Le Resto Branché: Paris Design Restaurants

Although most people dining in Paris are likely to choose a restaurant for its gastronomie, there is another category of restaurants in the capital, known as branché, or trendy. These fashionable places are not always reputed for their food, however here are five of our top choices for both top design and fantastic dining. Le Curieux Spaghetti Located in the Marais, the gay district in Paris, the Curieux Spaghetti Bar is every bit as flamboyant and into fashion as the residents of the quartier. Even the interior is enslaved to fashion – the wallpaper changes as often as the Paris catwalks. The atmosphere is young, fun and trendy, a sort of cheap and chic baroque mishmash of styles from the extra long red formica bar to the crystal chandeliers. The menu is quirky and original too, offering spaghetti for one, or to share, which arrives with a paper bib – not everyone has the manual dexterity of the Italians after all. The best time to visit has to be Friday or Saturday night when the staff dance along to the disco soundtrack and Paris’s hot young things come to eat and imbibe one or two of CSB’s delicious homemade ‘chup’ vodka shots. 14, Rue Saint Merri 75004 – Paris 01 42 72 75 97 Metro: Rambuteau/Hotel de Ville   Le Pershing Hall The interior of Le Pershing Hall is the brainchild of renowned designer Andrée Putman and his first project in France. The hotel offers 26 luxurious rooms, but the real star of the show is the restaurant. Entering through a corridor dimly lit by perpetually changing coloured lights, one arrives in the central courtyard. The most interesting feature of the space is a luxuriant 34-metre vertical garden entirely covering one of the walls, illuminated by fairy lights. A retractable roof transforms the restaurant into an open terrace during the summer months. The man in charge of the menu, Erwan Louaisal, trained under Alain Ducasse, and proposes classic French fare with a twist. The mezzanine bar is perfect for a drink en tête a tête, or at the weekend with friends, when some of France’s finest D.J.s provide the soundtrack. 49, Rue Pierre Charron 75008 – Paris 01 58 36 58 00 Metro: Georges V   Kong If being created by Philippe Starck doesn’t confirm this restaurant’s design credentials, then the fact that it featured in an episode of Sex and the City has to! And as if that weren’t enough, the views of the Seine are breathtaking. The interior is a Sino-Parisian fusion with Louis XIV style furniture, mangas, plexiglass, eyepopping fluo colours and geisha girl prints. Surprisingly it works. The menu offers a mélange of French, Japanese and international cuisines, and there’s a cocktail menu so you can come and have a drink before or after dinner and watch the bateaux mouches sail by. Chic, sexy and cool. 1, Rue du Pont Neuf 75001 – Paris 01 40 39 09 00 Metro: Pont Neuf   Cantine du Faubourg Since it opened in 2004, La Cantine du Faubourg ou ‘la Cantine’ as its regulars know it, has been one of the hippest places to dine in Paris. Situated just round the corner from the Champs Elysées, in one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in Paris, this is a sophisticated place to come and eat or drink at any time of the day. The temporary exhibitions, the lounge soundtrack, and the plasma-screen walls add up to make this a must-see for anyone looking for a relaxed, grown-up dining experience. 105, Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré 75008 – Paris 01 42 56 22 22 Metro: Saint Philippe du Roule   Le Georges The original ‘resto branché’, the Chez Georges is another restaurant that has a fantastic view over the city. It’s located on the roof of the Pompidou Centre and you can observe the Paris skyline through the huge full-length windows or from the terrace outside in summer months. The interior fuses sixties-style white furniture and beaten aluminium – it looks rather like an ultra trendy spaceship. The menu offers international cuisine and Georges’ mixologists have dreamed up a really interesting cocktail list. A great place to relax and observe the French capital’s beautiful people. 19, Rue Beaubourg 75004 – Paris 01 44 78 47 99 Metro: Rambuteau