Food for Thought

From the tiny garden tea salon of the Musée de la Vie Romantique to the stardust glamour of Les Ombres in the new Musée du Quai Branly, more than a score of Paris museums offer food for contemplation. A few are ultra-trendy and wildly expensive, some—and not necessarily the same ones—offer surprisingly good food, and some turn up in the most unexpected places, like the Café des Techniques in the Musée des Arts et Métiers. And most are accessible without buying a museum ticket.

The most festive of them all is Les Ombres, at the top of the Musée du Quai Branly, the national museum dedicated to the native arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas that opened in 2006. Like the museum itself, the restaurant was designed by French star architect Jean Nouvel, right down to the glassware and cutlery. It sits directly beneath the Eiffel Tower, and the metal struts of the restaurant’s transparent glass roof echo the Tower’s metallic structure, as do the “shadows” of the name, dark stripes of wood inlaid in the lighter wood surfaces of the tables and the floor. The walls are almost all glass too, offering a nearly 360 degree view of the city — beautiful by day, sparkling by night and a scintillating fantasy when the Tower’s lights go into effervescent sparkler mode for five minutes every hour on the hour.

It’s very hard to resist a coupe de champagne as an aperitif here, and maybe no one should. Among first courses, the menu recently offered a terrine of duck foie gras with dried fruit and apple-pear-walnut chutney, and a delicate concoction of scallops with fennel, candied lemon and cauliflower-and-lemon-grass emulsion that was excellent. But even better was the “checkerboard” composed of small slices of smoked duck breast, every other one topped with a flower-shaped cutout of thinly sliced Jerusalem artichoke and droplets of coffee-infused vinaigrette.

Slow cooking at low temperatures is madly à la mode here as almost everywhere else, and the roast breast of guinea hen was a good example of the genre, simply served with a velvety potato mousseline. Scallops a la plancha were seared to golden brown on top and deliciously silky inside, accompanied by caramelized endives drizzled with a bittersweet orange-coriander sauce. It’s expensive, but worth the splurge. No museum ticket necessary. 27 quai Branly, 7th, Métro: Alma-Marceau. 01.47.53.68.00. Three-course lunch menu €38; à la carte €95. website

Les Ombres is really a special-occasion restaurant, but for a quick meal during a museum visit, Café Branly on the ground floor is bright and modern—also designed by Jean Nouvel—and a good place to take a break, with sandwiches, salads and open-faced tartines on toasted country bread, a plat du jour, and pastries for dessert or with afternoon tea. Outdoor terrace facing the garden in fine weather. No museum ticket necessary. 27 quai Branly, €20-€25.

Les Arts Décoratifs

Opened two years ago after the complete renovation of the museum—which occupies the north wing of the Louvre—the two-story Saut du Loup is resolutely contemporary, with a decor that’s all clean lines in sleek black, white and gray. There’s a nice view of the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower from the upstairs dining room and bar, but at dinner the interior lighting is low and the atmosphere is slightly nightclubby—or in current Parisian lingo, more like a lounge (pronounced loonge).

The biggest attraction here is the splendid outdoor terrace in the Carrousel Garden, with its view of the Louvre and the small Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. The menu is pricey, and there’s a little too much attitude on the part of trendy waiters, but chef Pascal Bernier’s food is very good. On the menu recently: wild mushroom soup, potato cappuccino with truffles, scallops with lentils and cinnamon foam, and jumbo shrimp with saffron rice, along with simpler fare including hamburgers and cheeseburgers (served with shoestring potatoes), entrecôte steak and steak tartare—the quality of the beef here is notable. Desserts included pear charlotte, crème brûlée with candied chestnuts and a surprising cheesecake with maple syrup. Afternoon tea and pastries from the famed pâtisserie Ladurée are also available in the bar, which by night is open until 2 am. Entrance through the museum lobby or via the Carrousel garden, no museum ticket necessary. 107 rue de Rivoli, 1st, Métro: Palais Royal. 01.42.25.49.55. €50. website

