette sausage?

teatpuller wrote:You are killing me Ronnie. By any chance did you get to sample some andouillette sausage?

We did indeed, at Chez Josephine Dumonet. I hope to post about that meal soon.

=R=

Jesus Ronnie! These posts are devastating. Thank you soooo much for documenting these meals and sharing your pics with us. I have a new pork belly goal now.

Sweet jeezus, Ronnie. Seriously beautiful. Gorgeous photos, as usual.

Thanks for the review, does it ever make me want to get to Paris soon (not going to happen any time in the foreseeable future, but a girl can dream!) I love how that menu is so wonderfully typical of the seasonal menus found in Parisian restaurants in the fall, lots of game birds, mushrooms and pumkins of all kinds.

ronnie_suburban wrote:
Pork Belly -- crispy skin, creamy inside -- from Ospital's Farm with green De Puy Lentils cooked like salt pork
A crazy-sized portion of pork belly that set a new bar for the pork belly in my world. Never had better and honestly, still thinking about this one all the time.

On this, we are in complete agreement. A Parisian friend of ours ended up ordering the pork belly on our recent visit and said she was amazed that this had come out of a French kitchen...I regret that I didn't press her for more explanation on that, but I didn't care where it came from, I just wanted a whole lot more than the small bite I got. Also agreed that the place is an absolute steal.

We just returned from our week in Paris yesterday and midway through our trip we went here for dinner.

I unfortunately didn't bring my nice camera so all my food porn is terrible.

What we had:

wife: Pumpkin soup, beef, pear & apple crumble.
myself: Tuna Tarlette, Pork belly and Souffle

All of it was amazing, with a bottle of wine it was 111eur which is amazing value in paris. ronnie did a great job explaining everything so I wouldn't even attempt to replicate his descriptions or pictures, other than to say if you're in paris, you need to go to this restaurant!

Because your review was so good I booked a table in La Regalade this morning for dinner in Febuary.
I couldnt believe they had one available.

Thanks so much for including a copy of the menu.
I'll go through this to help with my French before arriving.
Although I am sure if I randomly pick three courses I will have a great meal anyway.

Cant wait, thanks again.
Happy new year from Dublin (ireland) to all in Chicago!

Ronnie,

Just learned of an upcoming Paris trip today. In the unfolding of your thread, I ordered in my mind, and was delighted to see that I imagined ordering every course just as you proved to do. The quality of your pictures and description made me feel that I had ordered very well indeed, though I will have to take your word for it on the blood sausage.

So tell me, do you think it morally wrong to mentally order one's dinner prior to making plane reservations?

Josephine wrote:So tell me, do you think it morally wrong to mentally order one's dinner prior to making plane reservations?

Hell no! In fact, I could see a case to be made for just the opposite; where what you dream of ordering is the reason to buy the plane ticket in the first place.

stevez wrote:

Josephine wrote:So tell me, do you think it morally wrong to mentally order one's dinner prior to making plane reservations?

Hell no! In fact, I could see a case to be made for just the opposite; where what you dream of ordering is the reason to buy the plane ticket in the first place.

LOL! Not at all. I agree with what Steve posted. Decide what you want to eat, then plan the travel.

That said, this is a seasonal restaurant, so I'm guessing you'll have all sorts of choices that weren't available to us. I recommend making your reservations as early as possible. LRSH is extremely popular. I'm envious and wish it were me going back.

=R=

Looks like a great meal (and great prices too) - beautiful pictures Ronnie. Although I'm really scared that you could make a meal at IHop look delicious.

I don’t think I’ve ever asked to be moved in a restaurant before. But there’s first time for everything, right? And so it was at La Regalade Saint Honore. We arrived, giddy with expectation after reading Ron’s report of his stellar dinner here and even though we were among the first in the restaurant, not even the seating of two American couples on either side of us could dampen my enthusiasm.

