Sola — Restaurant in Paris

My wife and I had the pleasure and privilege of visiting Sola on our honeymoon to Paris and it was one of the finest meals we have ever had!

We loved the decor, which was tasteful, cozy, and intimate without being pretentious. The dinnerware being hand made by Kosuke Nabeta himself was a touching small detail which immediately set the tone for the degree to which Nabeta committed and immersed himself in his restaurant and cuisine to provide a very personal and intimate experience.

To put it simply, we enjoyed the tasting menu with wine and sake pairings to the highest extent possible. Among many fine dining experiences in Paris, Sola was a clear standout in terms of the overall theme, cohesion, complexity, vision, and of course absolute deliciousness. Nabeta was firing on all cylinders and provided us with a divine experience which was Joyful and Celebratory all at once.

The overall theme of pushing all of the beautiful ingredients and using all parts to create a full meal and having the diner recognize all the new and creative ways each ingredient was used (sometimes easier said than done) was fun and playful and gently pushed us to engage and challenge our palettes. It also helped us appreciate the ingredients, the passion and vision of the chef, and Japanese-French fusion even more. It is truly rare to see a chef pour so much passion, vision, and love into a restaurant and meal.

Nabeta's passion was equally matched by his genius and surgical precision in his menu. The tasting menu provided a stunning lineup of delicious and perfectly cooked courses but the foie gras course and duck course completely blew us away and were the best we had in Paris! The smoked foie gras, perfectly seared, impeccably balanced with sweetness and acid and supercharged with even more unami with carmelized shitake mushroom strips, and paired with a sweet and fruity sake was simply out of this world. The harmony and pure umami joy of all the ingredients was enough to make any foodie weep.

But the true stunner was the lightly smoked and seared duck daringly served medium rare. This was the best duck we have ever had. The smoked flavour was subtle and caressing to the palate rather than overpowering. The Japanese fusion element of aburi or searing the duck skin with a torch to add yet another layer of subtle smokiness and aroma was sublime. The duck was also beautifully gamey and tender, and just fatty enough to melt on the palate. The amount of flavour and pure deliciousness present in each bite was astounding and my wife and I both found ourselves cutting smaller and smaller pieces to prolong the experience as much as possible while smiling like children the entire way.

The best dishes don't just engage and entice the tastebuds but dig deeper into the hippocampus and elicit nostalgia, innocence, happiness, and comfort. Nabeta's smoked duck course brought back memories of childhood campfires and family bbqs and made me feel warm and smile. It was one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth and one of the best meat courses I have ever had.

The service was warm, friendly, and attentive, and was overall outstanding as expected. We truly appreciated our server's enthusiasm and kindness in telling us more about both Kosuke Nabeta's vision and how each individual course was masterfully constructed.

Sola was a true standout during our honeymoon in Paris and a meal we will never forget. We are still talking about it now and I'm sure we will be in 5, 10, even 20 years. Nabeta's vision, creativity, passion, dedication, and frankly pure genius touched our hearts. We cannot wait to return the next time we visit Paris and fully expect Sola to have gained at least one more Michelin Star by then.

Thank you so much to Kosuke Nabeta and the beautiful staff at Sola for an...

Excellent dining experiencewith the fusion of French and Japanese cuisine being exceptionally well-executed. Every dish was cooked and seasoned to perfection. My personal favourites were the lobster soup and the pork. The lobster soup had a rich, robust flavour, and the hint of spiciness added a wonderful depth to the dish. The pork was incredibly tender and cooked to perfection. Their wine pairing was also good as well.

The staff were very professional, offering detailed explanations of the menu. The interactive element of guessing the ingredients in each dish was also unique and interesting, adding an engaging twist to the meal. Even though sometimes can be challenging. They also took the time to thoroughly explain the restaurant’s sustainability concept, from reusing broken plates to utilising every part of the ingredients to minimise food waste.

The basement seating area is nice, but the only downside is the lack of mobile signal or Wi-Fi, which we were informed before being seated. While I understand the restaurant’s aim to encourage guests to focus on the food, it would still be better to have internet access downstairs.

Overall, it’s a good restaurant and definitely worth a special visit when you’re in Paris, especially if you’re a fan of Japanese cuisine but are looking to try something new. I would...

Our party of 14 enjoyed a dinner at Sola for the first time about a week ago. The service was exceptional. Our waiters and sommelier were extremely knowledgeable, attentive and able to speak to the ingredients and techniques used by the chef and his team, down to the organic farms where some of the vegetables are sourced! (Interestingly some of their shiso leaves are grown locally on the rooftops of some buildings in Paris).

I wish I could give them 5 stars but some of the dishes were a miss: the very first amuse-bouche, a rhubarbe infusion (2nd picture here) was tasteless. One of the three appetizers was sweetbread (ris de veau) smoked with sakura wood. I found this an interesting choice as I had never eaten it and would not cook it myself but it was not particularly tasty. Three of the dishes pictured here were served under some edible foam. It was one dish too many (you can't see the rhubarb in the dessert pic). One of the three desserts using lemon also included black olives crystallized in sugar which was not a tasty combination.

Otherwise, most dishes were great, especially the ones featuring mackerel, trout and beef, and we appreciated following our sommelier's guidance for the wine-pairing which even featured some light sake. You'll also get to see some of the ceramics created...