After Spoon, which had its glory days a little over ten years ago in the 8th arrondissement, the Spoon 2 sequel is out, coproduced by GL Events and Alain Ducasse. What was once Yannick Alléno’s Terroir Parisien beneath the Bourse de Paris has given way to a more mainstream Spoon, with more passersby, more tables, more people… Set in a rather cold decor by Wilmotte & Associés, the restaurant offers a mix of world flavors from America to Asia, such as a papaya salad (somewhat spicy for our tastes), perfectly done dim sum, and extremely satisfying dishes like the zahtar shoulder of lamb with yogurt and coriander, followed by a Key lime pie that seemed to be missing the lime.
The bento lunch menu is a popular option with the local office crowd. As original as always, Spoon 2 is taking things a step further with a sparkling Australian wine made using the “méthode tasmanoise”, the same classic method used in Champagne. Service is polite and relatively efficient. Our only beef is the lack of coherence among all these dishes. Taken separately, they are all rather good, but make for a rather ill-assorted experience tasted one after the next. For this culinary escapade across five continents, we get the feeling Spoon 2 has us traveling in economy class, when the original version was definitely business class.
We expected this Spoon 2 to be less of a rehash, but it still remains a perfectly acceptable and affordable neighborhood eatery.
