Restaurant Bon in Paris

The Choco BON at Restaurant Bon

The Vinothèque at Restaurant Bon

I went to Paris a few weeks ago at the start of a break, and after traveling for nearly six hours, I knew I needed a good dinner. Luckily, my friends living in London who met me had done their homework and suggested we check out Restaurant Bon, freshly revamped in September 2008 by legendary designer Philippe Starck. 

Upon entering the restaurant, I was blown away by floor-to-ceiling white curtains, glass tableside lamps, and long white couches dueled by edgy chairs.  The interior was clever enough to "wow" guests without awakening nerves about touching everything in plain view. And trust me, you'll want to touch.  

We were immediately offered a house cocktail, which consisted of rum, coconut milk and pineapple juice. Tasty, but a touch too sweet to be consumed before lifting my salad fork.  

We started with the New Style Tuna (tuna carpaccio, fresh ginger, sesame) and the vegetable and basil spring rolls. Both plates were excellent, refreshing and devoured within seconds. We moved on to our entrees: The black cod "C'est Bon" (cod with soy sauce, sweetened in sake vinegar, caramelized) and Chilean sea bass with "Tom Yam" sauce (a pour version of the Thai hot and sour soup). I'm pretty sure at that point in the night, one could only hear the clangs of our forks hitting the plates. 

To finish, we shared the "Choco BON," a molten chocolate cake matched with a serving of chocolate ice cream.  I am a quality-ingredient girl through and through, but with molten chocolate cakes, I feel that whether it’s from Applebee's or Avenues, it can’t be bad.  But to say that the dessert will cause a repeat visit is more challenging to achieve, and Bon did just that.  At first, I was nervous the chocolate ice cream on chocolate cake on chocolate molten would be overkill - au contraire – it was perfection. 

I'm usually a bit hesitant about any restaurant that goes to the extreme of self-proclaiming quality in its name, not to mention half of its menu items. However, somewhere between the satisfaction from the best meal consumed in weeks and the mental blueprints of my future first floor, I found myself wanting to to add the word "très" to the sleek outdoor sign.