Monsieur Bleu- The Palais de Tokyo’s Restaurant

I wouldn’t probably have chosen this place myself. Instead, I was meeting a very chic friend from New York, and with her sky high, red-soled heels and immaculate baby blonde coiffure, she was pecking away at her Blackberry when I was ushered to the table. She told me that she’d heard about this place from a friend who works for Marc Jacobs – which made sense – and so after some catch-up chat over a glass of Champagne, we looked at the menu. To know how seriously I could or should take it, I asked about the chef, whom the waiter informed me was Benjamin Masson, most recently of Petrus, a chic brasserie with good seafood.

Still, I decided to order simply – a warm potato salad with foie gras and coddled eggs, and then the roast chicken with morel mushrooms, while my pal went for dressed crab with beetroot and wasabi, and the calf’s liver. Well, the happy surprise was not just that the food was good, so was the service. At fashionable Paris restaurants, service is all too frequently dismissive, disorganized and even a little hostile, but here it was alert, charming, and playful. Desserts of cheese cake and a caramel sundae with pecan nuts were a nice finale, too.

So against all of the odds, I ended up dropping my guard and admitting that this is a great-looking restaurant with a fascinating crowd, a decor that would have been a perfect backdrop for a Helmut Newton photo shoot, and perfectly pleasant food. And this on a rainy night when we couldn’t sit outside on the terrace, which boasts one of the best views of the tour Eiffel in all of Paris. Monsieur Bleu is open daily, another plus, so I’d suggest that it’s an ideal address for Sunday dinner – which is always difficult in the French capital. But do book ahead as it’s very popular.