If you think food tastes better in a beautiful room, then you’ll love Le Mini Palais, where refined and playful cooking meets high design in a Paris landmark setting.Eric Fréchon of the Bristol is the consulting chef, present in spirit only, and the menu is as cosmopolitan as the crowd. Book a table on the terrace when weather permits. Open every day, all day.
Contemporary French cooking in a polished, airy room from a couple of Grande Cascade alums, who are turning out dishes like duck foie gras with cassis gelée, a ham bouillon-based pea soup, and monkfish with gnocchi and girolles. Lunch menu, 29€; dinner, 34€; à la carte, 50ish€.
The neo-classical pavillion off the Champs-Elysées that houses Ledoyen is owned by the city of Paris, which seems to make sense given that this is one of the city’s oldest and most grand restaurants.
This chic café, in an auction house just off the Champs-Elysées, offers solid renditions of could-be-in-any-major-city classics (Ceasar salad, spring rolls, pastas, club sandwiches, and even a cheeseburger), served by pretty waitresses in a beautifully designed room. A fine spot for afternoon tea.
The “bread” part of Bread & Roses is a lovely range of organic loaves. The rest of it is an English-accented lunch spot and tea salon featuring fresh tarts (savory and sweet), sandwiches, and lively salads, plus flaky scones, serious cheesecake, and a few grocery items, including Marmite. What you won’t find are any bargains.
If the walls at Lasserre could talk, they would tell stories about white doves, Marc Chagall, ortolan, and Audrey Hepburn, stories of glitterati and résistants taking their truffled macaroni under the retractable roof.
A Phillipe Starck-designed dining room facing Laurent André’s open kitchen, a Bresse chicken priced in the three digit zone, a choice of 16 Pierre Hermé mille-feuilles: The age of austerity has not yet dawned at the Royal Monceau on avenue Hoche, and probably never will.
Chef Frederic Verdon (ex-Ducasse) runs the kitchen at this rooftop address just off the Champs-Elysées. Sleek and chic.
Joël Robuchon’s empire expands again with the opening of another Atelier, this time on the Champs-Elysées. Expect deft use of global ingredients, pristine products, pretty people, and a wait, unless you nab reservation for lunch or the first dinner seating; otherwise, it’s first come, first served.
The chefs at Café Salle Pleyel are itinerant, like the musicians who play in the adjacent concert hall. Currently at the podium stove is Mauro Colagreco. Closed for dinner and weekends except when there is a performance.
Luxury and history come together at Laurent, where you can dine in the former hunting lodge of Louis XIV or, better yet, at a table in the garden. Fine dining, fine setting.
A relaxed but still elegant alternative to Alain Senderens’ flagship table, offering a 35€ menu at lunch and dinner.
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