But I get ahead of myself. We had decided—after a horrendous cab ride, getting stuck in terrible traffic and spending a fortune on a simple, “quick,” ride earlier in the week—that we would plan ahead and go early. So we arrived early and walked around the neighborhood, looking into shops and tasting our way around. Ike on D-Day had nothing on us. First stop: La Bague de Kenza, an Algerian pastry shop a block from the restaurant. I had found it earlier on the net but you can’t tell till you walk in. A wonderful discovery, but I’ll post about that elsewhere.


The exterior

We were, I think, the third couple to enter La Regalade on this Sunday evening. It’s not a large place and we were seated along the side, among a series of two-tops. Not very long thereafter, another American couple was seated to our right. Then, another American couple entered and was seated to our left.

I recall reading somewhere before we left…on David Lebovitz’s site, I think…that you shouldn’t take offense if you’re seated in the American “ghetto.” As he quite rightly points out, not all restaurant staff speak English, so it makes eminent sense for a restaurant to group English speakers in the same area where they can all be served by the server who speaks the best (or the only) English. It’s undeniably true…and yet, I have to say, for reasons that I will explain later in this review, that it also changes the dining experience.

Shortly after being seated we were brought a large terrine (still visible, its caul fat wrapping), bread, and a pot of gherkins and pickled onions.


Terrine and pickles

In any event, we were happily co-existing with (i.e., ignoring) the (older, quiet) American couple on our right, neither of whom spoke any French apparently. (FWIW, I actually do speak French. Not fluently, but certainly well enough to order and converse with the server and answer questions.) Enter the Bickersons, the couple on the left, a retired couple in the 70s or so. He spoke not a word of French; she seemed to be a native speaker. They had been in their seats for, oh, maybe ten seconds when war broke out. He had, apparently, lost (or misplaced) his glasses. And the skirmishing began. Not loud enough for the entire restaurant to hear but plenty loud enough and impossible to ignore. And it kept up. Nonstop. Nothing was too petty. Everything was fodder. And no topic was too minute not to revisit…over and over. The husband hissed to his wife at one point: “You want to leave? You want to just get up and leave? We’ll go back to the hotel!” I wanted so desperately to turn to him and say, “Please! Would you? We’d be ever so grateful.” But they were very quickly ruining what started out so nicely and promised to be a superb dinner.

The woman who had charge of us spoke a little English, but her vocabulary was mostly limited to listing the menu items in English and answering extremely basic questions. In any event, she started in English with us and when I responded in French, she seemed to visibly relax and we conversed most of the rest of the evening in French. At one point, when I hadn’t quite followed a question, rather than try to translate it into English, she simply rephrased it in French. She was also extremely busy; in our several hours there, she was almost always visible in the front of the house, always occupied…seating people, taking orders, serving people, drying dishes (!), answering the phone. Whatever they pay her is extremely well-earned.

In any event, I finally decided to ask to be moved. I was concerned because by now the room was mostly full—there remained only a single open two-top across the room. Our server couldn’t possibly have been more gracious. We were moved immediately. Why do I tell this story? For one reason (in addition to the very accommodating and thoughtful way in which we were treated). We were moved to the “French side” of the room, between a four-top and a round five-top. Both with filled with Parisians. Forgetting entirely about the arguing couple, the change in ambiance, in atmosphere was marked. It was like leaving the American zone and eating, now, in Paris. Nothing against the couple formerly on our right, but hearing English spoken all around you when dining in Paris is quite significantly different than hearing conversations all around you in French. It made what would have been an excellent meal into a wonderful experience.


The specials

To the meal*: we ordered mostly off the chalkboard. (Although I took a photo of the menu, it came out poorly; it included five apps and five main courses (salmon, veal, duck, and pork were the other options). The chalkboard offered an additional three apps and three mains (beef, lamb, and duck.) Our apps were specials, literally and figuratively. The Lovely Dining Companion ordered pan-fried porcini (cèpes) with a meat jus and a sparkling wine “sauce”; I chose one of the two scallops offerings: roasted scallops in a porcini butter. (Based on the fact that porcini were features in four or five dishes that evening, one has to believe that they had just hit the mushroom jackpot.)

