Along with strikes, snails, beautiful women and infidelity, steak frites is about as French it comes. Nonetheless, the proliferation of average steak joints has meant that a nice rump done well and not well done, is a rare and rosy thing.
And so this week, instead of stalking Emmanuelle Alt, I have been steaking out the juiciest meat in Paris. Voila, the steaks that made the cut:
Steaking Restaurant & Whiskey Bar
Set in what was once The London Tavern – an up-market singles club that turned into somewhat of an institution in the 70’s this lavish 3-storey steak and whiskey bar may have just become my new favourite hangout. Â Start with a planche of pata negra or a risotto of mushroom and sparkling wine, before moving on to a world tour of A-Grade meat from Argentina, Spain, France, UK, Austria and USA. After your meal, make sure you check out the opulent whiskey bar on the 3rd floor where it’s all smoke and mirrors and taxidermied peacocks and leather couches and single malts.
Steaking Restaurant & Whiskey Bar
3 Rue du Sabot 75006
Metro: Saint-Germain-des-Prés (valet parking available)
Tel: 01 42 22 78 82
http://www.steaking.fr
Bang!
This convivial new steak joint is the latest hot-spot to hit Canal Saint-Martin. The restaurant offers a wide selection of meat from all over the world (including kangaroo from Australia for the more adventurous) and a superior selection of natural wines, as well as a DIY option to cook your own meat (served with homemade BBQ sauce, tartare and chimichurri) on hot stones at your table.
If you’ve had a rough Saturday night and need to fix that wooden head, the Sunday brunch (poached egg with parmesan and bresaola, coleslaw, black angus beef or grilled prawns with fleur de sel and valrhona chocolate mousse) is bang! on the money.
Bang!
112 quai de Jemmapes 75010
Metro : Gare de l’Est, Colonel Fabien
Tel: 01 40 40 07 11
http://www.bang-restaurant.fr
Ma Chère & Tendre
Touted as the meat and greet’ place for lovers of good steak, this sleek steakhouse in the 17th is a true American export. Start with crab cakes like in Maryland’ or organic hand-cut black angus in three tartares, before moving onto a selection of quality Beef as you like it’ from around the world.
If you’re feeling a bit low in iron, the restaurant offers the It-Beef’ – a sampler of every meat on the menu including beef tartare, beef fillet, ribeye, skewers and hanger steak served with 5 sauces and two sides.
Ma Chère & Tendre
81 Boulevard Gouvion-Saint-Cyr 75017
Metro: Porte Maillot
Tel: 01 40 68 30 40
http://www.machereettendre.com
The Beef Club
Opened in April 2012, The Beef Club was the culinary debut (swiftly followed by the opening of The Fish Club) for the clever team behind the ever-popular clandestine cocktail bars Experimental Cocktail Club, Curio Parlor and Prescription Cocktail Club. Upstairs, the white tiled restaurant (set in an old butcher’s shop) serves up sumptuous cuts of prime UK beef, which have been dry aged for 30 days by renowned in-house butcher Yves-Marie Le Bourdonnec.  If you are feeling more cocktail than côte de boeuf, the unmarked black door to the side of the restaurant will lead you to a dimly-lit, red-walled world of plush velvet and mad cocktails.
The Beef Club
58 Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau 75001
Metro: Les Halles, Etienne Marcel
Tel: 09 54 37 13 65
http://www.eccbeefclub.com
Maison-F
A restaurant where frites have their own menu is my kind of restaurant indeed. Maison-F, the uber-trendy, brand-spanking-new, architecturally designed restaurant in the 9th, is Paris’ first ever haut-gamme frites specialist. Choose from two types of traditional frites (allumettes or pont neuf), risotto fries (ah-mazing), sweet potato fries with coconut and lemon and an ever-changing frites’ of the day. For the meat, tuck into beautifully tender steak, hand-cut tartare, AAAA andouillette or a farm-reared poulet jaune fermière chicken from Gers with a side of deliciously caramelised vegetables.
The quality of the meat is superior and the frites, needless to say, are F-ing amazing. So if you are after ridiculously tender steak, ridiculously moreish frites and ridiculously charming waiters, Maison-F is your one-stop shop.
Ps if you are bored this Wednesday, apparently one of the team members will be doubling as a talented drag performer at the bar downstairs- I personally can’t think of a better way to deal with hump day.
Maison-F
3 rue Rougemont 75009
Metro: Grands Boulevards
Tel: 01 42 46 23 16
http://www.maison-f.com
Emerald Bond (author of www.agoodforking.com)
