You can follow a recipe to the letter and use good quality ingredients, but for us, there also needs to be a bit of soul injected into the dining experience to make it truly stand out. And it’s a lack of soul that really is the undoing for Paris Bangkok—the feeling that despite it being a standalone restaurant, it’s actually part of a chain. The confusing décor really doesn’t help. It’s a large space that has an almost barn-like quality that even the collection of retro posters, steel ceiling fans and plenty of Chatuchak kitsch can’t really fail to erase. The service is almost too efficient with an army of waitstaff on hand, constantly at attention with fancy looking PDAs in hand, or maybe we’ve just forgotten what proper service is like. Still it’s not the main reason we have issues with Paris Bangkok, that’s really down to the food. Too many of these classic French dishes on the busy menu are average at best and seem to repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot. We love the crispy pastry on the goat’s cheese parcels (B360) but it needs more kick from the cheese to cut through the sweet honey-based dressing. The chef’s royal tasting gets you walnut and Roquefort salad, duck terrine and crab mousse: the Roquefort is excellent, the duck could be creamier and the mousse is a little too fishy, even if it does feature nice chunks of crab. The mains suffer a similar fate, though we have to admit, they do come in huge portions. The steak tartare prepared tableside is excellent, but the beef Bourguignon, which comes with a rich and moreish gravy, has chewy chunks of beef and is served with almost tasteless pommes dauphinoises. The baked snowfish with pesto often needs more pesto, though the accompanying vegetables are well-cooked. So the pattern continues with the desserts; the lemon tart with meringue has a nice topping, but on our last visit, the pastry base was inedible and burnt. It’s all nearly but not quite, average, not excellent, and perhaps forgivable if it were a little less pricey (service and vat are not included). We might go back for the lunch deals, but count us out for dinner.
