You are easily impressed as you first
enter the enormous space (about 750 meters) – a rotating sushi bar on
the right, a row of exaggeratedly high café tables on the left and as
you are drawn further into the dining areas, you pass a boutique of
modern kitchy collectables.
Soft candle lighting throughout might
have been a nice touch, but the flame on the taper is dead center in
the face of your dining partner, so you see only the flame, otherwise
you're relegated to shifting your heads back and forth to communicate
with one another. I was brash enough to ask them to remove it and replace
it with something more practical. I wondered if I was the first to ask.
I loved the stuffy white sofas everywhere,
but I worried for Philippe what it would be like to deal with red wine
stains. I give them six months before reupholstering. Bon is trying
to be all restaurants to all diners. Breakfast, lunch and dinner for
singles or couples or groups. Sushi on the revolving bar is replaced
by macaroons from Ladurée during the breakfast service (an unimpressive
sweet, if you ask me). Eat alone in the first dining room or adjourn
to a more intimate space if seducing a lover. Group meeting – have dinner
in the video room with state-of-the-art equipment and make your business
presentation. Malheureusement, Bon ends up being no restaurant for anyone.
I never could get through reading the
entire menu – I imagine 20-year-olds with perfect vision designed it.
My middle-aged eyeglasses needed a new prescription after the strain.
The choice of "organic-vegetarian" cuisine is varied enough and the
approach respectfully innovative, but have you ever read a menu, reread
the menu and never found anything that looked appealing? That describes
Bon's menu to a tee.
Worse than that, every single dish, and
I mean every single dish, was no more tasty or special than any under
100F restaurant I have every tested. There are at least 180 restaurants
in my own good-value guide that would compete with Bon and win! At about
350FF per person ($50), you feel absolutely foolish when the check comes.
Fellow diners were an international mix
of trend-seekers, not trend-setters. I was ashamed to be among them.
Were they having the same bad experience we were? And if you think you
haven't heard enough "mal" about Bon, this is just the first of more
clones to come – New York, Frankfurt, Madrid, London and Tokyo. Mon
Dieu!