I’ll have the calf’s head please
Posted on March 7, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Restaurants, Reviews.
Ancient Parisian restaurant still serving great food at amazing prices




A bunch of us geeks attended the pretty weak Le Web 3 conference in December 2006. The main party was on near l’Opera and we wanted to get something decent to eat (we’d had a Chinese the previous night!).
Jan from Touristr is French and knew of an “institution” called Au Petit Riche which has been around since the mid 1800’s. It was only a few minutes from the incredible Haussmann animated shop-window Christmas display which made the Switzers/BT display look like a sad joke!
I was immediately impressed by the stall outside the restaurant selling Oysters.
It turns out that the people selling them have been supplying the restaurant for generations. Could you imagine something so cool outside an Irish place?
Inside was broken into large booths with maybe four tables in each. A giant cheese sat on the counter. The waiters were grumpy which made me happy.
There was no problem seating the 6 of us.
The menus came out and I realised they served traditional classic French food; escargot, fois gras, tete de vache, oysters. I drooled. Then I saw the fixed price menu cost - €30! I was gobsmacked. All of us went with it except Joe who wanted the fois gras and who will probably be stabbed by Keith the next time he meets him
I went with snails to start which were awesome, dripping in garlic butter in one of those compartmentalised dishes.
Unfortunately I decided to be adventurous and have the calf’s head for main. This was a mix of cheek, tongue and brain. It came out in a mini crock-pot thing and was basically a watery stew with those components and some veg along with a nice side gribbiche sauce.
The problem was that most of the meat was wobbly non-rendered fat and just wasn’t very appetising. I was glad to try it but won’t do it again. Brains were fine!
We nearly all went with the creme brulee which was killer - one of the best ever. Great coffee too.
The highlight for me was the fun we had with the wine. I was brow beating Jan about how the French approach of having 16-word titles on wine had no hope of working in the modern world where the Aussies just said “Shiraz”. He argued that there is far more to wine than the grape and that needed to be highlighted on the bottle. Yes terroir came up.
The waiter gave Jan the wine menu and to his credit he admitted defeat! It consisted of maybe 8 or 9 sections. Within each section was a type of wine and then just a list like this:
- 2004 Yannick Amirault Bourgueil La Coudraye
- 2003 Yannick Amirault Bourgueil Les Quartiers
- 2004 Yannick Amirault Bourgueil Tin Pan Alley
- 2003 Yannick Amirault Bourgueil Yama Lama Ding Dong
- 2004 Yannick Amirault Bourgueil Nanoo Nanoo
Over and over.
I asked him what the difference between each one was and he didn’t know. He called over the waiter who was similarly stumped. He called the sommelier and had a detailed chat of which I caught a tiny part. The sommelier had narrowed it down to Yannick Amirault Bourgueil La Coudrayeand Yannick Amirault Bourgueil Les Quartiers.
I said “Jan please tell me that I misheard and he didn’t say that the only difference between those two wines is the side of the valley they were grown on in the vineyard.”. Oh yes indeedy! However the sommelier had described the differences between them. One fruitier, the other more dry etc. So we got one and enjoyed it immensely.
My googling afterwards showed that it is a very highly regarded but inexpensive Cabernet Franc from the Touraine region of the Loire Valley.
We finished the first bottle and then agreed we would try the other variant “just to see”. Conor is a donkey - we could all bloody tell the difference and none of us are wine experts. Wow! Sodding Aussies have been conning us for twenty years.
Only problem is that my brain is too small to remember all the French info.
Back to the restaurant. Great great food in a lovely location with a killer price. If you are around l’Opera in Paris, you should definitely give it a go.
19 Replies to "I’ll have the calf’s head please"
conor on March 7, 2007
How could I have forgotten the dazzling repartee and rapier sharp wit of all the diners?
I should also point out that it was the place to be seen in that night with all the cool geeks there!
Jochen Lillich on March 14, 2007
Noone could drive me to eat bovine brain. I’d rather take two creme brulees.
conor on March 14, 2007
I believe brains are good on toast
My attitude is that if I have BSE/CJD, I caught it 20 years ago eating dodgy burgers.
JD on March 14, 2007
Calf’s head???? Dear God! I’m reeling at my desk here. Bit queasy now that I’ve read the Parisian memoir. Time for a coffee…
conor on March 14, 2007
It wasn’t like lobsters in a tank tho, we didn’t get to pick our own calf.
Oh now I’m in real trouble with my vegan reader(s).
JD on March 15, 2007
hee hee.
FYI I believe there’s a St Patrick’s Festival City market on Emmett Place (Opera House) this Sat - a coming-together of Mahon Farmer’s market and some artisan producers. Might be worth a look. We tranched through the English Market weekend before last and the highlight was an excellent Latte (or milky coffee as they are called in our humble abode) at one of the stalls. Prices are far too high for the veg and perishables though. Just an observation.
Also FYI UCC are running a Speciality Food Production diploma course from April-May (see page 2 in the Farming Supplement with today’s Irish Examiner) covering “food production science, technology & nutrition of foods with emphasis on traditional methods etc”. I have requested details and will keep an update, should we decide to do it on http://www.freewebs.com/jdeire
conor on March 15, 2007
Market sounds good but not around for it. I think the Slow Food people may be sponsoring a slot on that UCC course. It’s a great idea.
JD on March 15, 2007
Just been emailed re the UCC course. It’s fulltime for the few weeks and costs €2,900.
Cough!
conor on March 15, 2007
I think I’ll stick to learning off d’internet and d’google
Jan Blanchard on April 16, 2007
I have to say you’re an excellent review writer. Reading your post just brought me back to that great evening, chat and dinner. I could nearly taste the wine and garlic butter snails again!!
conor on April 16, 2007
Thanks Jan, if it wasn’t for you we’d probably have ended up in a kebab shop
JD on May 23, 2007
Had a great (drinking) meal in London last Thurs night in Covent Garden. A basement experience in a Belgian restaurant called Belgo Centraal. It’s food and beer list is amazing. All waiters dressed in monk’s habits.Trunched my way far too many biers blondes! Booking is necessary though. I’d recommend it for the beer list alone.
http://www.toptable.co.uk/details.cfm/qs/rid%7C1258/
conor on May 23, 2007
You should sign up to LouderVoice and write a review!
Greg on December 14, 2007
Dined at the institution that is Au Petit Riche last week. Great food and wine as per usual. Yes, even though the weather is getting cooler you can guarantee the man out the front to be selling Oysters.
conor on December 16, 2007
Unfortunately we didn’t make it there for this year’s Le Web. We just had two utterly forgettable (but still better than 90% of Irish restaurants) cafe meals.
Le Web must be the only tech conference in the world where one of the lunch nibbles was fois gras cooked to order!
sam on January 4, 2008
just about to book it great recommendation! next time you are in paris try le coupe chou
conor on January 6, 2008
Will do, thanks for the tip.
If you think of it afterwards, you might consider doing a review of it on LouderVoice











Deborah on March 7, 2007
Here’s me drooooooooling! GOT to get to Paris!