Dinner at 52 Rue de Fauborg St Denis (and Dessert at Le Richer)

Google maps travel plans allowed us to look up places we might want to eat and visit and then share them with each other on a list that showed everything on the map of Paris. It was super helpful for dinners as my pet peeve of traveling is when you are hungry but not sure where to go or which restaurant to select. In this case, we had a list of restaurants to refer to and could see which was convenient to our location at the time.

52 Fauborg was closer so we read the menu and decided to sit for a leisurely dinner. Started with two specialty cocktails, one was passion fruit vodka and the other was grapefruit with gin. Both were spectacular.

We told the waiter we would like three courses: first the artichoke, then the fish, then the meat, and after the artichoke we would get a bottle of wine.

Artichoke came out and it was very pretty and the dressing on top of it was absolutely amazing. Rebecca was trying to buy a bottle to take home.

After the artichoke, we had the wine list in hand and we were evaluating. The waiter was running around, there seemed to be only 3 people working and maybe 15 tables but the one guy was zipping around like crazy. We tried to get his attention but no dice. Then the food was coming towards us….both dishes at once.

It was disappointing since we wanted a leisurely shared meal and now we had one less course. The server finally came over after our food was on the table and asked us which bottle we wanted. Rebecca told him we would have two glasses instead and he said “no bottle?” and she told him no because the food came too fast.

But the food was good!

First up, the fish of the day—black cod—in a broth (which was cold and a little bland) but came with spicy tomatoes and rice and peaches. Altogether a really good dish that Rebecca loved.

I had a spare rib that came with a ricotta pepper ravioli under all that delicious red pepper tomato sauce in a broth. The food was really great despite the odd French service.

We liked the desserts at another restaurant, Le Richer, better so we walked over there to end the night. We tried to order an espresso martini but they said they couldn’t make it. Again here, the waitress stood over us until we ordered. We ordered a strawberry roll that came with some sort of basil syrup and vanilla ice cream, as well as a coffee peanut cannoli type thing. I don’t like peanuts but both were good.