Aux Amis du Beaujolais is a great place to have traditional French lunch or dinner near the Champs Elysées. Ranging from tartare to grilled beef, andouillete and duck, meals are authentic and taste great. Coffee is fine and of course you can taste a selection of good bordeaux and beaujolais whine. Prices, in the 12 - 18 euros range, are quite affordable given the neighbourhood.

Aux Amis du Beaujolais has been a family business since 1921.

Reservations: +33 (0)1 45 63 92 21
Web site: http://aux-amis-du-beaujolais.com/

Le Bistro de Pekin a a good and reasonably priced Chinese restaurants on rue de Ponthieu, near the Champs Elysées in Paris.

They have a wide range of classic Chinese dished which can either be ordered a la carte or in combos. The combos are appetisers + main dish + desert and start at about 12 Euro. The place is also nicely decorated.

If you’re near the Champs Elysées and feel like having Chinese, I highly recommend this one.

Full address: 38 rue de Ponthieu, 75008, Paris,
Phone number: 01 42 56 14 20

Amalfi is an excellent pizza / pasta restaurant located at 142 bd Berhier in the 17^th arrondissement in Paris. It’s managed by Rosario and Pepe, genuine Italians from the Amalfi coast, near Naples. Sometimes, Mario is coming over from Italy to give them a hand. Entering this restaurant it’s like being beamed over to Naples: an authentic Italian experience.

The only problem with Rosario’s place is that once you had a pizza there, you’re not going to like it anywhere else any more. The quality is great and prices are cheap.

The menu is quite complete: you can choose among a range of traditional pizza, pasta, meat dishes and salads. My favourite dishes are the pizza quatro stagione, penne all’amatriciana, the amalfi sallad and the lasagna.

Rosario also has a nice reserve of fine Italian wines at affordable prices. And their limoncello goes well with the coffee.

Well, you must have guessed, I totally recommend the Amalfi restaurant. I’m going there for lunch for more than 5 years on a regular basis and I’ve never been disappointed.

For reservations call +33 (0)1 42 12 01 49. Enjoy!

I just had lunch at Charlie Birdy, in Paris, and I was highly disappointed. It’s located at 148 Rue la Boetie, very close to the Champs Elysées.

My colleagues and I went there because we felt like having a burger and we wanted to try this place we never went to. Well, the burgers are average at best. Maybe slightly better then McDonald’s, but lets just say that if I would have had the same thing at the fast food, I wouldn’t have left saying “oh my, look how much McDonald’s has improved….”. Charlie also has salads and a few other dishes which I didn’t try and since it’s very unlikely I’ll ever return, I’ll probably never will. I think I can live with that.

To make the long story short, Charlie Birdie is what people in Paris call a tourist trap: it’s close to a tourism hotspot, the food is average at best and it’s expensive.

I paid 18 Euro for a burger and a coffee. At 12 Euro, given the location, it would have been reasonable money for the quality you get. But at 18 it’s a rip-off. If you’re on Champs Elyssées and feel like having a burger I recommend to go on Rue la Boetie but walk 20 meters past Charlie Birdy and stop at the DogStar where you’ll get better quality for less money. Oh, and Charlie asks 8 Euro for a pint of Beamish and more than 3 Euro for a cup of coffee. A rip-off.

Gordon Biersch is a nice brewery and restaurants chain. In San Francisco they are located on the waterfront near the Embarcadero, on Harrison St. The restaurant has a nice view over the Bay Bridge. The home brewed beer is really excellent.

Lefty O’Doul’s has great american style food: glazed ham, roast beef, corned beef, pastrami. All very tasty and of good quality. The personnel is very nice and welcoming and we had a great time over there. Their location on Geary St, near Union Square, makes them easily accessible.

Address: 333 Geary St, San Francisco.
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I stayed at the Club Quarters of San Francisco on Clay Street for nine days in december 2007. Club Quarters was an excellent surprise. Located in the financial district near Market Street, the Embarcadero and Columbus Ave, it offers quick access to many important locations of San Francisco.

