Chez Michel, Paris

Chez Michel is certainly one of the best reasonable-priced dining experiences in the city. Chef Theirry cooks delicious, classical-yet-contemporary dishes, elegantly plated, in a relaxed yet classy, refined but unpretentious atmoshphere. There's only one menu, a prix-fixe at �30 which covers the typical entr�e, plat et dessert, with a nightly specials board that displays the chef's whims on that particular evening (often the specials are seasonal dishes - but note that almost all have supplements of �10-�20). The service was decent but inconsistant: most of the serveuses, it seemed, were very nice and friendly - unfortunately, though, ours was quite frosty, especially at first, and rather slow. The food itself was absolutely superb. My appetizer was supposed to be magret de canard, but a shortage of this dish meant that I was offered a special entr�e of foie gras with a confiture aux figues (fig jam) and toasted pain de campagne. The bloc of foie gras was massive, easily the size of a filet mignon - and much denser (I could only manage to eat half of it). The configure was quite nice and made a good, simple pairing with the foie gras; the bread I could have done without and personally think that brioche would have worked much better. My plat was joue de b�uf (beef cheek), and this dish was in fact one of the best beef dishes that I've ever had. The meet was slow-braised and literally just melted in my mouth - absolutely delicious. And the dessert, a very flaky, buttery and heavy cake of which I dare not attempt to spell the name, was very good (the butteriest ever, I figure) but lacked flare. As far as the other dishes that I tasted (complements of my dining companions), the asparagus cream soup was very good, and the market salad was very nice. Apparently the carpaccio de t�te de veau was very good, too. As far as the plats were concerned, each one was delicious in its own right - the roast chicken and the seabream were excellent, and the lamb was mind-blowingly tender and flavorful. Other desserts included a panna cotta (very nice) and caramelized bananas topped with a quenelle of delicious, dense chocolate mousse. All in all, dinner for four with a bottle of nice champagne and bottles of water came to �174. Excellent experience, would certainly return. �30 prix-fixe; Decent wine list; Relaxed business dress; Reservation essential; M�tro: Gare du Nord