Les Enfants Rouge (another very good Franco/Nippon bistro)

When a member of Paris' expat food blogging royalty invites you to join him for lunch, you just can't say no. Especially when he takes you to a place a friend of a friend heard of that opened a week ago, in a former wine bar gone south, now creative French bistro run by a young Yves Cambdeborde trained Japanese chef and his wife (he the kitchen, her the front of house), and put it all up in the virtually unchanged storefront in a tiny street in the Nord du Marais, and you have a recipe for success.

This soon to be Figaroscoped and Fooding'd 12 table spot, sandwiched somewhere between the trendy rue de Bretagne and the Marché des Enfants Rouges hits all the right notes: 35€ men for dinner or lunch offering 4 choices for each dish. The amuse bouche was a haddock jelly covered shellfish mousse, and main choices included citrus marinaded salmon coupled with oxtail and celery, a delicious salted codfish quenelle, textbook quality ris de veau and Brittany caught cod with buckwheat risotto and shellfish. Bread was (surprise) not Pain des Amis, but from chef Thierry Bréton. All was comforting, technically perfect (one exception, the cod was a bit salty) , friendly and affordable, and served (slowly) with a smile. Book now before it becomes the new French/Nippon bistro flavor of the month. And, for the moment, make sure you bring cash, as their credit card machine isn't installed yet.

Les Enfants Rouge
9 rue de Beauce, 3eme

Le Mary Celeste

Apart from hot new bistros, fantastic, interesting and envelope pushing food can now be found in Paris bars, most notably, the recently opened Marie Celeste.

Created by Adam Tsou and Colombian beauty Carina Soto Velasquez Tsou, a husband and wife team who met at the Experimental Cocktail Club, this is their third establishment (the others being the Mexican inspired Candelaria and former titty bar turned Pigalle hipster magnet, Glass).

Marie Celeste is basically an oyster bar, with regional French and European small production bivalves, great cocktails from Carlos (formerly of L'Hotel) , Brooklyn IPA on tap, and, most, importantly, small plates from Canadian raised, half Chinese, half Romanian chef Haan Palcu-Chang, who worked at Copenhagen's Michelin starred Thai Kiin Kiin and did stints at Verre Volé, Chateaubriand, Au Passage and Saturne in Paris. Much more than just bar snacks, the food is delightfully playful, well executed and fusion-y with dishes such as Chinese crepes (ie tacos) with beef shin, peanuts, sesame, nicely spiced kimchee, and steamed oysters with black vinegar, shallots and coriander. Haan has got skills and the place is cool, ready to blow up soon. Best bar in Paris at the moment? Oui.