Le Restaurant de Paul Tower 42

This version of Restaurant de Paul is not nearly as French‐looking as the Covent Garden branch. In fact, it’s positively Silicon Valley by comparison, with chunky upholstered green, blue and red chairs, bright monochrome rugs and busy black tiling across floors and walls. The menu, though, is exactly the same.

Classic starters lead into main courses featuring meat, fish, burgers or salads. We shared a perfectly decent but forgettable ham with celeriac remoulade to start. The poussin roti with aubergine and potatoes had good flavour but a smoked duck salad was underwhelming and lacked dressing. As you’d expect from a business with a baking background, the bread is top notch. So too, are desserts – the ‘bottomless’ mousse au chocolate is worth visiting for alone, and you can have as much as you dare.

So then, with decent food and little atmosphere, Restaurant de Paul is solid, if not exactly ooh‐la‐la.