Le BAT, Yariv Berrebi's new Bar a Tapas et Tartares, Paris

One of the more surprising eateries to open up in recent months is this modern spot serving small dishes in a bar space around an open kitchen, wedged somewhere between the Hard Rock Café and Indiana Café (worst "Tex Mex" in Paris). An ovni (UFO) as the French food press would call it, this bar a tapas et tartares has young Israeli chef Yariv Berrebi (formerly of Kitchen Galerie bis) behind the counter live cooking excellent quality produce to crowds of businessmen (lunch), theatergoers (they are open until 11pm weekdays and midnight on Saturdays) and clued up foodies. Prices are reasonable, and although the cooking is (justifiably) a bit less asian fusion than before, Berrebi is an interesting chef to watch out for (although his rapid departure from ZKG was a bit of a shock for some). The 24€ three course menu is a steal.

Heirloom tomato salad

Galician beef, smoked potatoes 

Buvette Gastrotheque, another taste of New York in bobo Paris

A very smart idea of a French bistro from New York, reimported back to the mothercountry for easy consumption by Anglo or Anglo seeking hipsters in South Pigalle, Buvette Gastrotheque is a simulacrum, a Kinfolk wet dream of an eatery, a little too perfect, a little too Brooklyn meets Pigalle, but still, I liked it a lot.

Rant over, it’s a comfy, friendly place that serves up old school Gallic comfort food as seen through the eyes of a Yankee chef (Jody Williams) , and it’s very decent, although I couldn’t help thinking “what a great business idea” all the time. The space is all eclectic, with rickety vintage school chairs, bar counter stacked with fresh desserts, a vintage ham slicer, glass jars full of apples.. half of the clientelle seemingly bobo lifestyle journalists and bloggeuses whiling away the afternoon, strutting their Isabel Marant press sale threads while furiously jotting down details in their Moleskins and iPads.

The copious croque Madame, unfortunately sans oeuf (forgotten) was thick and crunchy, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs textbook, ratatouille quite delish, accompanied with fresh goat cheese and the desserts just what the doctor ordered: homemade waffles with fresh forrest berries, tarte tatin with fresh, just slightly sour as it should be, cream. All in all, it did seem a little too much esprit de Village , but sometimes that is just what you need (either that or a cheapass flight ticket to JFK). And plus they're open all day long, and closed only on Mondays.

The French brasserie comes back from the dead: LAZARE, Paris

The brasserie is part of the world culinary consciousness. Synonymous with the Parisian restaurant scene, French institution has for years now fallen upon hard times, the remaining brasseries reduced to tolerable tourist traps full of loud Americans, or become gobbled up by companies not that different from fast food chains, indeed much of the food is mass produced and reheated to order in the remaining of these culinary dinosaurs. The overwhelming trend of the past decade or so having been in the smaller bistros of the city of light (bistronomy, tables d'auteur, etc), I think that the next trend might well be macro instead of micro: large, bustling easy and accessible places, where one can come any time of the day and eat something fresh and tasty, and I believe that LAZARE in the first of what will perhaps be the next restaurant revolution.

Lazare, located in the Gare Saint Lazare train station (the transport hub for his native Normandy), was opened a few days ago by Eric Fréchon, a chef who made his way from a small bistro in the 90's in a far-flung neighborhood near the park Buttes Chaumont to being a three star Michelin chef at Le Bristol in the space of a decade. His other restaurant, Mini Palais, the pleasant enough eatery located in the Grand Palais monument, is a good staple, but Lazare looks set to break some ground. The lofty brasserie has an open kitchen, center zinc bar and over 100 seats, and is open from 7:30 am until 11pm 7 days a week. You can come for breakfast, a plate of charcuterie (truffled Mortadella) and a glass of wine, or a full blown lunch and dinner. There are generous daily specials priced at under 20€ and a well curated selection of French comfort food favourites of all sort, and , sacre bleu!, friendly, professional service (most of the staff came from the Meurice, Bristol and 110 Taillevent).

A former two Michelin starred chef I knew, sitting at the counter eating a ham and baguette sandwich with a glass of rouge told me, "This isn't just a restaurant, this isn't just something new in the food world, it's a cultural change". Lazare hit all the right notes, and I'm inclined to agree. "I just want to do simple and honest dishes", Fréchon told me during a brief chat, "create a place for everyone to eat something good".

ENCORE, another delicious Franco-Japanese bistro

Daily 25/30€ blackboard menu

One of the recent culinary trends in Paris has been the influx of small Japanese run bistros doing French cooking. Many of these young upstarts worked their way through top of the food chain culinary establishments and struck out on their own in popular up and coming neighborhoods (9th,10th,11th) with modest tables offering up limited choice tasting menus featuring seasonal produce from cult niche purveyors (Joel Thiebault, Annie Bertin, etc) accompanied by natural unfiltered wines. The chef, Yoshi Morie worked for five years in one of the vanguards of this trend, the Petit Verdot, and has now moved on to his own digs.

Encore, opened this summer was happily one of the few places open at the end of August, so I snagged a table and had one of the best meals of the pre- rentrée: 30€ for three delicious courses: a bright, crunchy mussels and cauliflower starter flavored with a vadouvan emulsion (French/Indian spice mix), and main course of monkfish with mixed cooked and raw vegetables (broccoli, burnt aubergine), all dishes doing a perfect job of creating layers of comforting taste and washed down with well chosen wines from our charming waitress. The dessert was the best I've had this season: a violet and fig compote with a Timut pepper sorbet.

Cauiflower, mussels, French/Indian spice mix emulsion

L'Office

Paris is such a pleasant place to eat recently, and it seems every week some hot new table is opening, in a cool gentrifying neighborhood, with a world faring chef doing inexpensive and exciting food. (Le Galopin, Au Passage are two perfect examples) This is certainly the case with L'Office, in a part of the 9th , a sort of multicultural no mans land between the Gare du Nord train station and Galeries Lafayette, in a quarter that counts a diverse local population (African hairdressers and traditional Jewish commerce galore)  chain noodle restaurants, various bars and brasseries that merit being closed long ago, and L'Office, a non descript storefront offering top notch cooking. The owner, Charles Compagnon, who funnily enough I knew when he was running the very convenient Bar George V, teamed up with Del Posto-trained American chef Kevin O'Donnell and the result is the kind of bistro you wish was just downstairs.

On the 24€ three course menu was a tender piece of falling apart pork belly with a tomato paste and fried egg. C. had a velouté of coco beans topped with a piece of toast on which were placed thinly sliced pieces of lardo di colonnata , followed by sous vide cooked chicken with girolles mushrooms and an airy, foamy celery root purée. The pot au pen was full of delectable veal replacing the beef, with crunchy celery. Dessert was ok cheese and a decent, dense chocolate cake with banana ice cream. Bread was a little regrettable, but I think they ran out of the good stuff we had at the beginning of the meal.

Wines were predictably, natural and organic from a pretty well chosen list, with glasses of Jacky Blot et co. at around 6€.

This place is a real culinary snapshot of what's going on in Paris at the moment. Love it.

L'Office

3 rue Richer, 75009 Paris

+33 1 47 70 67 31