The Louvre

The Grand Louvre restaurant comes as a small surprise, a reasonably priced cocoon of absolute calm right in the midst of the tourist maelstrom in the main lobby of the Louvre, under the glass pyramid. The simple and sophisticated contemporary wood-and-leather decor is by architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, the napery is crisply starched white, and the cuisine is mostly classic French with an occasional nod to Asia and Italy: foie gras, duck pâté with onion compote, shrimp and crab Vietnamese nem (spring rolls), feuilleté of scallops Provençal, beef carbonnade with vegetables, fresh and smoked salmon “canneloni”, warm apple tarte Tatin, white chocolate pyramid with passion fruit. Waiters are professional, courteous and prompt, and actually seem to know what they are doing. It’s a little hard to find, but the glass entrance doors are in the corner behind the small tables of the lobby coffee shop. Museum ticket not necessary. Entrance through the Pyramid, Métro: Palais Royal. 01.40.20.53.41. Multiple choice menu: €22 for two courses or €28 for three.

If the Grand Louvre is for discreet diners, Café Marly is a high-visibility hangout for the city’s trendier denizens—a bustling café-restaurant in the Louvre’s Richelieu wing designed in elegant Second Empire style by Olivier Gagnère, with interior views over a sculpture courtyard and a terrific outdoor terrace under the arcades facing the Pyramid. Like more than three dozen cafés and restaurants in town—including Georges at the Pompidou Center—it’s run by the Costes brothers and serves an eclectic mix of what’s become known as “Costes food”, more assembled on the plate than really cooked and certainly not haute cuisine: green bean salad, tomato with mozzarella, cheeseburger, foie gras, smoked salmon, spicy Thai-style “crying tiger” beef, steak tartare aller-retour (round trip, that is, lightly cooked on both sides), tuna steak, pasta with tomato and basil. It’s pretty much the same menu at all Costes restaurants, only the prices vary from one location to another, and at Café Marly they are steep. Museum ticket not necessary. Entrance via the arcades or the Pyramid court, Métro: Palais Royal. 01.49.26.06.60. €50

The Café Richelieu, up three elevator banks to the second floor of the Richelieu Wing, is a good place for a quick bite, offering chicken curry wraps, club sandwiches and large lunch platters including the Bretagne—pike terrine, green beans, potatoes and salad—or the Landes—country ham, salami and duck rillettes. There’s a hot dish or two, like traditional blanquette de veau, a plat du jour, soft drinks, beer and wine. The interior is a little drab, but in good weather there are tables outside on a balcony facing the Pyramid. €20-€25.

Much the same menu is on tap in the Café Mollien, on the second floor of the Denon wing, lining an interior balcony above a monumental marble staircase. The secret little Café Denon (entrance through the Roman Egypt gallery) is a small vaulted room opening onto a miniscule garden; sandwiches, snacks and pastries are all that’s available, but it’s an insider’s delight. Access to all three requires a museum ticket. And finally, on the Pyramid lobby mezzanine, the self-service Café Pyramide cafeteria is the fastest and least expensive of them all, no ticket needed.

Grand Palais

Mini Palais is a vast and very popular restaurant in the spectacular Belle Epoque Grand Palais exhibit hall, which hosts some of the city’s biggest and most important art exhibits. With a menu overseen by the Hôtel Bristol’s three-star chef Eric Fréchon and brasserie-style hours—service non-stop from noon to 1 am—it’s a pricey but great place to stop for a duck “hamburger” topped with grilled foie gras or a rock lobster, avocado and hard-boiled egg club sandwich. In good weather there’s a superb outdoor terrace on the colonnaded portico, too. 3 ave Winston Churchill, 8th, Métro Champs Elysées Clemenceau. 01.42.56.42.42. Lunch menu €28, dinner à la carte €45.

Musée d’Orsay

The main Restaurant du Musée d’Orsay is in the former dining room of the grand hotel that was part of the original 1900 railroad station. Recently spruced up, the room glitters with Belle Epoque splendor—floor-to-ceiling windows, crystal chandeliers, gilded moldings, painted ceilings and walls. Maybe because of the setting, the menu seems overly ambitious, with fussy fusion dishes that are beyond the kitchen’s capabilities. Stick with the simpler choices here—onion soup, smoked salmon, a chicken and shrimp version of Caesar salad or a cheese platter. Wines by the glass are amply served, and, on a recent visit, the service could not have been more pleasant. 01.45.49.47.03. €30-€35.

Arts et Métiers

The recently renovated and too often overlooked Musée des Arts et Métiers is a fascinating museum of scientific discoveries and instruments, with displays ranging from Blaise Pascal’s 1642 calculator and Foucault’s 1851 pendulum, which demonstrated the earth’s rotation, to early steam engines and flying machines. But with or without a trip through the museum’s wonders, the small, airy Café des Techniques is a real favorite.

