Well, that was a fine Parisien(ish) meal. We were all set to try a trattoria around the corner but the hotel suggested a place called Willi’s Wine Bar. It sounded weird, but a) it obviously had great wine; b) it was 100% non-smoking; c) it was only 2 minutes away; and d) it apparently had pretty good food. Done and done.

We had a look at the menu and could figure out that there was enough fish/veg to fill a meal, so in we went. After a few sad attempts at explaining our vegetarian plight en francais the waiter told us he was better with English (as was most of the staff) and we placed our order. Nellie had some octopus w/ pasta to start; I had some cold crab + apricot cake. OK, but not great; our glasses of wine were tasty though. Next up; sea bass for both of us. Normally we wouldn’t have it (being endangered and all) but we were short on choice. It was pretty good, especially with the lemon + ginger flavour. At this point we were into a bottle of dry Sancerre.

The piece de resistance (ha! that’s an actual phrase here!) was dessert: I had the terrine de chocolate and Nellie had the cheese plate…and I do mean plate. It was huge! There were four huge hunks of cheese on the plate, and she barely finished half. CB would have lost her mind.

They had some great art on the walls too. I think we’ll order one when we get home…which is over a week from now! Woot!!

[tags]paris, willi’s wine bar[/tags]