Forget all you know about Chinese food! When you settle for a meal at Taokan, you embark on a unique culinary experience in Paris: the discovery of the contemporary Chinese cuisine.
Six years ago, Christophe Daine, with a long experience from the Hong Kong luxury business, established this discerning quality restaurant, offering a creative fusion cuisine in an upmarket setting in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The decor is signed Hélène and Olivier Lempereur, star architects, the table service is stylish but not stilted and in the open kitchen you can see the remarkable chef, Au Tien Dat, juggling ingredients and flavours, masterfully turning out classic Cantonese dishes as well as more modern creations. The balance is delicate but perfectly mastered, like the traditional Dim Sum, here revisited with foie gras for example. Or the Loc Lac Beef, beef filet in a spicy sauce of the House, which has become one of Taokan’s signature dishes. Astonishing and different, the Ruan Ke Xie is a gustatory experience such as the House is capable of offering. With this, the gourmet will enjoy an Asian soft-shell crab, delicately breaded in a wok, seasoned with salt, pepper, fresh chilli and a surprising savoury lime sauce. An atypical dish, highly acclaimed by many Taokan regulars, that fully expresses the modernity of the cuisine that Christophe Daine has created. Especially when this dish is accompanied by a Chao Bo Cai, fried spinach in a soy and peanut sauce! This festival of flavours can be completed with classic coconut balls, as light and tasty as you can wish for, but the crispy chocolate spring rolls, called Qiao Ke Li Juan, are an unmissable little miracle of harmony between chocolate and crunchy pastry.
Initially unknown, Taokan quickly became very trendy, which paved the way for a second restaurant in rue Mont-Thabor. It is today an unrivalled classic of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
Lunch and dinner from Monday to Saturday and Sunday dinner. Closed from 1 to 15 August.
8, rue du Sabot – 75006 Paris – +33 1 42 84 18 36
1, rue du Mont-Thabor – 75001 Paris – +33 1 42 61 97 88
www.taokan.fr