Tables are set around a big glass case housing a splendid scale model of the four-smokestack ocean liner Le France. On the menu are large salads—raw vegetables with avocado, smoked salmon with shrimp, tomato-mozzarella-eggplant—and verrines, cold assortments served in large glasses, including Florentine (pasta with tuna, tomatoes, zucchini and parmesan) and Périgourdine (artichoke, foie gras, smoked steak, poached egg and green beans). But steam’s the main theme here—the specialty is steamed barquettes, small baskets with one-dish meals. The scallops with pollack, mushrooms, leeks and fine herbs were delicious on a recent foray, and so was the salmon with lentils, carrots and cumin. Along with fresh fruit salad, ice cream and sherbets, desserts include a steamed barquette of apples, cinnamon, nuts and honey. During the summer lunch is also served in a very pleasant stone courtyard, well away from street traffic. 60 rue Réaumur, or, without a museum ticket, via a separate entrance around the corner at 292 rue Saint Martin, 3rd, Métro: Arts et Métiers. 01.53.01.82.83. €20, combined Sunday brunch + museum entry €21.50.

Musée Jacquemart André

This superb museum is the former private mansion of 19th-century magnate and philanthropist Edouard André and his artist wife Nélie Jacquemart, whose extraordinary collection of mostly 18th-century furnishings and art also includes an Italian section with works by Uccello, Mantegna and Botticelli. The Café Jacquemart-André was their dining room, with a heavenly 18th-century ceiling painted by Tiepolo and 18th-century Brussels tapestries lining the walls. The slender giltwood chairs and small round tables seem very delicate, but they are regularly filled not only by the ladies who lunch but by well-dressed businessmen and women from the neighborhood office district. The food is quite good, simple and pleasantly light, with a selection of salad platters named for the museum’s stars—Mantegna, Bellini, Fragonard—and an excellent beef carpaccio. There’s also a plat du jour, a dessert cart with tarts and pastries, and the coffee comes with a speculoos, a sugar cookie that’s a specialty in Northern France. In good weather, there are a few outdoor tables on a balcony in the courtyard. No museum ticket needed. 158 blvd Haussmann, 8th, Métro: Miromesnil. 01.45.62.04.44. €25

Palais de Tokyo

The Palais de Tokyo, built for the Paris World’s Fair of 1925, is currently used as a cavernous, deliberately derelict exhibit space for avant-garde contemporary art. You never know what you might find on show, but the boutique is filled with kitschy toys and gimmicks including mangas and Miss Kitty. The restaurant Tokyo Eat, though, is a lot of fun, with giant, floor-to-ceiling windows and bright rosy-orange flying-saucer-style light fixtures suspended from the towering ceiling. Chairs are brightly colored designer plastic, and a few are eye-openers, like those imprinted with rims of teeth on seat and seatback, so diners seem to settle down into a set of open jaws. The atmosphere has great buzz, and the food is quite good. For starters you might find a rabbit pâté, burrata cheese with leeks or, in this moment of pedigreed-provenance chic, radishes from star farmer Joël Thiébault with butter from Normandy’s Jean-Yves Bordier. Main courses include a copious vegetarian platter with nearly caramelized baked vegetables; salmon and spinach lasagna; and veal piccata accompanied by tiny ravioli. There are interesting fruit-based non-alcoholic cocktails (carrot/ginger, green apple/celery) and milkshakes, as well as a good wine list and wines by the glass. 13 ave du Président Wilson, 16th, Métro: Iéna/Alma-Marceau. 01.47.20.00.29. €40.

The Thrill is Gone

It was once a hot spot, the view is still terrific and the waitresses are still mini-skirted eye candy, but Georges, atop the Pompidou Center, is begging for a blackball. The space-age decor is déjà vu, the techno-trance soundtrack is stuck in a single mind-numbing groove, the food is barely adequate and the outrageous prices are insulting: €30 (that’s close to $40) for a crab and avocado starter, €40 for a steak, €26 for a pancake-flat disc claiming to be chicken breast. It’s the kind of place that gives Paris a bad name.

Prices are approximate, per person without wine.

Originally published in the April 2009 issue of France Today; updated in September 2011