I found ‘Kong Bar & Restaurant’ on top of Kenzo’s main office on Pont du Neuf through the best restaurants in Paris website. I fell in love right away with the glass dome and the quirky faces on the chairs. Kong Bar & Restaurant is an Asian Fusion restaurant with a touch of Parisian modernism.
The restaurant is designed by world-renowned designer, Philippe Starck and was featured on the Sex & the City movie. Here is an excerpt from Kong Bar & Restaurant website by Starck:
-‘Kong is the fight between the Moderns and the Classics.
It is the classic of a geisha against the modern kawaï from Omotesando, they meet at the elegant European’s at the summit of Kenzo’s headquarters facing the Pont Neuf.
These three women finally become one person, timeless and sublime.’-
Blondine and I did not reserve so when we arrived, we were ushered to the terrase gallery located at the back part of the restaurant which is a beautiful room with an open roof but the room felt a bit condensed, somewhat suffocating, maybe because it is in the evening and there was less light. Anyone would feel the same thing after passing through the glass dome part of the restaurant. Unfortunately, that area is only for those who reserved in advance.
Nevertheless we took our seats at the terasse gallery and checked out the menu. We realized that we were not really that hungry, we have been eating our way through Paris during the day, so we decided to go for the ‘Kong Plate’. Well, the waiter was not amused at all and told us that if we sit in the restaurant we must order the full menu or at least the main course otherwise we will have to go down to the bar.
Now, that is actually a brilliant idea! So Blondine and I went down to the already busy bar and luckily we were able to get a space with 2 chairs. The crowd is quite hip, lots of young urban local and expat professionals. It is much lively here of course than at the restaurant.
We first ordered a glass of red wine to go with the Kong Plate which is actually like an Asian tapas plate. Afterwards we had another round of cocktails—margarita this time. We loved our time here, listening to the music, enjoying the food (4 stars out of 5), watching people and watching the bartenders do their show thing as well.
Kong Bar & Restaurant is so Paris, so chic. I would love to come back here during daytime and have lunch at the glass dome part of the restaurant.
Travel Period: October 2011
Destination: Paris, France
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