leon du bruxelles, paris

located at 63 Av. des Champs Elysées, 75008 Paris. website here.

pretty good mussels at the champs-élysées, in the heart of paris. my family have always come to leon while in paris, and I think it’s been three visits now – what pulls us back is the guarantee of decent (and quite satisfying) pots of mussels in what is an area filled with tourist spots. yada yada about the fact that we are real tourists – we appreciate really good food.

in any case, I’m not qualified really to tell you about the entire menu at leon because we only always order perhaps a starter to share and a pot of mussels each person – it comes with fries and is just about as much food as we can manage. the fries are also as-much-as-you-can-eat, and you can also have bread alongside, but we don’t usually even get past the first bowl of fries. these tiny shellfish fill you up surprisingly quickly!

I think we’ve actually tried all the variations of mussels – they basically come steamed in different liquids, from the traditional white wine versions to more funky curry ones – served in large tin cocottes. my favourite is still the white wine version, and you can see onions and celery in there that help make up the tasty stock.

just to tell you a little more about that mystery brown fritter up in the first photo: it is a sort of prawn croquette served on a crisp dressed salad. not bad really – and that just about describes all our meals at leon du bruxelles: decently good food at reasonable (for paris) prices, and dependable through these years. not a bad choice at all. just bear in mind that queues get pretty manic, but you’re more likely to get a table quickly if you’re in a group of four since most patrons come in two.