Dining in Paris: Caïus in the 17th arrondissement

Over the past 15 years, talented chef Jean-Marc Notelet has made Caïus one of the most popular restaurants in western Paris with his superb market-driven contemporary bistro cooking.

Now he’s renovated the restaurant with a stylish new décor by interior architects Nicolas Adnet and Marc Hertrich of the design studio MHNA. Adnet and Hertrich have redesigned the restaurant to offer a variety of different seating options – including a 12-person table d’hôtes – and a warm colour scheme of aubergine, curry-powder orange and red. The new look has succeeded in giving this lively restaurant with excellent service a rather less formal and more relaxed atmosphere.

Chef Notelet has a passion for spices and he uses them brilliantly on the dishes that figure on his chalkboard menu. He trained with Marc Meneau at his eponymous, now-closed restaurant in Burgundy, and with Gérard Boyer, who won three Michelin stars as chef at Les Crayères in Reims, and he has a gift for creating stylish comfort-food dishes that are fresh, healthy and deeply satisfying.