L'Absinthe

What a fabulous experience! We enjoyed our dinner from end to end, we enjoyed the myriad flavors of the food. The Chef does a really great job (Michel Rostang is no far), the staff is very kind and deserves a great thank as well. Probably the best restaurant of the place!

Discovered the place thanks to an online review. The food was exquisite. And the bread amazing. One can feel that the products in our plate are exceptional. Highly recommended

Great choice...we were looking for a French restaurant to dinner and we found this brasserie. With a good atmosphere...quite but not to death the food is very good and there’s a nice wine selection. We order the duck sandwich, the pasta with beef stew and the entrecôte...everything was delicious! I’ll be back!

Amazing experience! Super recommended

It’s a great surprise and we have come a few times after first visit. Steaks are very best timing cooked!

Fantastic French Restaurant! Both service, food & wine were amazing! We will come back for sure! Philippe the manager is very friendly and makes you feel very welcome!

At first impressions we were not appreciative, it looked a bit rusty, old...but that's part of the charm. Food was above and beyond. Service was efficient and generous.

Perfect food, very good service.

We were recommended to go to dinner at this restaurant by Harry's New York Bar Paris (also an amazing place to go for a cocktail!). We didn't have reservations but we got there about 40 min before they closed, so they were able to accommodate us. The meal was AMAZING! Probably the best bowl of soup I've ever had. The steak was savory, well seasoned (no sauce needed) and cooked exactly as requested. If you don't eat beef like me, the vegetable accras and sweet potato puree were divine, never tasted anything like that before. Unfortunately we already had a few cocktails before coming to the restaurant so we didn't try the drinks, but all the tables around us did and the drinks looked great as well. HIGHLY RECOMMEND :)

What a great place! The service was great and the food delicious! The portions are large and we shared entrees!

We went there in April and it was one of the best if the no the best meal my husband and I had. He still talks about the duck breast he had. It was totally sublime, texture, flavor, tenderness and the way it was cook. It was absolute perfection. The service was top notch, the selection of wines was fantastic. It was a busy night and the waiter was hopping, but my goodness we never felt forgotten. I highly recommend this place if you are looking for an unpretentious restaurant that serves 5 star meals. In my opinion, this restaurant is on par with any Michelin Star restaurant I have visited and it did not break the bank. It is also close to a ton of fun bars and right down the street practically from Harry's New York Bar. Loved it!!!

Amazing food and service, reasonably priced foe the quality. We will definitely be back

One steak was good and the other was very fatty. No frites, which was disappointing. Wines offered were not great.

Great restaurant in the 1er Arrondissement down in a warren of streets off the Rue St-Honore. I had gone (alone) without a booking, and was immediately acknowledged by the manager who placed me on a comfortable banquette. The menu looked solid, and I opted for a bottle of Alsatian Riesling looking over the chalkboard of the night's specials. I started with a foie gras that was warm and stuffed inside a sort of panino. It was delicious! And for the main course, I saw the Quenelles de Brochet, a particular French specialty of pike dumplings, which were tasty in an ample portion. I only wanted sorbet for dessert, but the waiter brought me delicious ice cream and madeleines. I really enjoyed the experience. The service was friendly and efficient. I will be back!

A place you can count on for very good food at a fair price and excellent service. Gazpacho was delicious. Green salad was wonderful. My husband's Cod was terrific.

This is a good spot in the 1st arr. We came here on our first night and had an enjoyable meal. The restaurant is located at the end of a strip with a lot of restaurants. We had made a reservation to eat inside but we got there a bit early and decided to sit outside for the meal instead as they had nice heaters and blankets. It was on the earlier side so there were a lot of people outside having a drink but not anyone really eating yet. It took a while for anyone to come take our order, but once they did service was pretty good. For food we both did the starter and main. I got the artichoke appetizer which was delicious. For my main I got a sea bass special that was served over an avocado purée. It was cooked perfectly. For wine I had a glass of the cotes de Rhône red which I enjoyed. They serve drinks with yummy olives as well. Price was on par with what you would expect. Overall I would recommend if in the area!

wonderful restaurant! we ordered the cod and squid and highly recommend both dishes! the cocktails were also great and unique

Good local restaurant next to a small 24/7 laundromat :p we luckily found this place when we came to the laundromat. All the guests were tourist when we visited, the staff went over the daily specials, explained the menu with a large chalk board and we ordered the three course each. Came here a year ago and found this in my draft.

