Helen Restaurant — Restaurant in Paris

#49th if you follow my Michelin Stars Marathon in Paris on googlemaps Gossip girl with French politicians!

The interesting thing here is the crowd for week days lunches. I felt like in an episode of gossip girls but with French politicians instead of young girls. The restaurant is great, I’ll cover that later on. The sound is decent, there’s space between tables, you don’t hear conversations unless one person at the table is not discreet and a bit loud. That’s what happened. But that gave me a glimpse of the crowd: politicians, high rank civil servants, etc… showing off and name dropping. So let me just go right to the practical point here: for lunch, wear a suit. And you’re going to be amongst men so don’t worry of being fashionable, just wear a suit (edit or a nice shirt). You’ll be more out of place here if you don’t wear a suit than in La Tour d Argent! So obviously, it’s perfect for business lunch. I guess it’s completely different for dinner. Interestingly, the cuisine is not like the crowd. The cuisine is not about showing off, it’s all about the quality of the ingredients, all about respecting the classics. It’s a sea food restaurant, you’ll be treated with the best. The waiters are extremely nice (really) but it’s the only étoilé I’ve been so far (over a hundred now) where we had close to no dish explanations (aside from one waiter). It’s sad because they were nice. But It’s the least dish explanation I’ve had so far in any étoilé. Never seen that ever. Still, if you want a good fish with a Michelin star, it’s one of the few places in Paris to go to. My experience: the quality of the fish blew me away, and I enjoyed the classics done to perfection

Update 2022: went back a year later. There were more casually dressed customers but it’s definitely a businessmen spot (felt a bit like a club where you have regular customers and guests). They did improve on the dishes presentation, so you can strike my previous comment. They also improved the service with more finishing touches made in the room. I think there’s some slight improvement but I did not take exactly the same dishes as the last time. Also, you’ll appreciate the fact that there’s a card (instead of only a set of fixed menu). Trivia: Helen is the common point between the 3 owners. With all the little improvements, It’s a solid fish &...

Overall food was not bad and wine pairing was the best part of the service. The sommelier really listen to your likes and give great recommendations. Seafood is very fresh and love the seasoning of it. Service is not the best as a Michelin star restaurant but ok until this strange incident.

I got asking by the sommelier about getting the second bottle of sparkling water when I am having my last main, since I finished the first bottle. Knowing that there is no way I can finish this bottle by my self with such a short time remaining, I still ordered it because I like the taste of this sparkling water and thinking I can take it home if it’s unfinished. So when I am about to leave I took this bottle of sparkling water since it’s basically untouched and the waiter stopped me by the door and said “you can’t take this water with you”. I was a bit surprised and asked “oh I can’t take it with me? Why?” The waiter just said “No” without any further explanation. I didn’t want to waste time arguing over a bottle of water cause’ my taxi is already waiting for me outside. Still not sure why exactly cause haven’t encountered any situation like this in other restaurants in Paris. I could understand for some reason this water can not be taken away but would love to get to know this when getting nudged to order the second bottle of water and get some explanation when getting stopped...

Wow 🤩 This was a last minute decision and it was a great one

We’re big foodies and if you like fish then this is fabulous. The quality of ingredients is fantastic you’d think that you were next to the sea. The chef is very talented and everything cooked to perfection. Highlight for me was the tuna and my husband the octopus.

The staff very attentive and friendly too.

We asked the sommelier to pair wines with our food, again we love our wines, the champagne 🥂 well it’s something that’s just got to be tried, it’s got salty notes that prepare the palette for the food to come, excellent 👌 the wines by the glass were offered in half measures which we’ve never been offered before but we’re sure to ask for it again as it was perfect, the choice of wine from sommelier was exceptional and went wonderfully with every course.

We’re also a bit difficult as both of us can’t eat eggs and they catered to our last minute booking brilliantly.

Value for money was great for Michelin star if you enjoy good quality food and wine then we would...