A Conran in Paris

For a long time now (since Jan 2006), this post has sat around waiting for some attention. Ealier this year, we were on one of our twice yearly trips to Paris and it happened to conincide with the birthday of a friend who just happened to be in Paris at the same time - not surprising really as the friends were there for the same reason, Maison et Objet.

Being a vegetarian with an appetite in France can be quite difficult, so other than special occasions, it's usually pizza or staying in. However as this was a special occasion, namely Richard's birthday, pizza was not an option. Penjamin's advance reading and work had turned up a restaurant from the Conran group, called Alcazar, which she attempted to book in advance via toptable. Now maybe toptable were having a bad day, but their service was to not put it too mildly, shambolic. They couldn't confirm a booking before we left, several days before we wanted the booking and they were supposed to by phone. After calling them several times, they said they couldn't get a reply from the restaurant - this just sounds absurd for a major restaurant! Especially when Penjamin called the restaurant directly some thirty seconds later and booked the table straight away. Make of it what you will and I'll make a pile of doodoo.

So what was the menu at Alcazar like? Can't remember, it was 8 months ago and if you can remember what you ate out that long ago then you should get out more, prefereably to a nice restaurant. Decoration, service, setting, etc. were all swish and well up to scratch. They even treated vegetarians as if they were part of the human population and offered a choice of several dishes, incorporated within the menu as if they were perfectly normal (instead of the seperate, small menu for example at Thackeray's).

Would I go back? Well if the occasion merited the budget, yes. But then there are so many more restaurants to try, I'm not sure I will.