Great food and ambiance. The pork was out of this world as were the appetizers we ordered.

Best meal we had during our trip! I am still dreaming about those escargots (I had an entire dozen by myself) and the foie gras starter my boyfriend got was fantastic. The duck and steak mains were cooked perfectly and very flavorful. I got cheese for dessert and was blown away by the generous portion they gave. They had the best service we encountered during our trip in Paris, which from my experience seems to be a rare outlier in the general landscape of the restaurant industry in Paris. The drinks also looked very interesting, so I'd love to revisit to try them out. One of the downsides - not necessarily the restaurant's fault - was the couple chain smoking next to us. Wish they could designate a different area for people like that.

We got reservations through our concierge for an early time as it can get packed in a Friday night. This place is on Place du Marche Saint-Honore. It is a tiny restaurant that was warm and cozy. Great for a date night. We started with the hot duck then I had the beef ribsteak and my wife ordered the braised pork cheeks. Wow! My compliments to the chef. The pork cheeks had so much flavor my taste buds were in shock. It was fantastic! I never thought my wife would eat pork cheeks and this place changed all that. This place is a must!

This was a restaurant that our Hotel Brighton recommended that we try. Oh my, the food was so wonderful! We had the steak and Bernese sauce and the Sea Bream dinners. It was delicious! The restaurant was very nicely furnished and the staff were wonderful!

Delicious meal! Great service from our waitperson, Jack!! We enjoyed everything! I highly recommend this restaurant!

Environment - cozy Service - our waiter for dinner was very professional and attentive (I really like the fact that waiters in Europe give you privacy for your meals, but are available when you need them) But when I asked for wine recommendation from another staff before dinner, it seems to me that he just pointed at the one that is most expensive on the list (unfortunately, I didn't like the wine that much). Food - We ordered duck, escargots, grilled octopus and pork cheek pasta with vegetable sides. Delicious and good portion! EUR35 for starter + main course - okay deal in the area but it adds up quick if you add a drink or dessert (or both).

Solid. For dinner it is nicer to sit inside. Very pretty interior. Food is great...not amazing but you will not be disappointed.

Ordered not one but two steaks at our table medium rare that weren't good, the steaks were both overly chewy and tasteless. They were so bad we left almost half the steak on both of the plates which we never do. To add insult to injury the waiter could careless. The other share items at our table were disappointments as well including the four gras, frog legs and snails. Overall, the restaurant food and service gets zero stars and was were a huge disappointment after eating consistently good food and excellent steaks at so many other French restaurants.

After reading reviews on Yelp, I figured this place would be a safe bet for lunch while in Paris. While it wasn't terrible, it certainly was not good. The food was bland and needed salt and was not what one would expect from a bistro in Paris. I had the steak and asked for it medium rare, it was overcooked, more like medium well or even well done. My dining partner had the veal roast, which was dry and also lacked salt. The only saving grace was the wine which was good (but mostly all wine in France is good so I doubt this has anything to do with the restaurant itself). The price is more expensive than it's worth.

Excellent cuisine and service. No fries cooked in duck fat with the rib eye but delicious still.

She had the foie gras and duck app which was served on a bit too much bread, she could have been happy without it. She then moved on to the razor clams which were cooked perfectly with a light herbaceous wine based sauce, an amazing main course. She finished with red berries served with ice cream and small pieces of merengue, the berries were sweet and the added crisp of merengue made a simple dish into a delight. The wine by the glass options were decent and reasonably priced. Not a bad place to have a solo dinner in the heart of Arr. 1.

J'adore! Fine food. Fine wine. Fabulously French. This was a recommendation of a friend who happens to be a Frenchman. It's really great and I took my Mother here for her a birthday trip and she loved everything from the salad to the main course of pork. There were four of us and no one at the table had anything less that fabulous. The staff is lovely and the surroundings as comfortable and unique. My view was their bar and it's quite beautiful and rustic. There's a nice outside area to dine as well. Put this on your list when visiting Paris. Until the next time this American Southerner via London via Paris says bon appetite y'all.

This place is pretty good and portion is big. It's like American portion. The starter lobster ravioli is like plate already and it's so tasty. The pork pasta was way too big and I could not finish. I was expecting something small portion n delicate, but this place is more than American portion. 45 for three courses are not bad but you might not finish!

