Taillevent *** (8ieme)

15, rue Lamennais, near Arc de Triomphe down Avenue Friedland

Many people, including the collected wisdom of Zagat reviewers, rate this as the best restaurant in Paris, which by extension would make it one of the best restaurants in the world. No-one doubts that it has one of the best wine lists in the world. With a set up like that, we were bound to be disappointed.

But we weren't. The food was excellent, the service was friendly and casual, and the decor was uniformly elegant and just modern enough to prevent the place from feeling either fusty or fussy. There was a certain lack of spontenaity about the whole thing, but I suppose that is what happens when you have held your three Michelin stars for 30 years. If it ain't broke ...

We had the menu Degustation for the table, after deciding that was probably an easier way to sample most of the entrees and plats than ordering everything and passing plates. After a perfect tomato gazpacho, we had a foie gras creme brulee that was as unique as it was fantastic, then a tasty red snapper. Main course was a perfectly done round of lamb, possibly the richest I've ever had. Dessert was a combination of perfect rich chocolate fondant, a kind of raspberry parfait (without question the wrong word, but you get the idea), and a separate plate of petits fours for each person at the table. ("petits fours to make sure" chuckled the waiter as he placed the plates)

Throwing ourselves on the mercy of the sommelier, we had a Meursault premier cru to start, then switched to a Bordeaux St Emilion for the lamb, both perfect choices.

Taillevant is almost the perfect splurge restaurant (about 200 euros per person including nice wine). The only tiny nit I'd mention is that the crowd feels a bit like bankers out for deal closing dinners, which lends the room a different kind of feel from a place like Astrance, where everyone is clearly there to ogle the food. I guess that is just the price you pay for being number on the Zagat, Michelin, and every other list!

Le Cinq *** (8ieme)

In the George V Four Seasons hotel on Georges V

It's hard to imagine a better place for a business lunch in Paris than Le Cinq. The other side of that coin is that it's not necessarily the best place for a holiday lunch - it's hard to get away from it all when suits surround most tables.

Le Cinq is beautiful, though, the perfect combination of the slightly zen Four Seasons aesthetic and the always eloquent over the top French zest for decoration. For example, rather than simple flower arrangements, there are a couple dozen 3-4 foot high vases with various similarly scaled long stemmed flowers at each end of the dining room, and rose petals scattered liberally around the centerpieces of many tables.

The food is as great as you would expect from a restaurant with this pedigree, and happily didn't leave us feeling too weighed down for the rest of the day. I had perfectly done green asparagus with truffles and a parmesan sauce for a starter, followed by a simply grilled red snapper on a bed of fennel, followed by an epic cheese plate (which in turn caused us to skip dessert) - oh and then they brought out the coffee menu, something I can't claim to have seen anywhere before. Anyone for Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee?

I've long since given up choosing wine in fine Parisian restaurants, since every deputy assistant to the deputy sommelier knows more about matching food and wine than I will ever know. And since the sommelier at Le Cinq is Enrico Bernardo, regularly recognized as the world's best sommelier, we left ourselves in the hands of the wine staff. Good call. By the glass, we had a nice white Bordeaux followed by a Meursault. I don't usually put that much stock in matching food and wine, but boy I tell you these combinations were something special, clearly something that the staff had thought about beforehand, and perfect for the lunch. (OK, you have now figured out that my business lunches aren't all that serious these days :-))

It's very expensive, as you would expect. But probably a lot less expensive at lunch than it would be at dinner....

Au Bon Accueil (7ieme)

Rue Montessuy, near Champs de Mars

I wonder whether we caught this one on a bad night. We had a nice meal because we were with friends from out of town and having a nice conversation, something the restaurant’s intimacy encourages, but none of us were particularly impressed with the fare. This was a surprise, because the place is written up with some regularity.

My sole meuniere was swimming in butter, even more than it should have been, and everyone agreed that everything landed just shy of the mark.

We’d give it another try, but given the number of options in Paris, probably won't.

Vin sur Vin (7ieme)

Rue Montessuy, close to Champs de Mars

This is a charming little bistro that is a better bet than its more celebrated neighbor, Au Bon Accueil. A big part of the draw is the maitre d’, an elaborately moustachioed fellow who took great pains to describe every part of every dish for us, including what he saw as the relevant details of the preparation. Rabbit wasn’t just rabbit, it was rabbit nestled in a pastry shell, inside of which were to be found various herbs, some chopped and some whole. And asparagus wasn’t just asparagus, it was instead the tiny fresh tips of the asparagus, stood up around a creamy center concoction that I am sure is on every triathlon website's "do not eat" list. It was, of course, delicious, as was everything there.

The table centerpieces include hundreds of little peppercorns arranged in swirly patterns, making it irresistable for guests to rearrange the peppers into whatever designs best represent their moods. Nice touch. Perhaps the restaurant owners discuss the diners after everyone has left? "Ah oui, that Canadian one, see how his pepper pattern resembles un puck de hockey."

