Passage Choiseul

On a fine winter’s day, I was adventurous enough to walk into the unknown - in other words, I was lost and came across this awesome place! The place I’d like to share with you all today is “Passage Choiseul” in which is just minutes away from the metro station Quatre-Septembre.

This place is basically a semi-indoor walkway with a rooftop, consisting of mostly individual clothes stores and many many great options for a meal or a snack. While I did not get to go in and try to eat at any of the places I will mention, I’ve only selected a few places out of all the offered options as places that I would go in for a meal.

To get the ball rolling, I came across a place called Bistropolitan. They seem to be a restaurant with a very simple deal for lunch. Depending on which deal you’d like to get, the price differs. This is great for those that wanna grab something quick and light, since it starts off from 7 euros for a choice that’s offered on the day plus dessert. I took a quick look inside the restaurant and saw that some of the dishes were prepared ahead of time, and were kept warm under the heat. The food did look quite good, so I might come back to try it one day if I’m in the area - or get lost again in the same area.

Moving on a few steps - literally - from Bistropolitan, we have a Korean restaurant, Ari Ari. My first impression was that the place was quite busy. Most of the tables had customers enjoying away their food, so that was an encouraging sign. Like any smart restaurant owners, they made had menus outside with what daily deals for lunch. I found their nine euros fifty and eight euros deals for lunch to be most attractive. For nine euros and a half, you get what looked to me like fried chicken with sweet soy sauce. I would assume that the chicken will have that nice glaze of sweet sticky soy sauce and a little kick from the spices of the peppers. Or at least that’s what I’ve had in the past with Korean cuisine. Otherwise, you could go for the ramen with seafood and vegetables. Looking at the picture, this ramen should fill you up and get you marching on during these cool winter days. They also a few other options during the lunch time with many also serving delicious pickled vegetables that Korean cuisine is well-known for.

Walking a little bit more now, oh actually, just next door to Ari Ari, sits a Korean neighbour much smaller in size. By comparison, Ari Ari is about three to four times larger than this other Korean option, in which I forgot to take note of the name. If you do find the first restaurant, you’ll find Ari Ari, and you’ll find this one right next to it. Like I said, it’s way smaller and it gets very crowded in there. The menu looks quite yummy as well, offering what I recognise as traditional Korean dishes with of course, more of the goodness in the pickled veggies. In fact this menu starts from 11:30am and goes on until 7:00pm. This “non-stop” menu is a great choice if you’re craving Korean food and missed out on the lunch times for other Korean places.

Now going away from the Korean cuisine, I spotted a place that has quite an interesting concept. They serve what we see as “healthier” options with salads, soups and wraps. They’re busy here as well, so they must be doing something right. The prices are also very reasonable, or certainly within my budget for a lunch in the city. There are also hot dishes such as chicken or beef as you could see here on the blackboard. Look out for this sign if you’re interested, as I once again failed to remember the name of the place (this is unfortunately becoming a reoccurring theme).

If you’re into burgers like me, I would stop by Bio Burger to see what they have to offer. So many of these burger shops have opened up in recent time it’s becoming a huge trend. I really wanted to try this burger place, since I love burgers, but having come back from a trip where I had so many burgers already, I thought I should give it a go some other day. The green poster displays all the advantages Bio Burger has in their approach to quality of their restaurant. The one below it is the menu they present in front of the restaurant. From my understanding, you pay for the burger but don’t get fries or a side with them. You might want to try out their drinks made in house, like the lemonade, iced tea and whatever moit’ moit’ could be. If you do try this place out, let me know!

And if you’re up for something a bit local, as in French, there’s this place called Croque. You could probably guess what they serve in here. This was a poster just outside the shop presenting to us hungry on lookers what they have in store for the lunch time. A little bit more expensive than other options if what you’re getting is croque monsieur, but that’s your call! But considering that it’s very cold and the sun sets early, these actually play out to be a very good way to not only warm your body, but also to satisfy your stomach. It's menu happy croqueur after all!

These are the places that I would actually try for myself. As always, you’re more than welcome to try other options that you may find along the way. I remember a sushi place at the very end that was quite interesting, but I didn’t bother looking into it since it didn't look very nice from the outside (it was all dark and not many people sat inside). There was also another Japanese place towards the end that has a Japanese written menu outside. That always shows that they have something that knows about Japanese food - or maybe they just simple hired someone to type them up..

But hey, do give it a try. After all, it’s quite close to many metro stations, but as I said, I would get off at Quatre-Septembre as I believe it’s easier to access from their. Rue Sainte-Anne, also known as, Japan Town is also minutes away and will have some more restaurants. Here are two more places that I saw queues for earlier!

Sometimes it’s good to get lost, because you might come across some interesting eating places.