La Fontaine Gaillon is a beautiful restaurant in a 17th-Century mansion in the Opéra district. We…read morewent on the recommendation of our hotel concierge, who also helped us secure the reservation, an early Sunday dinner for a large party.
We were given the choice between the main dining area and a private room, and as the private room cost an extra €300, we decided to try our luck out on the floor. To our surprise, we were led to a private room when we checked in. I guess there was a vacancy, and they saw us coming with a two-year-old and three-year-old.
The private room was comfortable and attractive, with an opulent, overstuffed French aesthetic. White tablecloths, bold wallpaper, upholstered seats with a profusion of pillows. We were tucked away--never even saw the main dining room--so service was a bit intermittent, but friendly and well paced. We were okay on our own for the most part, drinking wine and dealing with wiggly children.
The food was quite good, if not the best we had on this trip. There was bread with butter and crunchy radishes to start, and we ordered a hefty spread of appetizers. My favorite of these was the king crab salad with avocado and grapefruit. The marinated tomatoes were lovely too, with sherry, yogurt sauce, and basil, as were the mushroom tart and foie gras terrine with apple and port chutney. I was less into the sea bass carpaccio, which tasted oddly fishy in a way I wasn't expecting. It came with olive oil, lemon, and salmon roe.
I had the hand-cut beef tartare with fries for my main course, and this was really satisfying, silky and meaty with a fresh egg yolk and herbs. My husband had the lamb chops with eggplant and reduced jus and this was great, too. The kids ate butter pasta and plenty of the fries, which were excellent.
This was a fun family dinner in a glamorous venue unlike any available to us in California. I'd recommend it if you'd like a nice French dinner in a historic mansion. Bring enough kids and they might even give you your own room.