[ Stunning presentation ruined by crappy photograph! ]
Pan-fried porcini


Roasted scallops

Both apps were near-perfect. Since each one focused on a single ingredient, the quality of that ingredient was key. And both were great. (It is worth noting that although this appears to be the largely the same dish as what Ronnie ordered, above, it was quite different. LDC's was served in an oversized soup bowl, surrounded by broth and foam; watercress, not parsley.)

Our main courses: for LDC, rascasse cuite au four, cremeux de cèpes & courge butternut au beurre d’herbes (oven-baked rascasse with “creamy porcini” and butternut squash with herb butter). Rascasse is a firm-fleshed fish, generally considered to be an essential element in any “authentic” bouillabaisse; it is usually translated as scorpionfish and it’s native to the Mediterranean. LDC, not normally a big fish eater, had more than her share on this trip but, to our mutual surprise, she began discovering that maybe she should order fish more than she ordinarily does. Her safe default order is salmon, but the same fish over and over can get tiresome. So even though salmon was on the menu this night, she chose the rascasse. And thoroughly enjoyed it. Indeed, it was one of her favorite meals of the entire trip (surpassed only by the cod, of all things, that she had the next night at Josephine Chez Dumonet!).


Rascasse

For moi: roast lamb with confit of shoulder and miniature root veggies (can anyone explain the meaning of “quasi” as in the chalkboard’s “quasi agneau”?) I was ever so slightly disappointed that there wasn’t more meat to the portion but beyond that, not a peep or quibble out of me. Lovely, lovely dish, cooked precisely.


Lamb

Since our server had already been charming and very helpful, I decided to let her choose my wine. The LDC doesn’t drink alcohol, so while I might have a couple glasses or even a half-bottle, I’m unlikely to order a whole bottle for myself. In this case, I only wish I’d gotten the whole damn bottle. What she chose not only complemented the lamb, it was the easily best glass I’ve had in several years. Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgeuil, Les Montils, 2014, a cabernet franc from the Loire. It was a truly terrific wine, just rich enough and tannic to exactly the right degree, highly flavorful, perfectly balanced. I passed up the chance to buy it from a shop while there, figuring I’d get it once I was home. Damn fool.


Apples

Desserts: In French, the LDC ordered an arrangement or creation focusing on apples with a light mousse, some sorbet, and fruit paste. But what matters most is how it tasted. I can only confirm that I wasn’t even offered a taste and a clean plate returned to the kitchen. It looked great and was, apparently, even better.

However, truth be told, I was thrilled with my own choice. I just couldn’t resist...Grand Marnier soufflé. I knew I would be ordering it sooner or later and this night seemed to be the night. Not much to say except that my bowl also returned to the kitchen completely clean.


Grand Marnier soufflé

This was the kind of meal I imagine when I think of eating “nice” in Paris. Small place, cozy in its way, great, friendly service, even better food. Best dinner I had. (The LDC put it in second place, behind our meal the next night, at Josephine Chez Dumonet.)


*(For anyone interested, I took a bad photo of the menu. Not worth posting but, if anyone is at all interested, I'm happy to send a copy...it is legible...just bad.)

So glad you enjoyed the meal and that our recommendation was still solid. But more so, I'm totally frigging envious of your trip and cannot wait to return to Paris next fall (I have to go again for work). Yeah, it's still about a year away but I'm already stoked.

Thanks again, for the stellar, detailed reports!

=R=

Indeed...truly very grateful. In fact, while I'm thinking of it, if you need a baggage carrier, water boy, shoeshine boy, guide, bodyguard or anything else for your trip, consider this my application!

Gypsy Boy wrote:Indeed...truly very grateful. In fact, while I'm thinking of it, if you need a baggage carrier, water boy, shoeshine boy, guide, bodyguard or anything else for your trip, consider this my application!

Dang---I was going to offer the same thing. Maybe Ronnie needs a team of bodyguards. If it's any help, je parle français (mais pas couramment).