Hello! I will be in Paris for the first time in Aril, staying in the 2nd, and there is one night that am planning to go out for a high-end dinner. I think I have the options narrowed it down to Aspic or Perception, but am struggling to decide between the two.
I am currently working as an intern so I do not have the budget for both, but am open to other options if you have something you think is even better at the same price-point.
Any thoughts or advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated… Thank you!
Wow! I wish I could go to Paris for the first time again.
I haven’t been to either of those restaurants, so whatever you choose, I will look forward to your thoughts.
About the choice: which one feels more appealing to you? They both look fantastic…Do you have a lunch open? You could look at the lunch menu at Perception and go to both? Unless you would have to eat them both in one day. Maybe too much.
I’ve been reading the Smitten Kitchen blog for years, love it. Deb has also written 3 cookbooks.
She just returned from her third vacation in Paris and did a neat write up; I’d totally trust her recommendations. David Lebovitz lives in Paris; you can look on his blog for his recommendations, too.
We went to Aspic in 2017. It was good, but not outstanding, and I’ve never felt the strong desire to return.
Perception was my favorite in terms of the food last year, and the restaurant to which I’m looking most forward to returning this spring. My write-up here. If you do a Google search for “Perception paris site:hungryonion.org” you can find several other very favorable reviews of Perception on this board in the last 18 months as well.
For the quality, I thought the dinner tasting menu was great value. In terms of what might be even better value for a Paris first-timer on a budget, l defer to folks like @ParnParis (the person who pointed us at Perception in the first place).
That write-up is quite a mixed bag. Of course not all the recommendations are bad (there’s too many of them for that) but quite a few are just meh, or overly touristy, or simply are no longer what they used to be. Even when reviewed in 2024.
