At first glance, the newly rebranded Loiseau Rive Gauche (formerly Tante Marguerite) seems irredeemably stodgy and old-fashioned, decorated with orange-accented gray banquettes and colonial-style wood paneling, with insipid, unnecessary music playing at low volume in the background.
Normally I would avoid a restaurant with a name like Canard & Champagne, but a recent review in a French magazine convinced me that in spite of its gimmicky (and misguided – what do duck and champagne have to do with each other, aside from both being delicious?) concept, it was well worth a visit. Another attraction was its location in the lively and lovely Passage des Panoramas, Paris’s oldest covered passage, dating from 1800, which is gradually filling up with restaurants of varying quality (one excellent choice: Noglu) without giving up its traditional philately shops.