Excellent and warm service which can be hard to find as an American in Paris. Enjoying the house absinthe was a unique experience I would recommend!

I would NOT give this place one star!. My husband and I had dinner here Monday April 23rd by the recommendation of our hotel Renaissance Paris Vendome. We both ordered their steak. He ordered his medium well and I ordered mine well done. His steak was mostly fatty meat and mine was not cooked well done at ALL. When we told this to our waiter his reply was, our chef cooks their food how he likes. So needless to say, If you eat here, be ready to eat how their chef feels your food should be cooked. Bon appetit if you eat here.

We had a wonderful dinner here; this one of the restaurants where you would like to order every dish, just to see how it looks & tastes. Very interesting combinations e.g. scallops with pak Choi and mushrooms that are "transformed" to a soup on the table. Amazingly friendly staff-both on the phone for reserving and during the dinner itself.

Went here for my brother's birthday. Party of 4 and we had an indoor table towards the back left hand side of the restaurant which was perfect. It was up on a slightly raised level so we could see what was going on in the rest of the place. The waiter was very helpful with the menu choices and managed to explain everything in broken English to make up for our woeful French. We all ordered starters, mains and shared deserts. Food was all very flavorful and delicious, highlights being the hot duck Fois Gras and the Seabass. The chocolate soufflé and the Waffle deserts were exceptional. We also had a bottle of Moet (96€) and two bottles of Bordeaux wine , each around the 60€ mark. They were very good. We ended by having a taste of one of the Absinthe liquors. Not for the faint hearted! Location is a little weird, as you are facing a very modern glass mall-type building, but don't let this put you off as the meal and experience are well worth the visit. The surrounding area is great for drinks afterwards - that's why we chose it in the first place. We all ended up going to the Tres Honore nightclub at 35 Place Du Marche Saint-Honore afterwards and had a great time partying till 3am. Oh, and the bathrooms were great , by Paris standards! Check out the rather rude-looking soap bar!! he-he.

L'Absinthe is an excellent cozy bistro. It was highly recommended because Caroline Rostang learned her culinary skills from her father a famous Parisian chef. We certainly enjoyed her cuisine - one of our dishes was "pork mignon" among other exquisite cuisine. They have an unparalleled selection of wines, great ambiance where we were able to engage on a conversation with the guest on the table next to us and least but not last they have a perfect location - a few blocks from the Opera House

Great find. I loved the ambience of the place - the decor and buzz. The staff were well informed, friendly and efficient. Their English was superb (quite embarrassing as my French is dire). We had a great meal. The duck was perfect, crispy and rare. I would also recommend the Cafe Gourmand. Highly recommended and reasonable prices.

Second best restaurant in Paris! Second only to the Le Relais Entrecote. If you're visiting from the states then you HAVE to eat here at least once. The decor is excellent and the food will blow you away. Order the chocolate cake or the waffle if you want to taste a little bit of heaven.

My husband and I stumbled on L'Absinthe by accident when we were in Paris last September and it was a terrific find. We didn't even know that Caroline Rostang was a big deal until after we ate there. We had the shrimp appetizer which was really fresh and tasty. i had the squid entree and my husband had the rib eye. Both were perfectly cooked. Our favorite part was the dessert. My husband's favorite dessert of all time is Babas au rhum. We split one and it was like none I've ever had before. Our server doused the cake in rum when he brought it to the table. The result was a much stronger rum flavoer than we were used to but it matched nicely with the cream in the cake. That combined with some port was a terrific end to our meal. We don't speak a word of french and we did fine there. We did a lot of pointing which. . .worked out fine!

Appeared to be rather a tourist place that I would usually avoid, I went for lunch with a group of friends. Rather on the expensive side -- lunch say EUR75 each (entrée/plat/dessert) including wine, I was pleasantly surprised. Stick to the house specialties. Food nicely prepared and fresh. Traditional French fare.

