Paris Eats - Veggie Style

I was hanging with a vegan and a vegetarian this past weekend (US friends visiting in Paris!) and had to find some veggie-friendly restaurants where we could all enjoy a good meal. Well, needless to say, the meat-heavy French restaurants did NOT fit the bill, so we had to branch out and branch out we did!

For lunch we ate at an all-organic "fast food" restaurant called Oh! Bio in the 3rd arrondissement at number 58, rue Rambuteau. We all had some form of the croustiburger - a "patty" made from quinoa, corn and some other amazingness that when topped with cheese (for us non-vegans) tasted pretty delish. Check out this other blog post  from Végétalien à Paris for some tasty-looking photos of their dishes.

Dinner was another challenge but we made it happen with flying colors when we decided to try out Ethiopia at 89, rue du Chemin Vert in the 11th. While Copain and I had never tried Ethiopian, my Ricaine friends were experts and managed to convince Copain that is was worth a try (he almost peaced out three times before he gave in to our pleas).

We were seated in what we fondly named "the hut" and while the Ricaines shared a fully vegan plate, Copain and I shared the meat-eaters menu with a little bit of everything.  The set menu for 1 person at 20 Euros was enough to feed us both, plus we all shared a bottle of white Bordeaux for about 10 Euros - sounds like a deal to me!

Check out our smorgasbord:

The experience was made even more enthralling due to the fact that we got to make little "tacos" or "wraps" but tearing off a piece of the sourdough crepe-like bread and pinching a little scoop of the food inside.  Good times!

To finish off the night, we ordered chocolate cake for dessert and Ethiopian coffee which was no ordinary coffee my friends. The (non-French speaking) waiter came to our table holding a tray complete with a coffee-filled gourd, a little animal-skined sugar bowl, two cute little coffee cups, a bowl of incense and an incense burner. As he served us the coffee and burned the incense, he explained that this was the traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony:

Coffee gourd, waiter scooping the incense

Animal-skined sugar bowl behind the incense burner

Ta da! Coffee ceremony complete

The service was great and while sometimes communication with the male server was difficult because he didn't speak French (Copain was appalled), the female server spoke both English and French perfectly and was very sweet. She even suggested we share, which is pretty rare in a restaurant in France.  The wine was well-priced and let's face it - where else can you eat in a hut?! The only part of the experience I didn't try was the restrooms so I can't review that very important aspect of Ethiopia.  I'll try it out next time because you'd better believe I'll be going back.