Daimant Saint-Honoré — Restaurant in Paris

I’ve been twice in the span of just over a week: once for Sunday brunch and another for Tuesday dinner.

Sun brunch: lovely service and wonderful food! The NA cocktails were a nice touch. My friend and I had to pause after tasting each course to have a moment of gratitude. We both really want to try to recreate the broccoli guacamole at home. The mushroom skewers were hearty and chock full of umami. The millefeuille was perfect. And the special brunch croissant sandwich was delectable. I couldn’t wait to return.

Tue dinner: I’m a bit confused about their open all-day policy since we were (a bit rudely) told we had to sit outside without any basic service until 7pm when we arrived at 6:30pm. There didn’t appear to be any outdoor heaters on, which bothered my elderly parents. Thankfully, they did seat us punctually upon officially opening for dinner service. We got the seaweed caviar, croquettes, millefeuille, and zucchini. For some reason, the millefeuille wasn’t as good (i.e., crispy) as the first time around, and I wasn’t sure why the croquettes would be their best seller. But we did enjoy the caviar, which came in a gorgeously designed tin and was accompanied by some fancy-looking tater tots. The way they prepared the zucchini reminded me of fish, which was surprising. I also liked the NA version of their signature cocktail and its companion shot of NA Champagne.

Overall, great dining experience if you don’t run into grumpy servers. Would be nice to have some more menu...

All in all: average+ food, not so good service, nice place, a bit too noisy. We had booked a table for the second service at 21.15, the place was not packed, we were seated on the ground floor, terrace was empty and there’s a second floor. Food: all in all it’s good, not exceptional though. Vegan caviar was not a must, tried some better ones. The crepes that came with the caviar did not seem fresh from the day. We had the cauliflower, which is really good, and the potato salad, which is pretty average. For dessert, tried the snickers which was very good. Service: we have been seated quickly, but waited for about 20 minutes for someone to see that we were not handed any menus. Then another 15 minutes for order, then our starter arrived at the same time as one of the dishes, I had to call the waitress to explain that we would like to eat at the same time and not to watch one another eat. The wine bottle came without a service towel, which was not the best for serving, as no waiter ever came over the serve wine again (in case that was the plan with the no-service towel). Lost patience at the end and went paying at the bar as the last remaining waiter was discussing with some friends at the entrance and not seeing us making signs. A table that arrived at the same time as we did left 1h before we did.. expected better...

I had read so much about this restaurant and was really looking forward to taking my partner there for a special occasion while in Paris. We really wanted to love the food, but sadly it wasn’t as exciting as we had hoped.

The dishes are plant based interpretations of French classics - so far so good. The challenge is (in our opinion and distant memory - been vegan for a while) that animal based foods have an unfair advantage (fats, salt) and so it’s not enough to just substitute - you need to enhance.

This meant that a few of the dishes just felt flat. The seaweed was barely perceptible. The cauliflower bland and quite mushy. That said the mushrooms were wonderful (a kind of barbecue sauce). Desserts - heavy on sugar and plant based creams but not much else.

I’m so happy to find places like this in France, and look forward to coming back as they experiment further with new spices ingredients and bolder flavours.

PS the staff are wonderful and charming but the food was very slow to come. Please bear in mind if you are...