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| Pudlo Paris 2007-2008: A Restaurant Guide (Pudlo Paris) | 
 enlarge | Author: Gilles Pudlowski
Creators: Simon Beaver, Phyllis Flick, Sophie Brissaud, Lucy Vanel
Publisher: Little Bookroom
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $4.97
You Save: $14.98 (75%)
New (40) Used (17) from $4.41
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 15309
Media: Paperback
Edition: English Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 4.3 x 1
ISBN: 1892145480
Dewey Decimal Number: 647.9544361
EAN: 9781892145482
ASIN: 1892145480
Publication Date: June 12, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Created by France's most respected food writer and critic, Gilles Pudlowski, the Pudlo Paris guide to restaurants, cafes, bars, and gourmet shops is now available in English for the first time in its 17-year history. The Pudlo is considered by discerning Parisians as the most informed, sophisticated, and up-to-date restaurant guide published today.
Organized by arrondissement, the guide describes almost 1,000 restaurants in every neighborhood of Paris, ranging from Grandes Tables–the paragons of the French culinary scene–to restaurants that give unusually good value for the price. The Pudlo also lists almost 300 bars, pubs, wine bars, tea salons, and cafes. And–a priceless bonus for the culinary traveler–descriptions of almost 300 specialty gourmet shops.
Gilles Pudlowski has singled out 21 of his personal favorites; 185 restaurants in settings of historical significance; 93 establishments he judges as giving especially good value for price; and 144 places where a meal costs less than 30 euros. You’ll also find a Listing of Establishments by Rating and an alphabetical index singling out establishments with terrace or garden, those open on Sunday, and those open past 11 PM.
Each review in the Pudlo is updated and rewritten annually by Mr. Pudlowski. The Little Bookroom will continue to be the English-language publisher worldwide for upcoming editions of Pudlo Paris as well as Pudlo France (to be published in March 2008).
In Pudlo Paris 2007-2008 you’ll find: reviews of 32 Grand Restaurants–the paragons of the city’s culinary scene; reviews of 965 Good Restaurants & Others–worthwhile venues in every neighborhood; and reviews of 41 of the top international restaurants.
Short profiles of 313 Shops selling:
Kitchenwares/Tabletop, Bread & Baked Goods, Wine, Cured Meat & Sausage, Chocolate, Candy/Sweets, Cutlery, Groceries, Cheese, Ice Cream, Fine Groceries, Books, Pastries, Fruit & Vegetables, Coffee, Regional Products, Prepared Food, Tea.
Descriptions of 281 casual venues throughout Paris (“Rendez-vous”):
Bars, Pubs, Wine Bars, Cafes, Creperies, Tea Salons, Brasseries.
And, prized for being the most up-to-date of the restaurant guides, 141 venues make their first appearance in Pudlo Paris 2007-2008.
Also noted: outdoor dining; open on Sunday; open after 11PM; children’s menus; air conditioning; and all prix fixe and a la carte prices.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 More useful than Zagat or Michelin --- the new gold standard July 9, 2007
28 out of 28 found this review helpful
A year or so ago, a blogger with a special love for Paris bemoaned the way Americans read English-language restaurant guides and then make predictable choices:
"I've given up the occasionally useful Patricia Wells [The Food Lover's Guide to Paris, because every self-respecting American foodie would never find herself eating anywhere in Paris without first checking with the good Ms. Wells. This often results in the mass descending of American food tourists on places she favored. Walking through the door of La Regalade these days feels like one has just been magically transported to Manhattan."
The blogger took solace in one enduring reality: "My Pudlo is still only available in French. When a translated version is published, then I will really scream."
Well, scream your head off, darling. It's here: the first-ever English language edition of Gilles Pudlowski's voluminous-yet-handy guide to 1,000 Paris restaurants, 300 wine bars, tea shops, cafes and several hundred gourmet groceries. He gives awards: best chef of the year, international restaurant of the year, young chef of the year, bistro of the year --- even best hostess of the year. He lists new restaurants, with ratings (one to three "plates") and prices. He summarizes the "best" restaurants. He collects restaurants that are the "best value for the money." And he smartly organizes this mass of information and opinion by collecting restaurants in arrondisements, with informative short essays at the beginning of each one.
Gilles Pudlowski is not just a critic. In that French way, he's a public intellectual: a historian of regional French cooking, a novelist, cookbook author. As a foodie, he's a bit limited; he seems to be obsessed with "produce". And he ends almost every mini-review the same way, with praise for the restaurant's wine list. Still, if you're off to Paris --- or, given the exchange rate, of a mind to read and dream about Paris --- this is the book to buy.
Not Zagat?
Not Zagat, except as a handy --- because it's alphabetical --- backup.
And for a very simple reason: Zagat tells you what tens of thousands of unknown people liked, Pudlo is one man's opinion. Okay, with a little help --- he uses "twenty or so professional and amateur researchers." Still, I think my point holds: You do better dealing with one, reasonably consistent point-of-view than with a legion of unknowns.
Pudlo's point-of-view comes across as one of sensible optimism. He finds this a very good time: "Paris has never provided us with as many new opportunities to celebrate at reasonable prices." [Looking at those prices, you may conclude there was a problem in the translation here.] His chef of the year is female. And he has a knack for suggesting restaurants you've never heard of in a way that makes you want to go immediately.