Wow! Just wow! You must try this place. This place was recommended to my wife and I by the concierge at our hotel as we asked for a more casual, yet still French place. He said this was one of the best, but frankly he undersold it. First let me comment on the service. We have been in France for over a week and, as Americans, have readapted to European service which tends to be slower and more matter of fact than in the States. However, we found the staff at L'Absinthe to be very cordial and responsive. They have menus in English and all the house staff we interacted with all spoke English decently (which was great because our French is laughably bad). While still a little slow compared to what we are used to in the US, we never felt neglected, forgotten, or a burden which is sometimes the case in Paris. Now to the really important stuff, the food. It was simply the best we have had in Paris and we have had some really great food on this trip. If you are looking for croque monsieur or Madam, just keep walking. While still very French, the menu is much more imaginative than other bistros and brasseries we have tried in the area. For starters I had the buckwheat tacos with Duck and the wife had the small mushroom ravioli. Both were surprisingly good with the duck tacos being a standout (it is was one of those items that you order on whim just because it sounds different and interesting). It was stated to also have jalapeño in the dish, but as a Texan I could barely detect it. As usual with the French it was a subtle accent and not an overpowering force used to hide the duck's natural flavor. For the main course, my wife and I both indulged off the specials menu. She had a fish fillet with risotto and I had lamb ravioli. Once again, there was zero disappointment. I am, in particular, a huge fan of lamb. I travel extensively and will usually order lamb when I see it on a menu. So let me put it as plain as I can, I do not think I have ever had better lamb anywhere in any style. It was just phenomenal. I also had a bite of the fish and it was also very much up to the same standard. We also had a bottle of white wine off the specials menu, Olivier Leffaive 2011, which was well chosen and delicious. It was a particularly good pairing with the fish. If there was any flaw at all it was dessert. My wife had the apple tart with gingerbread ice cream and I had the hand made house ice cream. I did enjoy mine and overall my wife enjoyed hers. The flaw was when she tried the whipped cream on the side of the tart only to discover sour cream. It was a bit of a shock to her American taste buds, but she still enjoyed the rest once she scrapped it off. The one true disappointment of the evening was realizing that we discovered this amazing place on our last night in town. Rest assured, however, I will be booking my next reservation to L'Absinthe at the same time as I book my next flight to Paris.

Ahhh, a nice neighborhood feel but very hospitable to English speakers. The food, wine selection and atmophere were outstanding. Try the hot duck!

We were there on a Friday when the offer the macaroni and cheese with lobster. Wonderful. The special crunchy soft shell crab appetizer as well as cucumber soup were excellent. The warm molten chocolate cake was the pièce de résistance

Excellent food and drinks with a great atmosphere. Nice selection of absinthe as well.

Very cool neighborhood and easy to get to off the Tuileries metro. We have been going here for years when we visited. Now we live here and still go. Nice staff, English menus if you need them and consistently good food. Sit outside and watch the world go by. Also try their signature drinks!

Hmmm...what went wrong? We chose this restaurant because of the strong reviews and the fact that it's the "second label" of a well known food family. Even if I accept the longer wait times in French restaurants, this was slow service. We were seated, then not acknowledged for at least 20 minutes. (Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.) Our waiter finally took our order, and then we waited again. The entrees (first course to Americans) were...okay. My daughter's escargot were fine, but lacked flavor; my asparagus salad had 3 slivers of asparagus, lots of lettuce and too much dressing. Our entrees did not remotely match the description, French or English. The lamb skewers were basically a few sticks of ground lamb, without much lamb character or flavor. My braised pork cheek tasted more like old wine -- perhaps the marinade -- than anything resembling pork, and the pasta was mushy and bland as well. Finally, dessert. Puff pastry in Paris should be perfection, but the profiteroles with caramel ice cream were just too salty. My pots de creme were supposed to come with a glass of Absinthe -- eponymous, how could they forget -- but only my (male) neighbor at the next table received his glass. A sad end to a lovely day in Paris.

Excellent food at this cozy sidewalk cafe near the Opera. We started with a very unique dish - pig ear crispy spring rolls atop a lobster meat salad. For my entree I had the young artichoke risotto which was excellent, and my husband loved his grilled squid which was served in a tomato curry-like broth which had a hint of coconut. Unexpected flavor combinations and lovely presentations seemed to be the house specialty as the menu seems to change often. The service was quite good - friendly but a bit rushed (I've never said that in Paris before!). They spoke enough English to get by and the menu was in English so we didn't have any trouble there. My only complaints are that my husband's initial wine glass sitting on the table was quite dirty, and that the server forgot to bring my coffee after dinner (I'll excuse that given that it was a very busy Saturday night). Overall, the food gets 5 stars, the atmosphere and service get 4 and 3 stars, respectively.