It is ~100 yards from the hotel Les 3 Poussins. Somehow I have managed to not have any pictures handy of the triangular plaza it faces, which is a shame because that setting really adds to the charm of the restaurants in this little strip.
A = location of Les 3 Poussins; K = location of Kastoori; click image for Google Map of location
Neighbors and families congregate in warm weather on the benches and kids pretend to be Zidane or Henry, occasionally bouncing balls off some defenseless Smart car or scooter parked nearby. Lends a nice atmosphere to the whole casual dining experience here. But you'll have to trust me on that since pictures are nowhere to be found right now.
EDIT: Hold the phone. Light bulb went off and I grabbed a screen grab from Google Street View (I love The Internets). This is facing north toward the plaza, Kastoori is up on the right, about where that larger tree is.
Click for larger image
View of interior from our table in the window, at the end of the evening - we were the night owls closing the place down
We have a tradition of going out for Indian food every December 29th in honor of our first date (which was at since-closed Jaipur Palace in Chicago).
Colorful, cushioned banquette
We have something of a love / hate relationship with Kastoori, having had a mixed bag of experiences with them. On the one hand, the service can be spotty. A couple of years ago the guy told us "15 minutes, you'll be next table" and when we came back from a quick stroll we saw he totally slid people in front of us - just not cool.
On the other hand, it's cozy -- maybe 25 people can fit inside.
View of snug dining room
The food, in our experience, has been pretty good more often than not. And you can keep on eye on the guys making it.
View of 'the kitchen'
It's BYOB, which adds to the feel-kind-of-like-a-local vibe that I particularly enjoy. And it was our first Indian place in Paris. Plus, on this Monday night the other Indian place right next door was closed, so we had limited options if we were going to keep our anniversary tradition going.
A surprisingly tasty bottle of Pinot Noir we grabbed just up the street. Snapped a picture of it in hopes of being able to find it somewhere online but no luck thus far.
Judy - enjoying the wine, enduring me
Our experience on this night was more good than bad. Service was decent if not especially warm and welcoming. And the food was really good.
Judy got a tikka masala, which was solid. But my dish was the big winner. I can't remember the exact name, but it was a specialty of the house. Something a la Kastoori. And it was chicken in a pistachio flavored sauce that was ridiculously tasty.
If you look closely you can pick up the green sauce - that was my pistachio dish, which continued the trend of me ordering better than Judy
For dessert we got one order of gulab jamun and one mango kulfi. I'm sure both were pre-made somewhere else, but I liked them. I'm usually not a huge kulfi fan, but this agreed with me. Judy was disappointed that the gulab jamun wasn't as hot as she likes it. I still don't know why some places serve it cool while others serve it hot. Will need to get to the bottom of that mystery some day.
Net - it was a pretty good meal, but we were a little disappointed that the place next door wasn't open, as the service is stronger and food is as good if not better (though it isn't byob, so it ends up a bit pricier). Just bad luck this year that the 29th fell on a Monday.
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