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Dining Out and About (Paris): More Chinese!
By Ann | April 19, 2010
After writing a novel about Chinese food, nothing makes me happier than when people tell me: “I read your book and it made me hungry.”
And if this conversation takes place in Paris, there’s always a follow-up question: “Can you recommend a good Chinese restaurant here?”
As I’ve lamented before, Chinese food in the City of Light is quite often mediocre. Oh, why split hairs? It’s terrible.
Happily, I’d discovered — and blogged about — one reliable restaurant, Likafo, in the 13th. And now I’ve found a second!
Pâtes Vivantes is an unlikely name for a Chinese restaurant, but the noodles here are very authentic, thick, doughy and chewy — in fact, they’re highly reminiscent of the lunches I used to gobble up in Beijing.
Made on location, in the window facing the street, these housemade strands are the “lively pasta” referred to in the restaurant’s name. It all starts with a coil of dough…
The noodle chef stretches a long strand, then doubles, quadruples, and quintuples , stretches and pulls…
And, voila, noodles!
How do you eat the noodles? Well, there’s a spicy beef soup, with noodles lurking below the surface of the rich, fiery broth.
Or these sesame noodles topped with poached chicken, soy beans, and julienned vegetables. The sauce is slightly sweet and lightly spicy, and the freshly cooked noodles take the chill off the slivers of cucumber and carrots.
Make sure to stir everything together so that the sauce thoroughly coats the noodles. I also like to add an additional spoonful or two of chili oil.
Pâtes Vivantes also has zhajiangmian, which could rival any I’ve eaten in Beijing. In their version of northern China’s famous dish, the noodles are topped with a rich, slightly sweet and salty pork sauce, garnished with cilantro, slivered cucumber, bean sprouts and soy beans. For a truly Beijing experience, drizzle a bit of black vinegar and chili oil into your bowl.
There are also stir-fried noodles (which I haven’t yet tried, but look delicious), and daoshaomian, or Shanxi’s famous knife-cut noodles. They’re also made right in the window and are the first I’ve seen outside of China.
Best of all, Pâtes Vivantes is a bargain — noodles run from 9.50€ – 12€; the lunch special is 12€ and comes with a bowl of noodles, two potstickers and a light salad.
Gauchistes — Rive Gauchistes, that is — will be happy to know that Pâtes Vivantes has recently opened a second branch in the 5th.
Pâtes Vivantes
46 rue du Faubourg Montmartre, 9ème
tel: 01 45 23 10 2122
bd Saint-Germain, 5ème
tel: 01 40 46 84 33
Topics: Dining Out and About | 12 Comments »
April 19th, 2010 at 5:18 am
Wow, this sounds amazing! I am so going to try this place. I have lamented the lack of good Chinese food in Paris a lot, too. Back home in the States, Chinese food was always my comfort food (and one of my dreams was to eat an entire meal of only dumplings – I realized this dream several times over, by the way). It was a blow to keep running across awful Chinese food here.
Glad to have some reliable addresses in Paris now!
April 19th, 2010 at 6:51 am
Ann, I love this place! I could eat here once a week, I think.
April 19th, 2010 at 9:23 am
I just went here for the first time a few weeks ago – it was delicious! And I just realized that I now live much closer.
April 19th, 2010 at 9:27 am
I will keep this information for when I get to Paris! In the meantime, I am going to make myself a big bowl of sesame noodles!
April 20th, 2010 at 11:40 pm
I could go for a bowl of the zhajiangmian right now! … and I just had dinner! All the noodle dishes look mouth-watering.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:18 am
Noodles, glorious noodles! One of the things I miss most about China. A hot bowl of dan dan mian on a cold winter day at the Sichuan Provincial restaurant is near bliss. And Parisimperfect — I am with you. I could probably survive if I had dumplings for every meal for the rest of my days!
April 23rd, 2010 at 5:08 am
I’m so proud to have “introduced” you to it! (Mainly I’m just happy to have eaten there, and doubly happy we chose a day that was a bit blustery so the spicy noodles tasted that much better!
April 24th, 2010 at 4:22 am
Ooooo I haven’t yet manage to find good Chinese place to eat in Paris (I blame it on a lack of time each time I’m in the City of Lights) so thanks for the recommendations
April 27th, 2010 at 5:06 am
Parisimperfect — Mmmm, entire meals of dumplings! I have yet to find outstanding dumplings in Paris. But the hunt continues!
Barbra — Er, I have been eating here once a week. The waiter recognizes me now!
Camille — I think this calls for a celebratory noodle meal in your new neighborhood!
Gigi G. — Let us know if you try it!
Dad — Next time I go, I’ll take a photo of the zhajiangmian and update this post.
Chris — Still hunting for Parisian dan dan mian, too!
Kim B — What an ingrate I am! How could I have neglected to give you credit for introducing me to this restaurant?! Thank you so much for bringing me here!
Lil — Well, who comes to Paris to eat Chinese food? If I didn’t live here I’d be gorging on sole meunière, baguettes and cheese all day long. But, this place is a good antidote for a crise de foie!
May 1st, 2010 at 10:06 am
Yes but being Asian, people expect (weirdly) to know where to get Asian food in Paris. I get asked that question a lot, but usually all I managed was to direct them to pastry shops and French restaurants
Paris in 10 days, yay!
January 20th, 2011 at 8:10 pm
[...] it better than Les Pâtes Vivantes or Happy Nouilles? No. But for a 6-euro lunch next door to work, I’ll be more than happy [...]
February 26th, 2011 at 6:09 am
There are some other good Chinese places (always with miserable names): l’Orient d’Or in the 9th serves very well-made Hunan food, and Tresors d’Asie has a skilled chef from Sichuan. In the latter, you have to turn to the back of the menu to find the real Sichuan specialties (after the usual French ‘Chinese’ suspects), and in the former, if, like me, one doesn’t look Chinese, one has to insist that they spice it “comme chez vous” — but in both cases, it is worth the effort. There is also a decent dumpling restaurant in Belleville whose name escapes me…