The entire hotel is impeccably clean and a few services are offered which are appreciated by any business traveler or tourist:

• Free wireless internet access at a very reasonable speed.
• In the lobby there are three or four computers with internet access and printers which guests can use at will. You can for example search for direction maps and print them out.
• Also in the lobby there is a coffee machine and a hot water source along with a small basket of tea bags. Guests can at any time of day or night go to the lobby and get a free hot drink.
• At every level there is a source of cool water along with a stock of empty plastic bottles. Guests can either pick up a bottle from the stock or refill their own.
• The Elephant and Castle bar, which can be accessed directly from the hotel lobby, has very good prices, good music and very good service.

If on top of that we consider the fact that the personnel is very welcoming and efficient and corporate rates are quite low - $126 per day - the Club Quarters of San Francisco really starts looking the ideal accommodation facility for regular business travelers. If you plan to go there on vacation, you should know that tourists rates are a little bit higher. But if your budget can accomodate the difference I would totally recommend the place.

Just checked in at the Radisson Lexington on Lexington Avenue in New York city and I’m highly disappointed. It’s quite expensive - about $460 per day - and it’s just horrible. The problem with this hotel is that it’s like a rotten cake with a shiny good looking icing on top of it.

Here’s a description of the rotten part:

• A heavy smell of humid dust strikes you as soon as you enter the room.
• The window is so dirty I could barely see through it.
• Power plugs are totally misplaced. I had to crawl under the table in order to plug my laptop and my phone. Later I discovered that some extension plugs are hidden on the sides of the desk lamp.
• When I had to crawl under the table to find that plug I realized where the bad smell was coming from: the carpet: it’s old, dusty and falling apart.
• You have to pay for your internet connection: $10 per day. At $460 per day for the room, I would have expected that to be included. The room we had last week in San Francisco was $120 per day and high speed internet access was included.
• The bathroom sink was dirty and I had to clean it up myself. And I found someone else’s hair in the tub. Later I found that the sink also had a small leak.
• Due to the humidity in the air the wallpaper on some of the walls was going off in the corners. I touched the wallpaper which was detaching from the wall and it was humid.

So that’s the rotten part of the cake. Now for the icing:

• Big flat panel TV in the room. That’s nice if you’re here to watch TV, but given the general situation of the room, I’m gonna spend here as little time as possible.
• Good quality bed, clean linen - this should normally go unnoticed but given the bad situation of the rest of the room, it is actually a surprise.
• Very expensive Herman-Miller Aeron chair in the room. But again, the room is not my office. I would’ve preferred by far a nice clean carpet that doesn’t smell bad, dry walls, a clean window and a clean bathroom along with a less expensive chair.

So I think my advise is clear: don’t go to Radisson Lexington in New York. It’s expensive and not worth the money. I found all this when I checked in there on December 9, 2007. I would be glad to post any positive upgrade on the situation so let me know if you have any news.

The Myth - best burger and best pork rib I ever had. We where initially looking for another restaurant but that one was closed as they where hosting a private event. We decided to go with the Myth and that was a decision we didn’t regret. It was so good we actually returned the following evening. They have excellent wine, excellent food and the personnel is very welcoming. It’s kind of a classy place and prices are a little bit higher than in other places but the quality is exquisite and the whole dining experience is just spotless. Plus, the kitchen is open and if you’re lucky enough you might get a table from where you can see the chefs cooking.

The Chow, in the Castro district of San Francisco, offers excellent American cuisine. Meats are generally grilled or baked in a wooden fire oven and are accompanied by fine vegetables. They also serve a many sorts of salad and pasta dishes. The Chow offers a nice selection of fine Californian and international wines. The Chow is a generally crowded place but you can have a beer or a bottle of wine at the bar while waiting for a table.

Address: 215 Church Street, San Francisco.
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