Cool Paris

This is the kind of Les Halles restaurant you head for when you’ve had your fill of grand cuisine and pretensions.

The decor is soothing mix of greens and browns, steeped in a Chinese-colonial ambience that evokes early 1900s Shanghai. You could easily imagine James Bond coming in with a nice woman at his side.

The chef’s speciality is lacquered peking duck with shrimp, we did try it some years ago and it’s very tasty but rather expensive.

Chez Vong, 10, Rue de la Grande-Truanderie, 75001 Paris, tel 01 40 26 09 36, M° Etienne-Marcel or Les Halles, reservations recommended.