The food is a step up from a typical bistro, without becoming knowingly outrageous. No artichoke ice cream here. The wine list was extravagant, as the name implies, so we threw ourselves on the mercy of the maitre d’, who produced a perfect complement to the main course.

A note on the name – Vin sur Vin. “Vin” is the French word for wine, but when spoken sounds just like the French for twenty, “vingt.” So think of the name as code for the perfect wine score – vingt sur vingt, or twenty on twenty.

I'm not usually big on numerical ratings for restaurants, but since in this case they are kind of asking for it, I’ll give it a 17. Price came out to 125 Euros per person, including good wine and service, so it's not a cheap place, but it's a reasonable value nonetheless.

Astrance ** (16ieme)

4, rue Beethoven, near Trocadero

This was one of my most memorable eating experiences. And I mean that in the nicest possible way. Astrance is that rare two-star Michelin restaurant that doesn’t feel like it’s stretching desperately for the third star.

We sat down not knowing quite what to expect. When I’d made the reservation I’d been reminded that there was no choice on the set menu. The restaurant is tiny, only about 35 seats, most downstairs with a couple of tables up on a kind of loft. The maitre d’ walked us across the dining room to a corner table, where I sat looking at some typically French perfect flower arrangements, adorned with an herb I didn’t recognize. Though come to think of it, there aren't many herbs I do recognize. But I digress.

The waiter came by and asked about aperitifs, pouring champagne for my parents and a demi-sec white for me. I asked what the white was, and with a smile the sommelier assured me it was good, why didn’t I just give it a taste? And they he walked off without telling me what the wine was, which would normally make me crazy but in this setting seemed more like a fun little mystery to be solved.

They brought out an amuse-bouche, a little shot glass of soup of petit pois, still without an explanation of the evening to come, questions, anything really. It started to feel like a cold shoulder, were it not for the way everyone kept smiling like people who know that you are really going to enjoy the movie, but don't want to spoil it for you.

Then one of the three maitre d’ figures (I suppose they were also waiters, though they didn’t feel like waiters) came over and gave us menus. There were two choices on the menu. The first was the Menu Surpris, for 150 Euros. The second was the Menu Surpris avec le Vin Surpris, for 250 Euros.

I asked the waiter what we should expect, and he answered, quite reasonably, that it was a surprise. Though he then corrected himself (I must have looked worried): “But don’t worry, it’s not a surprise to us.” And he smiled another big smile, so we knew it was going to be one hell of a meal.

I won’t go into all the detail (it would ruin the surprise, after all). Suffice it to say that there were about 10 courses, with every variety of seasonal vegetable, seafood, and veal combination, with a fine dessert to finish. The sommelier poured each wine without telling us what it was until after the course was well underway, allowing to play an amusing guessing game, but also allowing us to enjoy the way the wine tasted with the food, unburdened by any biases attached to the wine names. OK, that sounds pretentious and silly, but it didn’t feel that way at the time.

Dinner took 4 hours, but seemed to take 2. It’s an easy place to recommend, because I can’t imagine anyone not liking the food. Is it worth the money? That is the question. There are a lot of very nice ways to spend 250 Euros in Paris. My personal conclusion - this is one of the best.

A suggestion – if it’s open, have a drink at the café in the Musee de l’Homme at the top of Trocadero, with a great view of the Eiffel Tower, then walk down the street and the steps to rue Beethoven, where Astrance is tucked away on the left.

Table de Joel Robuchon ** (16ieme)

16, av Bugeaud, 16eme
01 56 28 16 16
Metro: victor hugo

Maryam's take - Delicious. The canard and asparagus were perfect. The tarte citron for two could easily have fed four. The atmosphere was intimate and stylish. The service was attentive and friendly (but, as if often the case in Paris, if you don’t ask for your check when you order coffee you can expect it to take a loooong time). I would definitely go back.

Erik's take - We’d read a lot about this restaurant when we went, and it lived up to its billing. Everything about it, from the décor to the service to the food is just what you hope to find when you go to a nice neighborhood Parisian restaurant. It’s much better than what you would normally find, of course, but that’s the point of the place, and it works well.

We had a very nice dinner a la carte, with the sommelier picking a good wine and the waiter helping us with the explanations for some of the more complicated dishes. This is the kind of place that serves classic French dishes with a twist, like a perfectly done veal filet shot through with a spear of foie gras.

The deserts are huge, so order according to your mood and appetite. The tarte au citron, for example, was supposed to serve two people, but could easily have satisfied four, or perhaps six.

It’s expensive, at about 40 Euros for a main course, but is a really nice treat, a combination of great food and deceptively casual service.

Les Gourmets des Ternes (Reprise)

Wait! Stop! Don't go. The service, which had been amusingly brusque the first time, grew to be truly awful for round two. The bread was stale as were the pommes frites, and althought the scallops were fantastic I am sure one can do better than this for a bistro experience. Stay tuned.