Le Petit Marche in 2010

For a dinner with a bag designer friend of mine living in Paris, I picked Le Petit Marche, the restaurant that I liked during my previous visit.

He booked a table from 8 pm though I arrived earlier than that. I found a nice tea salon across the street, but it was actually closed at 7 pm. This tea salon named Le Cafe Chinois looks interesting. I'll visit this place next time I visit Paris.

Four years on, the restaurant now has at least one person who speaks English although he has a hard time explaining the menu to non-French speaking dinners at a table next to us.

The food is unfortunately not as good as I expected. Tartar is too sour. Creme brulee tastes good, but the portion is too large. Perhaps I didn't make the right choice from the menu. Although the friend helped me translate each dish, I wasn't really sure which dish would fit my taste the best.

But I enjoy talking to my friend whom I met for the first time in almost four years.

The place gets packed while we are eating. Even though the restaurant is located at the quiet street corner, there is a queue after 9 pm. According to the friend, this restaurant is very popular with more creative types.

A short walk from here takes us to a series of bars in lively Marais district. We end up in an Italian cafe serving a pot of Mariage Freres black tea with wasabi powder coated nuts. :)

(This is the third blog post on the weekend trip to Paris in 2010. Click here to the next post.)