The other night, a friend and I were wandering around Ile Saint Louis looking for someplace interesting to have dinner. We almost passed right by this place at first, but something made us stop and check out the menu. When we saw reasonably priced dishes (15-18€) and traditional French fare, we thought, well, why not?
And then we got a look inside the place, and that decided us:
This is "Aux Anysetiers Du Roy", a restaurant located in a 17th century building in the oldest part of Paris. Those ceiling beams are the real deal. Madame (the woman in white) is the patronne, and she bosses her husband around with a smile. (That's him in the royal blue sweater. He basically served, cleaned tables, and brought coffee.) The walls are painted stone. The tables are old wood and close together. The food was excellent - I had salmon with a champagne sauce and my friend had magret de canard (best part of a duck) with a honey raisin sauce - and the bill only came to 54€ including tax and tip for the two of us (no starter and I didn't have any wine because I had to go to work the next day, but my friend had a glass of wine; also she had a dessert but I decided to skip it and have coffee instead). For a really good and really reasonable meal in one of the priciest neighborhoods where so many restaurants are "meh" and overpriced because of all the tourists, this place was an absolute FIND.
After the meal, I was so enchanted with the décor that I decided to go upstairs to use the WC but also to see if the rest of the place looked as delightful as the dining room.
I was not disappointed:
Some of the staircase paintings. (Sorry, it's blurry.)
Yes, I think that is Quasimodo, painted in the staircase.
The WC was typical and modern in a tiny closet, but then just up these last few steps was where you'd wash your hands, with more painted walls. And LOOK at this antique tin sink!
And to the right was this gorgeous mirror - I want!
I turned around to walk back down the stairs, and then spotted THIS hanging up rather high near the painted ceiling beams:
Also upstairs was another dining room but I think they must rent it out for private parties, but the windows had all stained glass with faces, like this:
Back downstairs, a few more shots:
The window next to our table.
More medieval scenes on the walls.
And Madame, doing her thing and doing it well.
How to find Aux Anysetiers Du Roy - Au Petit Bacchus (seems it may go by two names):
On Ile Saint Louis, it's on the long street running down the center of the island, at 61 rue Saint Louis en Ile, on a corner. They don't have a web site but they do have a Facebook page (which hasn't been updated in nearly a year).
By the way, as best I can tell, an anysetier is someone who grows or cooks with or sells anise, the stuff that makes licorice, sambuca -- and pastis! -- taste the wonderful way it does. And "roy" is the old French spelling of "roi" which means King. So - the "anysetiers du roy" would have been the anis-makers to the king (I think). There is actually an international Order of Anysetiers located in Paris. (But of course.) I have no idea why this restaurant has this name, however. If anyone else has any info on that, please share!
