Chef Shinishi Sato and his Japanese team make precise, poetic use of pristine French ingredients, and have recently earned a second Michelin star.
Practical information
Address: 53 passage des Panoramas, 75002
Nearest transport: Grands Boulevards (8,9)
Hours: Closed Sunday and Monday
Reservations: Book a week or two in advance
Telephone: 01 42 33 04 35
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Average price for lunch: 35-49€
Average price for dinner: 50-99€
Style of cuisine: Modern French
Special attributes: prix-fixe, market-based cooking, prestige ingredients, superior wine list
Type of crowd: foodies, style hounds
Interior: polished & modern
Atmosphere: casual
Reviews of interest
- Bruno Verjus (2011) “Les mets ouatés, sans ostentation, paraissent sur table et comblent le palais de leurs saveurs éclatantes, précises en diable et virevoltantes…Un must eat absolu.”
- Gilles Pudlowski (2010) Aux fourneaux, le rigoureux Sato Shinishi… compose, avec une toute jeune équipe 100% japonaise, triée sur le volet, des menus au bouche à oreille, réalisant une cuisine de création et de saison très française, mais avec une légèreté, une finesse et une ferveur toute nippones.” And again, here: “Un exemple de plat végétal, vif, léger et frais comme l’air du temps: des navets bancs, avec une fine gelé?e de concombre, un émincé? de mini concombres crus parfum?és aux oignons. Un poème, un clin d’oeil du jardin, un souffle d’air.”
- Francois Simon (2010) “En salle, le service est dirigé par un grand garçon épanoui Guillaume Guedj. En cuisine, il y a là une vraie colonie de japonais dirigés par le vif-argent Shinichi Sato (ex Astrance, ex- Mugaritz) , samouraï s’amourant de la France et de ses produits. Touches elliptiques, sensées pour un repas apaisant de saveurs poétiques.”
- Meg Zimbeck (2009) “Star ingredients do not themselves make a meal. In other provenance-crazed restaurants (les Fines Gueules, Racines, Cou de Poule…) they turn in a solid and respectable performance. Under the direction of P53’s chef, they shine. Ballsy combos, complimented by near-perfect technique, coax the best from each element.
- Alexander Lobrano (2009) “I found the service mannered and the cooking pleasant but timid and rather self-conscious… Overall our six or seven course tasting menu lacked real passion and was way overpriced at 65 Euros. So would I go again? Probably not.”
- John Talbott (2009) “…a degustation menu at lunch for 45 Euros…We had it with great pleasure.”
- Caroline Mignot (2009) “Des viandes de chez Hugo Desnoyer (la pointure des bouchers), des vins naturels et un traitement simple des produits, jusque là tout va bien…”
- François Simon (2009) “C’était impeccable le premier soir. Allez y.”
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My wife and ate there in Oct 2009.
This experience was within months of their opening.
When we arrived we were warmly greeted . The head suggested opprtunities for food off the menu that we both felt in the end were designed to make sure the ingredients were finished so as not to be wasted as opposed to in our interest to try.
The food was good not great. The sevice was pretentious for the level of the food. The maitre D tried to move us to a more expensive bottle of wine. The price was way too expensive for the quality of the effort. We would not go back.
My advice: build your reputation on high quality and value, not try to be at level you are not.
I ate here last week with my husband and two friends and we all had a great experience. We did the tasting menu and it was wonderful. I think it was 90 euros and it was worth it. A few months ago we did the tasting menu at Nobu at the Ritz and felt a bit ripped off by the experience so I was skeptical to do another pre-fixed menu. The owner/host was super nice and funny. We’ll go back.
Passage 53 was a huge disappointment on Christmas Eve 2011. I never regret the cost of a great dining experience, but I do have serious buyer’s remorse for such an overpriced, sub-par one: 590 Euros for one-note cooking covered up by a thick layer of black truffles, in a room of blank walls except for the visible heating vent, exposed electrical wiring, and some opening in the ceiling unfamiliar to my American eyes. The seating, too, is awful: it’s immediately uncomfortable and grows more so as time passes. I felt like I was sitting in a hole, looking up at my wife, who had a sore back after three hours of no back support while sitting in her ditch of a banquette. The base of the minuscule table was too big to allow enough room for two people’s feet. And getting to the single shared toilet requires a climb up a narrow, unlit spiral staircase that would challenge a Sherpa. But the food was the real bust. If this place truly has two Michelin stars, the food should make up for the poor surroundings – but it doesn’t. Even the bread was burnt, which ought to be illegal in Paris. The 8-course tasting menu used black truffles as a cover (literally, in some cases) to overcome a multitude of sins. Nearly every dish had them inside or on top, yet they were nearly tasteless. And so little variety of the non-truffle components: at least half the dishes were triumphantly described as “slow-cooked at low temperature.” One note, as mentioned above. Very few highlights in a menu that our server insisted several times was “special.” Saying it doesn’t make it so.
I’ve had pretty good experiences with the food here, albeit at a lousy price-quality ratio but I couldn’t agree more about the seating (“The seating, too, is awful: it’s immediately uncomfortable and grows more so as time passes.”) As I said “the exceptionally low chairs and banquette (featured throughout the resto) were most uncomfortable. Colette used her furled umbrella as a ‘cushion’ in the small of her back on the banquette. “
Yes, it was the price-quality ratio that we found so offensive. It would have been a good €200 meal, but it was a terrible €590 meal (which included some wines we were too unsophisticated to enjoy at €30 per glass).
I agree about the uncomfortable seating, and feel terrible that John B. had an unsatisfying meal at that price point, but I wonder if some small part of that disappointment is related to the general price hike in Paris restaurants at Christmas and New Year’s. The cost of these meals rises to such great heights (why so high?) that chefs feel compelled to use a limited range of luxury ingredients, and that doesn’t always make for the most interesting eating. I have great memories (2 years ago) of the tasting menu at Passage 53 and wish that John B could have experienced the non-holiday version.
John it makes my disappointment validated after reading your experience, thank you. My partner and i dined at passage 53 the previous evening, the first dinner on a long dining holiday in paris and were totally underwhelmed! 2 michelin? thats crazy, as a chef that tries to understand and respect produce and diners with equal value i found the food totally unthoughtful and overworked for no real purpose, the prcepoint does not warrent the experience or the space(seats alone would stop me returning, it was most unbearable for a tall man). I would suggest that all behind passage 53 please dont take your 2 mechelin stars be taken dfor granted as they should be earnt and then desperately held onto!
My family dined here in June and found it delightful. There were five of us so we had a bit more room at the table. All of the dishes were well put together and I thought the wine pairings were good. Service was attentive. My son enjoyed the veal tartare, I loved the fois gras, the fish course reminded me of Chez Panisse and we all agreed that we would return on our next trip. I do hope they continue to earn their second star–I’ll keep reading the reviews here to find out.