There are a few menu items that most people visiting Paris have on their “to-try” lists. There’s French onion soup, with its cheesy, gratinéed topping. There’s frog’s legs, which are harder to find than you’d think. There’s beef bourguignon, and there’s steak tartare. And there are more desserts than I have space to list. But one item that frequently finds its way onto this list – as much out of true desire as out of a sort of morbid curiosity – is escargots.
Escargots à  la bourguignonne are fairly common on bistro menus in France. Prepared with garlic butter and broiled, these snails are very different from my personal favorite kind of snail, cargolade, which is flambéed with lard and eaten standing up, in the south of France. But while you’ll find the former – the buttery, garlicky snails – in almost every brasserie in Paris, whether they’re good or not is another story.
I’ve had fine escargots in many places and miraculously largely avoided horrid ones, but I’ve only had great ones a handful of times. Appropriately, those at L’Escargot Montorgueil fall into the latter category.
This restaurant has sat on the Montorgueil market street since 1832 (the same year, by the way, as the June Rebellion portrayed in Les Misérables. I’ll always bring it back to VH.) It’s no surprise, then, that they’ve mastered the snail. Here, you can try not just traditional parsley, garlic, and butter snails, but also other escargots flavored with curry butter, blue cheese, or even foie gras.
I, of course, tried all of them. For science.
The curry was perhaps my least favorite. It was certainly interesting, but somehow a bit too sweet – especially with the sweetness of the pain de mie (sandwich bread) toast soldiers served alongside.
By contrast, the foie gras, which certainly could have been too sweet, was redolent and rich. One or two bites was more than enough.
The roquefort, unsurprisingly, was my favorite. The pungency and piquant of the cheese was, for me, the ideal pairing for the relatively mild, earthy snail.
That said, the best of the four was undoubtedly the classic: the herbed butter was filled with a freshness you don’t often find in other iteration of this dish. I can only imagine that since this is the restaurant’s star recipe, the turnover is fast enough that the prepared snails don’t need to be frozen.
I’ll admit I always come here just for the snails… but they do also have other classic bistro dishes on the menu, in case someone in your party is put off by the idea. And since they offer service continu – continual service, i.e. not closing between lunch and dinner – it’s always a good spot to have in the back of your mind. Mid-afternoon snails? Only in Paris. (No regrets.)
L’Escargot Montorgueil – 38 Rue Montorgueil, 75001