About

"The evolving Francophile..."

My husband Jack has always wanted to live in Paris and learn French. I thought it would be good for him to achieve his life time dream. Hence, we moved to Paris in 2008. My first year was difficult. I started "missives" to relieve some stress and chronicle my life so friends back in the US could read what I am experiencing. I currently write about my food in Paris, which is my passion., travel experiences, and "experiences living in Paris."

It is definitely a challenge to live here, but each year it gets easier, and quite enjoyable, in large part because I value friendships over locale. I have a love/hate relationship with Paris as do most Parisians, mais La vie est belle (but life is good)!

Saturday, July 1, 2017

Le Chalet de Iles -- Restaurant Review


POUR DÉJEUNER OU DÎNER, LE RESTAURANT EST OUVERT DU LUNDI AU SAMEDI DE 12H À 15H ET DE 19H30 À 22H30 ET LE DIMANCHE DE 12H À 15H ET DE 19H30 À 22H 
BRUNCH TOUS LES DIMANCHES DE 12H A 15H
RESERVATION UNIQUEMENT PAR TELEPHONE AU 
01 42 88 04 69
Directions: check website
www.http://chalet-des-iles.com/fr-restaurant/reserver

Rating Standards: 5-Stars = Extraordinary; 4-Stars = Excellent; 3-Stars = Average; 2-Stars = Fair; 1-Star = Poor
€ = Inexpensive: 30€ and under; €€ = Moderate: 31€-49€; €€€ = Expensive: €50 -75; €€€€ = Very Expensive: more than €76 (prices based on minimum 2-courses)
1-Bell = Pleasantly quiet (less than 65 decibels); 2-Bells = Can talk easily (65-70); 3-Bells = Talking normally gets difficult (70-80); 4-Bells = Can talk only in raised voices (75-90); BOMB = Too noisy for normal conversation (90+)


3 - Star......................................................€€......................................................... 1 - Bell



At the recommendation of a friend, we decided to go to this restaurant. Not the easiest place to go to from Paris center, but it's manageable and also the walk to the park is quite lovely. The restaurant is situated on a small island in the "Bois de Bologne".  In order to get there you have to take a little shuttle boat that takes maybe 2-3 minutes to get there. If you go there for lunch or dinner, tell the boat driver, otherwise you have to pay for the ride, but it's minimal at 1.50€



Originally we sat outdoors in a lovely terrace facing the lake. As we were perusing the menu and the specials for the day, the skies opened up and started pouring like crazy, so all of us patrons ran up to the main indoor dining area.  They did have a large balcony with a few tables, which we managed to commandeer, but the interior was lovely, and they were able to accommodate all of us.


ENTRÉES

We decided to share the entrées and in fact they recommend sharing them.  We had the eggplant rolls with chèvre cheese, shrimp, white asparagus and Iberian ham.

Shrimp. They were breaded and was almost like tempura. Nice and crispy and it came with a sweet chili sauce.

White asparagus. Blanched and cooked perfectly. it was served with a side of salad.

Eggplant. chèvre was rolled in zucchini, was tasty, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Iberian ham. They were good, and served with toasted bread.

Overall, it was a nice start, but nothing out of the ordinary.


PLATS

Pintade. I ordered the special of the day which guinea fowl. It was accompanied with quinoa and a tzatziki. The pintade was very, very overcooked. The quinoa was cold and the tzaziki was just, eh? Overall, it was a very underwhelming dish.

One person ordered the chicken, I did not taste it, but was told that it was unevenly cooked.







DESSERTS

We shared the desserts.

Rhubarb crumble.  We agreed that this was absolutely delicious. Typically, you don't get enough rhubarb, but this dessert had loads of rhubarb and had a dollop of strawberry sorbet. It was an excellent dessert.





Café gourmand. In France it is coffee accompanied with some petite-fours.  Typically they're the standard desserts such as a chocolate mousse, a cake and crème brulée. This had 4 little tidbits of a chocolate cake, a sweetened pâte à choux, a cake and a meringue. Good, but nothing out of the ordinary.




SUMMARY

If you're coming here and expecting haute cuisine, then turn around cause this is not the place for you. You come here for the beauty of the park, the ambience of being in nature and overlooking the lake, and food is secondary, then go. You definitely don't come here for the food. The food is mediocre at best; however, the service is excellent. Very attentive and I was impressed how they made sure we all took cover and were all seated comfortably and did not miss a beat with our orders. I bumped up the rating because of the atmosphere and the service was excellent. Would we go back, sure on a lovely warm sunny day to enjoy the views.

For 4-entrées, 4-plats, 2-desserts, 2-coffees, 1 bottle of wine, 1-beer, our bill came to 255.30€ for 4-people or 63.83€ per person.

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