Ébène was opened in the fall of 2025 by Simon Plantrou and Chef Jihyun Kim who trained at the Bocuse school.    They met working at L’Arpege and formed their style from Passard’s influence serving mostly fish and vegetables.  It was a tiny place with the open kitchen on one side of the room.  At lunch there was a 3 course menu with choices for each course for €45 with some choices incurring a supplement charge.  If you want they also offer a 6 course menu with no choices or a la carte, but the lunch is by far the best value.  The 16 seats had music in the background, windows to the street, one framed poster on the wall and the small tables draped with nice white clothes and good sized matching napkins.  Service was efficient and friendly with good portion control and pacing on the tasting.  We were delighted to get a table next the kitchen with Chef Kim and her 2 female assistants but there was no interaction with any of them, which was probably due to language more than personality.   As our first meal, straight off the plane and the long cab ride into town, it was lovely.  It’s not fancy food but presented on fun different plates with good flavors.  Thumbs up here. Continue reading →