Le Grand Pan

Outstanding quality of ingredients and creative technique. The satisfaction of haute cuisine without the formality and pomp. Worth the price. An out-of-the-way location, not touristy.

Absolutely lovely! I'd give it 5 stars if it weren't located in the middle of nowhere (okay, the 15th).

Friendly staff greeted me for lunch, seated promptly. My friend was running very late to lunch and the host brought me a nice glass of dry white wine to sip on while I waited. They serve wine "tonnelet" here which apparently means from the cask, i.e. not-bottled. This makes for some tasty and inexpensive wine.

For the entree I had poached eggs in a lovely cream sauce covered with shaved truffles. I love poached eggs and I love truffles and this dish was perfect.

And then we moved on to the bouef blond d'Aquitaine which is served for two people. The waitress helpfully pointed out I could have my side saignant (rare) and my buddy could have his a point (medium rare). And the meat was great. And the handcut fries were great.

When I am stuck in the 15th, this is my new favorite restaurant. And in fact I'll go out of my way to get back.

This restaurant has been reviewed several times since it first opened in 2007. We've actually been there once before about a year ago, and remembered overall there were lots of "hits." So, I wanted to go back for an update.

We had some friends from California, visiting Paris so we were 4-people. We had reservations for 8 p.m. and as we arrived we noticed there was only one other couple in the restaurant, but that soon changed as more and more people were filing in. It's a small restaurant (40-seat max), very Parisian, they have a row of tables where you have to pull out the tables in order to let people in. They have a standard menu on a blackboard next to the kitchen, and they also have a small movable blackboard with the evenings recommended special.

We first started with apéros, three of us had a kir with white wine, and one had the pastis, and they gave us plenty of time to peruse the menu. Le Grand Pan is known for their côte de boeuf (side of beef), but minimally it's for 2-people. I'm not a big steak eater, so I knew that I was not going to try to convince someone to share this with me.

For the evening's specials you had a choice of 4-entrées, 4-plats, and 3-desserts: we ordered from the main blackboard one of us got got the mixed saucisson sec (dry sausages). It was a nice variety of sausages. What surprised me most of all was that it was accompanied with pickled chilis that had a "bite" to them, very un-French since most French do not like hot/spicy food, but the Chef is from the Basque region, so they do add a little "spice" to their meals.

I had the Carpaccio de thon (tuna carpaccio), I have to say this was absolutely delicious, very fresh and the tuna melted in your mouth. It was perfect.

We also had the Tarine de boeuf et foie gras et son chou rouge pistache, basically a beef with foie gras and pickled cabbage flavored with pistachios. Loved this dish as well. It was quite tasty.

The Poelée de cepes des andennes. Literally means a pan of mushrooms. Our companion loved the dish and it came in with a parmesan wafer. It had a great natural nutty flavor, but also naturally sweet.

All-in-all we unanimously agreed that the entrées were a hit!.

For the plats 2 of us shared the côte de boeuf (side of beef for 2), it was accompanied by big gigantic fries as well as a salad with a light vinaigrette dressing. The two ordered their beef "a point" pronounced "ah pwa" which is basically medium rare. We made comparisons between the steaks we get in US and the steaks in France. In France, the beef are typically grass fed whereas in the US they're grain fed. As it was quite large, I had a few slices; I don't normally like to eat beef in France, but I have to say, considering the number of places I've eaten in Paris, this is probably as good as it gets. Our friends liked it as well, but agreed that our U.S. beef, regardless how they're fed, is much more tender.

I had the Colvert cuit en 2 façons, mallard cooked in 2 ways. Everyone had a taste of my duck, and we all agreed it was damn good. The flesh was "pink" just the way I like it, with a wonderful, wonderful light sauce, almost like au jus. Very simple, but tasty, we gave it an A+.

We also tasted the Lièvre compoté au four lenguement, hare slow cooked. We all tasted it, and we universally disliked this dish. It looks rich and tasty, but in reality it was bland, stringy, and pieces of hare themselves were quite dry. It looked like a fancy pulled pork, too bad we didn't have any condiments to flavor it. If we could give this a grade it would definitely be a D.

We had a cheese plate, and itt was a nice selection from an aged bleu to a chevre. There are French cheeses that I prefer over the other, but bottom-line, the cheeses in France are fabulous, so no complaints from me.

At this point I was "stuffed to the gills" and so were our companions, but we had desserts none-the-less. We had a the chocolate mouse with a bit of cream and a slice of a very, very moist cake similar to pound cake. Although it looked very simple, not all that exciting and non-descript, it was really, really quite good.

We tried the pistache macaron atop quetsche, which is a dark plum compote. The quetsche compote was excellent; however, macarons tend to be sweet, so Jack thought it was too sweet. Overall, we thought the desserts were excellent.

So, after a year's return what did I think? It's a great place to go, they have many more "hits" than misses. After my Jadis disaster this past July with their steak (refer to Jadis review), I've been staying away from "steaks." Le Gran Pan is probably the only place I will order steaks, because it is actually quite good, or am I just coming around to French steaks?

I love this place! An excellent destination when in the neighborhood. Very fond of their cocktails and wine list. Every meal here has had a high respect for vegetables with clean flavors that accent the in season ingredients.

This place is amazing, like many of the small bistros in the 15th. Fresh, high quality ingredients treated deliciously. At lunch one day: salad of seasonal veggies with grilled pork belly and a fresh tomato salad with incredible tomatoes. At night, you can order a cote de boeuf, veau or porc pour deux personnes which comes with fries and a green salad. It is rare to encounter such ingredible quality of products, across the board. The service is also professional and warm. I've gone here six times and never been disappointed.

We came from the USA and used the Time Out Guide to find this restaurant. The meal started off good with starters of green asparagus with ham & carpaccio of tomatoes and burrata. Those two starters were very delicious. Then someone I was with suggested we share the side of Iberian pork for two. That was absolutely disgusting. There was no pork. It came out and looked liked three pounds of meat. There was no meat to be found. It was 44 euros. I thought wow. This entree wasn't fit for a dog! He said that's the way the French eat, they will eat the fat. That's funny, the table next ours had the same dish & there's was meaty. I barely saw them cut any fat off there entree. I think because we are Americans(who spoke fluent French), they would shave off some of the meat off out entree and give it to someone else. I threw my money at my party & I had to walk out of the restaurant and let my friends pay the bill. The place sucks!