LE CHOUBICHOU PARIS CHÂTELET — Restaurant in Paris

Style over substance. The amuse bouche was indeed amusing; a round disc of plain, lightly blanched carrot topped with salmon tartare, served on a massive stone. It didn't fill me with confidence. Sea urchin tasted like sea urchin, again, inexplicably served with a few more stones. Jerusalem artichoke cappuccino was pleasant though lacking in texture. Cod en papillote was cooked perfectly, but again the accompanying vegetables were lacking in flavour. The lamb course, shoved to one side of the plate to highlight a lack of puree/carb was well cooked but served with a ghastly grey sponge with no flavour. It was also served with a bizarre yellow grit which was unpleasant on the palate especially when combined with the seaweed jus. The worst course by far was the cheese course. The most intense parmesan paste hidden under a flavourless black tuille, far too thin and bland to combat the intensity of the cheese. My friend found it inedible. The dessert was divine however; aloe vera gel, refreshing lemon sorbet, sugar shards and fresh apple with a lighter than air foam.

The service was excellent, the restaurant pleasant enough to sit in, but be warned. €65 for a tasting menu probably sounds to good to be true, and on this occasion it...

I basically got my hopes up too high. Lovely service, super nice waiter, but the food was a little too try-hard with a lack of real results... I had the poultry legs as a starter with a tarragon foam. The tarragon was WAY too overpowering, and there were little crab croquettes that weren't as crispy as they should have been, and the crab flavour got lost completely because of the aforementioned tarragon. Lamb as a main was ok, a little overdone for my taste. I did like the 'ash' that came with it but unfortunately there was way too much of it - a friend said it best when he noticed it was almost like eating coffee grounds towards the end. I have to say my boyfriend got the matcha mousse and that was a GREAT dessert. I had the rice pudding which was definitely tasty, but not much more to say about it. Don't get me wrong, I had a nice meal, but nothing spectacular. The waiting time towards the end was also insane. The wine was reasonably priced though,...

We had a very enjoyable meal here on our 25th wedding anniversary. We were staying locally and the hotel recommended it. It's quite small, five choices for each course and the food is excellent. We had organic egg with lardons; black truffle with spelt (so like a risotto); bream with kale and grapefruit and molluscs; and pigeon. Puddings were ossy iratu with cherry compote and rice pudding with salted caramel. Apologies for my descriptions which don't list all the ingredients or do justice to the flavors or the cooking, which was excellent. The staff were good, especially the maitre D who was an excellent advisor, both knowledgeable and enthusiastic. He was so eloquent that the couple at the next table, who were from Minnesota, asked to see the bottle and we got talking to them for the rest of the evening. So good for food, wine, staff and conversation. And not expensive either. Everyone should live close to somewhere as...