MichelinStarsChallenge R
Google
#49th if you follow my Michelin Stars Marathon in Paris on googlemaps
Gossip girl with French politicians!
The interesting thing here is the crowd for week days lunches. I felt like in an episode of gossip girls but with French politicians instead of young girls. The restaurant is great, I’ll cover that later on. The sound is decent, there’s space between tables, you don’t hear conversations unless one person at the table is not discreet and a bit loud. That’s what happened. But that gave me a glimpse of the crowd: politicians, high rank civil servants, etc… showing off and name dropping. So let me just go right to the practical point here: for lunch, wear a suit. And you’re going to be amongst men so don’t worry of being fashionable, just wear a suit (edit or a nice shirt). You’ll be more out of place here if you don’t wear a suit than in La Tour d Argent!
So obviously, it’s perfect for business lunch. I guess it’s completely different for dinner.
Interestingly, the cuisine is not like the crowd. The cuisine is not about showing off, it’s all about the quality of the ingredients, all about respecting the classics. It’s a sea food restaurant, you’ll be treated with the best.
The waiters are extremely nice (really) but it’s the only étoilé I’ve been so far (over a hundred now) where we had close to no dish explanations (aside from one waiter). It’s sad because they were nice. But It’s the least dish explanation I’ve had so far in any étoilé. Never seen that ever.
Still, if you want a good fish with a Michelin star, it’s one of the few places in Paris to go to.
My experience: the quality of the fish blew me away, and I enjoyed the classics done to perfection
Update 2022: went back a year later. There were more casually dressed customers but it’s definitely a businessmen spot (felt a bit like a club where you have regular customers and guests).
They did improve on the dishes presentation, so you can strike my previous comment. They also improved the service with more finishing touches made in the room. I think there’s some slight improvement but I did not take exactly the same dishes as the last time. Also, you’ll appreciate the fact that there’s a card (instead of only a set of fixed menu).
Trivia: Helen is the common point between the 3 owners.
With all the little improvements, It’s a solid fish & sea food star.