Considering they're Parisian, beyond pleased. Owner Jean-Guillaume Dufour who also launched Tontons 1 and 2 is always ready for a chat. “The client here is chez lui”, he insists.

Americans, indeed probably all visitors, want to know what is the real genuine guaranteed bistro of the moment.  When I use the word bistro in my blog, my hits go off the chart (better than sexual anatomical words, go figure!).

It's usual to note the progress of a chef, a bit of name dropping never did any harm. Very unusual for a culinary passion to begin in a convent. This is what happened to Iza Guyot, a student at Notre Dame des Apotres, Toulouse. “I learned the basics from the sisters who wisely thought that every woman should learn to cook. In fact I was always fascinated with the kitchen, I stood on a stool aged 6 to help knead the bread, and mixed my first Buche de Noel when I was 8. I can't remember ever wanting to do anything else.”

Recently a great friend whom I thought I knew and could “read,” wrote me that he wasn’t “much for 'new' cuisine and didn't do well in those kinds of places—I'm just not adventurous.” Knocked me over.

Show me a chef who doesn't have problems and I'll buy you dinner. It's Thursday and Odette's puzzled, she can't make her cream whip up into a chantilly however hard she tries. It's just about time for lunch service at Au Vieux Paris d'Arcole and the kitchen is buzzing. Suddenly Odette realises why. “I changed the brand of cream yesterday, this one is useless,” she sighs.

As an avid Paris restaurant print medium and internet discussion consumer for 20 years, I’ve been squirreling away impressions about where my fellow Americans love to eat. And finally I’m ready to reveal the conclusions of this most decidedly unscientific and over-generalized “research.”

In prior essays I’ve tagged the perfect bistro and perfect restos in Paris for my readers, and I think I’ve just tumbled on the “perfect” wine bar with a full food menu.

What do I mean by this?

Well, there are lots of neat wine bars in town, and lots of wine bistrots that serve platters of charcuterie and cheese.  But moving up to hot dishes, especially ones involving fish, takes one to a new level.

If you're wondering where talented super-chef Michel del Burgo is, he's alive, well and cooking up a storm in a picture-postcard maison dating from the 18th century, “Chez La Vielle “Adrienne”.

Del Burgo, ex-Le Bristol, Taillevent (3-stars), Hotel de la Cité, Carcassonne, Le Duc, Moscow, L'Orangerie etc, is now shaking those copper pots and pans in a tiny kitchen near Les Halles. In the wood panelled dining rooms expect to see top chefs (Maximin, Poujauran, Bouchet) welcoming their talented confrere back.

The great Anglophilic food writer, John Whiting, from whom I was separated at birth (if you don’t believe me, take a look at our photos side by side) frequently quotes English food historian Jane Grigson as having said, “We have more than enough masterpieces; what we need is a better standard of ordinariness.”