Paris Eats - Indian Style aka, How Copain Saved My Birthday

After reading about all of my birthday bashing you probably think that I am a spoiled brat who doesn't know how good she has it. And you are probably right. Copain is a very good boyfriend who tries really hard to make my day special - he just has a hard time seeing the potential pitfalls and then troubleshooting solutions on the fly.  Hence, the Tour de France disaster.

He did eventually feel bad and admit to not following the path which made me feel like less of a snot (see my gripe was justified!). And, he did make up for the swamp ass extravaganza by scoping out a very cool restaurant (you know, the one we were supposed to go to on my birthday but didn't because I couldn't move). Beau Père and Belle Mère treated us for my birthday gift - merci à vous deux!

This restaurant merits a Paris Eats blog because it was that good - behold Jodhpur Palace!
16 rue Hénard
75012 Paris
Tel: 01 43 40 72 46

I'll admit that when I first arrived in the quartier I was less than amazed - it's really nothing to write home about. BUT - then you see the restaurant, the fancy napkins, chairs and place settings and hear the great Indian music and you are so excited to try the food (does anyone else get as excited about food as I do?).

They serve à la carte or they offer a 25 or 29 Euro menu including a starter, main dish and dessert.  I started off with champagne as an aperitif, then for the entrée I got the Saloni Poisson Tikka, aka the most amazingly flavorful tandoori-cooked salmon.

Presentation wasn't their strong point but the taste was to die for.

For the plat I ordered the Agneau Korma  (lamb korma) and it came with basmati rice.  I was seriously in love with this food - not too spicy with a delicious combination of crème fraîche, cashews, almonds, raisins and pistachios. We also ordered an Indian rosé wine to go along with the meal - this was the only less-than-amazing part of the dinner.  Next time I would go with a French rosé.

View from Copain's side of the table - he got the Poulet au Beurre.

For dessert, I wanted to stay authentic so I ordered the homemade indian ice cream.  I'm not sure if they actually eat this in India (any Indian readers out there?), but if not they probably should start doing so asap.  It was sweet and creamy, made with cardamom and served with pistachio shavings on top.

My Iphone photo really doesn't do the ice cream justice, plus I had already started eating it- but I'm telling you, it was scrumptious.

Then, our friendly waiter threw in a digestif because we were bien sympatique - Copain ordered the Armagnac and I did too, only I thought I was getting Amaretto. oops.

I can now say with confidence that I am not an Armagnac fan - good to know.

The cost for our meal was fairly high in comparison to my other Paris Eats recommendations. BUT it was my birthday and so we had an aperitif, the most expensive menu and a bottle of wine to share.  Next time we go I'm sure we could scale down and enjoy it just as much.  The bathrooms were clean and modern (staff was cleaning them at 9.30pm when we arrived) and the waiters were nice and on top of the service throughout the evening - they even asked us how we liked the wine and the food during the night (very rare in France). It felt fancy without being pretentious and they offered both indoor and outdoor seating (we chose indoor because we liked the decor and the music and (I especially) had some weird obsession with the chairs - they were so nice!). 

This restaurant has now been entered into my Iphone repertoire of go-to places in Paris - seriously the best Indian I've ever had.