Georges

A huge amount of light and space, bordered by clean lines, with a stunning backdrop of the Paris skyline: Georges on the top of the Centre Pomidou is a veritable temple to modernity. But before you get all serious in the face of art, know that Georges is not nearly as austere as it seems. It’s New York’s Modern meets Fred’s at Barneys – a sleek, contemporary space that’s a real social scene, with forward-leaning French cuisine to match.

Though you could have a romantic dinner here, Georges is the perfect spot for a long, leisurely lunch. Just take the escalators to the top floor before you view the museum  and put your name in at the door.

On warmer days, the more casual outdoor patio gets packed with people smoking, dining and basking in the sun. The inside has a more formal atmosphere, with ladies who lunch, impossibly chic families, well turned-out tourists and a model or two, but as long as you’re stylishly if casually dressed, you won’t feel out of place in this crowd. As Marie Fromage said on a Sunday afternoon (when Georges is one of the few good dining establishments open), even the children are sophisticated here.

To start, we ordered the soup – or so we thought. What arrived was a fabulous plate of Marennes oysters (24€)! (A few things got lost in translation on French menus.) Fortunately they were excellent – perfectly briny, beautifully fresh with a nice snap. In taste and size, they’re closest to a Nova Scotia variety in which you can really taste the ocean. The gorgeous blue-gray color looked like something out of a Dutch still life, and in fact, distant relatives of these same Marennes oysters were probably original subjects. The one flaw in this dish: the oysters hadn’t been dislodged from the shell at all in the kitchen, making them difficult to scrape out with your fork, but perhaps that’s a French thing?

Georges’ haricots verts salad (12€) made me lament the poor quality of haricots verts we have in the States. Why are they always browning at the edges if and when you actually find them for sale? These were incredibly crisp and green and tasted as if they’d just been snapped off the stem. Tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette, they were sprinkled with fleur de sel and seasoned with a little fresh mint.

A luscious king crab salad (28€) came next, the crab meat succulent, slightly buttery and sweet on top of perfectly dressed greens. Bibb lettuce was tossed in a lemon and olive oil vinagrette and topped with a few fresh chives. Each ingredient was excellent, and together they formed a light but stimulating salad. (We ordered an appetizer each as our main course, and they didn’t blink an eye.)

We dove into Georges’ steak tartare (24€), comparing it to others we’d encountered on the way in Paris. The meat was definitely tartare quality and had a deeply satisfying flavor on its own, though this tartare had an almost too heady shallot taste and not much salt or pepper to speak of. And the salt and pepper grinder on our table, though it looked like a masterpiece of modern design, didn’t work.

The lemon macaroon with raspberries (12€), with its crisp-yielding-to-chewy texture and lightly sweet flavor, was just the right end note for the meal, though the fromage blanc with dulce de leche (9€) was basically just a yogurt and a little too breakfasty to count as dessert.

Though we stuck to the appetizer side of the menu, since the entrees here run to 40€, this meal at Georges was certainly the most lavish and expensive lunch we had in Paris – and it was worth it. Due to constraints of distance and exchange rates, we couldn’t make a habit of it, but for a celebratory meal, Georges feels like the tops.

Georges
Centre Pompidou
4 Rue Beaubourg
4th arrondissement, Paris
01 44 78 47 99