Thai Time

7 rue Crozatier, 75012

Metro: Reuilly-Diderot

Thai Time is one of those places you pass by every Saturday when you do your grocery shopping and say to yourself, "hmm...that place looks good. I should try it someday!" Well, this was the case for myself. And finally, the opportunity presented itself to me that I was tired enough not to go make dinner at my house, but to try a restaurant in the neighborhood.

From the outside, it looks like your typical Thai restaurant with golden statues of Thai dancers outside, flowers, and gold hanging everywhere. It is a quaint establishment, with tables outside if the weather is accommodating. I ordered a spicy chicken curry while my boyfriend took the pad thai.

The curry was unsurprisingly non-spicy. It was good, but not amazing.The pad thai was tasty and the shrimp added something original to it. 

For dessert, we took the nems aux bananes. It came with a mango sorbet and a chocolate dipping sauce. Since my boyfriend is not a fan of fried things, he enjoyed this dessert less than myself. I was all for it! The nems were nice and hot, fresh out of the oil, full of mashed bananas, and the chocolate dipping sauce went perfectly with it.

Overall, it was good restaurant experience - we enjoyed both our main courses and our dessert. We would most likely go again to try the rest of the menu, and if we had friends over and were in the area, we would not hesitate to offer it as a dining option.

Sambuja

65, Rue du Faubourg Montmartre 75009 Paris

Metro Notre Dame de Lorette

Sambuja is a Korean restaurant found on the less-popular side of a well- known street. Relatively small in size, the restaurant seemed to have no name on the outside, to be identified only by "Restaurant Coreen." 

We ordered the Bulgogi, as normal, and were presented with 7 little side dishes full of yummy pickled vegetables, and miso soup (which was rather strange for a Korean restaurant. We then realized aferwards that this Korean restaurant were indeed owned by Japanese.)

The Bulgogi was cooked in front of us on a circular grill with onion and bowls of rice on the side. The Bulgogi was "okay," "correct," although a bit expensive (as usual for Korean food). I did not find it extraordinarily flavorful as past Korean BBQ but measured about the same on the scale of all Parisian Korean places I have tried.

The 7 side dishes were refreshing and as always, I enjoyed picking at them before the beef, during the beef, and after!  My favorites were the pickled green beans, turnips, kimchee, and the vermicelli. There was a type of tofu/carrots/bell pepper mix that I have never seen before which was the only plate not up to par. 

Overall, the restaurant was about the same as any other Korean restuarant I have tried in Paris. It was a bit expensive, as I recall about 17e/person for the Bulgogi. We would not recommend this restaurant to our friends nor introduce it to anyone looking for good Korean food. I still have hope that there is better in Paris.