Le Valois: All good things come to an end.

With its red awnings stretching around the corner and red velvet curtain keeping the cold air out in the wintertime, Le Valois is the stereotypical Parisian brasserie.  Three things make this restaurant worth trying.  First is the beef.  People rant and rave about it. 

Second is the location.  True, it is geographically close to the Arc de Triomphe, but it is on a side street of a side street in the bucolic 8^th arrondissement tucked in with bank offices, embassies and law firms, so you’ll be surrounded by locals instead of tourists.

And third . . . some of you know my lazy hobo of a husband, Andy Coyne, who organizes a Meetup group called Expats Paris.  When Expats Paris members asked him to start organizing lunches, what restaurant does lazy Andy pick?  Lo and behold, he picks the easiest thing, a brasserie not 100 yards from his office.  But as luck would have it, it turns out to be a great spot—Le Valois. 

Le Valois is a brasserie known for its succulent cuts of beef and its mouth-watering wine selection.  But my husband, who generally doesn’t eat meat or drink, insists I tell you about the most overlooked part of the Le Valois menu, the salads: they serve an excellent Salade Nordique with a nice helping of salmon and a very plentiful Salade Compagnarde, a large green salad covered with nuts, Roquefort, tomatoes, and sliced, sautéed potatoes. 

Relative to most Paris brasseries, Le Valois is quite accommodating of groups, even those that include unruly foreigners reserving large tables at peak lunch hours.  The staff is, by Paris standards, friendly and helpful—even willing to split a bill among a dozen non-French-speaking foreigners with limited math skills—a refreshing plus that is alone worth the visit.

The staff also often exhibits an admirable degree of humor—again, a refreshing twist on the Paris restaurant experience.  One well-worn gag frequently played on unwitting guests involves a waiter with a crooked smile, an espresso cup and a bent spoon.  The waiter, whose identity will be withheld for the purposes of this review, hastily approaches his prey, often including one or more young expat females, with a coffee cup and saucer in hand.  He feigns tripping on a step and pretends to almost dump hot coffee on a newcomer who doesn’t know the joke.  As he or she (generally she) screams, he reveals that the coffee cup is actually empty and the cup and saucer don’t fall on the would-be victim due to this waiter’s practiced sleight of hand, which for some reason involves a bent spoon.  Everyone laughs and the guy ends up getting a nice fat expat tip. 

Despite the good food, service and laughs, this Expats Paris tradition is coming to an end.  After holding sixteen Expats Paris lunches at Le Valois, my lazy husband is in search of a new locale.  He is changing jobs and will now be at Montparnasse, making Le Valois too far of a trek.  But if you have more flexibility with your lunch hour, I recommend that you head on up to the 8^th arrondissement and have a bite to eat at Le Valois, located at 1 place Rio de Janeiro.  For a reservation, call 01 42 25 03 85.