Guilo Guilo

Guilo Guilo knows how to get you excited. The new darling of Paris's Japanese cuisine scene won't let you in unless you phone them up, book a table, then patiently wait for three weeks. By the time we'd sat down to sample its much vaunted set menu, we were positively gagging for a portion of raw fish and seaweed.

So if we tell you that the ensuing meal didn't quite live up to our expectations, that's not saying much. Yet mingled with the panoply of exotic savours exuded by the restaurant's imaginative dishes was a marked taste of disappointment. It's not for want of variety: over the course of the meal we were treated to grilled eel, fried fois gras, onion tempura, abalone sashimi, small unidentified fried fish, green tea tiramisu and salsify truffles. A curious assortment, then, and not consistently good – the chefs didn't quite pull off the tuna maki sushi, for one.

The layout, which has seats arranged around an open kitchen, allows diners to watch chef Eiichi Edakuni and his team photogenically chopping away at their fish and veg. Yet seeing as the restaurant only offers one set menu, the spectacle soon becomes repetitive. Which brings us to the core problem with Guilo Guilo: it all feels a bit gimmicky and trend-obsessed, which explains the steep price tag (€45 for the set menu, excluding drinks) but doesn't justify it. Worth a detour if you're a fan of Japanese food with a twist, but not if you're a purist.