The quickest way to test a critic is to compare his impressions of restaurants you know well with your take on those establishments. I was with him on Le Caveau du Palais, an old favorite on the Place Dauphine: "There is not a single false note..." Yes, Vaudeville is "the archetypal Parisian brasserie." I thought there was much more to say about Benoit than to recite the menu and note that it now takes Visa. I found Bofinger overrated; Pudlo wrote around the subject, avoiding a negative opinion. He raved about the view at Georges, on the roof of the Pompidou Center --- well, duh. He nailed L'Orangerie for its devotion to "chic little suppers." Amen. His enthusiasm for Rotisserie du Beaujolais could not equal mine; I forgive him. He overpraises the fading Vietnamese classic, Tan Dinh, and fails to include the outrageously great Cambodian restaurant, Au Coin des Gourmets --- for shame. And he has a weakness for killer expensive, big name restaurants that I don't share.
No matter. Reading Pudlo is to be in a conversation. I thrilled when he turned sour: Maxim's customers are "in search of a culinary museum." And it's great to hear a voice that's a monotone for most of the book break out in wild praise. The Mori Venice Bar "will convince you that the Grand Canal is to be found in the heart of Paris." Helene Darroze "looms over the Parisian culinary stage alongside all those she formerly admired." And he finds the food at the Jules Verne --- the Eiffel Tower restaurant I recall as an overpriced tourist trap --- so great that he could almost "step over the balustrade and take to the air." Nice touches, all.
Pudlo --- don't leave home without him.
If you love Paris... June 29, 2007
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
We've spent a lot of time in Paris, especially for the last 15 years on business.
We're not big name restaurant people. It's not that we avoid them, we just don't always have time or the inclination to drop half the family fortune. We've never had a bad meal in Paris. Sometimes you just don't feel like making a meal an expedition. Other times, you have your mouth set on something. Pudlo sorts it out by districts in a way anyone who understands the system will find agreeable..
Pudlo is an old new reliable for the French. This is the first time it's been in English, but it's worthwhile. As a test we picked some our favorite restaurants. Most of them were there, including the dishes that we thought we most noteworthy (some exotic). A few were not - and many of the ordinary restaurants we choose would not be in anyone's guide. But it's more useful that most other guides. Just check the menus for price before you eat.
 Not as helpful as expected August 21, 2007
13 out of 16 found this review helpful
I was just in Paris for five weeks, and I must have spent many hours reading Pudlo over the course of the trip. I did not find it all that helpful, mainly because I found the paragraphs that accompany each restaurant listing insufficiently critical. Nearly every restaurant in the book gets a good review. A few are praised to the ceiling (mostly the grand restaurants, which obviously have fantastic food), and a few are condemned as disappointing, but the vast majority of the reviews are fairly bland: Pudlo describes a few signature dishes, relates some tidbit about the decor or location or the new chef, and says that they were left happy and satisfied. I wanted the guidebook to help me find the best restaurants in the city, of every size and price: the places that serve unusually good food. But Pudlo did not help with that, because it doesn't discriminate between the vast majority of restaurants it reviews.
I was disappointed in other ways as well. Trying to find a restaurant close to the Comedie Francaise, I chose one of Pudlo's "Special Favorites", a Corsican place called A Casa Luna. It turned out to be mediocre, ordinary, not a restaurant I would want to return to. My main dish was mush, literally mush, with a big slice of cheese on top. (My friend's fish was slightly better.) Not only was the Pudlo guide in general insufficiently discriminating, but the rankings provided did not inspire confidence. How could a serious food critic call this mediocre place "A Special Favorite"?
One would think that Pudlo and his team of assistants would know the city like the palm of their hand, and would reveal the small, inconspicuous places where one can find superb food and drink. Alas, the guide has a prejudice against small casual places--it will list a formal restaurant where the food is quite ordinary over a hole-in-the-wall where the food is divine--and it is often content to stick with places whose fame is already established. Understandable, perhaps (it's harder to find the less well-known gems), but boring. Pudlo lists one ice cream shop in the fourth arrondissement, Berthillon, which is a nice place but already extremely famous. It did not list my favorite ice cream shop in the fourth: Pozetto's, a small independent gelato place, which made truly extraordinary gelato. Pudlo doesn't bother to include these less well-known gems.
Pudlo is helpful as a restaurant phone-book of sorts--it's handy to have the phone numbers, addresses, hours, and prices for such a large number of restaurants. I appreciated that information. But as for guidance, it disappoints.
Don't Leave Home Without It! July 14, 2007
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
This book is an absolute treasure for Paris visitors and residents. I visit Paris frequently and have collected many restaurant/shop reviews, but this book provides succinct, clear, reliable and insightful entries for everything from shops and outdoor markets to little inexpensive neighborhood bistros to the temples of haute cuisine. The reviewers talk about the food, the chefs/hosts, the decor, the atmosphere and the experience with great understanding. The book is organized by arrondissement, so throw a copy in your bag, and wherever you find yourself when it's time to eat/drink you're sure to find just the spot to match your tastes and pocketbook...Pudlo lists about 1000 restaurants and 300 shops!
Or, if you can't afford a trip to Paris at the moment, read it for the vicarious thrills!
 Lots of info, but hard to use November 6, 2007
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
This book was full of good information on TONS of restaurants, but was hard to use because of its organization - by district. Obviously, this is probably the best way to organize this kind of book, but when traveling I would rather say I'm on Rue Cler, where can I find a good restaurant? Not I'm in the 7th arr. and I have 20 different places in 20 different parts of the arr. which to hunt down? We ended up 'donating' the book to the apartment we rented because we found it rather useless. Also, all of the restaurants in the book were expensive, so the book wasn't good for a couple on a budget.
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