5 (food) 7 (view, prices and service) Le Ciel de Paris, 56th floor of the Montparnasse Tower, 33, ave du Maine in the 15th, 01.40.64.77.64, open 7/7 (Metro: Montparnasse) reopened this summer after being shuttered for a while. I hadn't been in at least 20 years and thought it was worth a shot. The joke since it was built is that the Tower is the best place to view Paris from because it's the one place where you cannot see it itself.
On the left above is today's menu with 3 dishes at 38 E and 2 at 29 but on the right is the a la carte menu which is just as well you cannot see since it runs one 75-100 E. But the "menu" has great choices 3/3/3 with specials for each category as well.
Two of us had the rose shrimp and greens which were terrific with quinoa which I can take or leave and J. had the Ciel Salad with smoked magret, egg, chicken tenders and salad which he liked a lot.
Then came what should have been the high but was the low point in the meal - the meat. Madame and my rabbit wrapped in crisp bacon was way overcooked and M.'s gigot d'agneau was so well-done (ordered rare mind you) it curled up on itself approximating a merlan en colere. Now one could say, "oh the poor kitchen has hundreds of covers to push dishes out to every hour" but hey, no excuses for this.
Finally, M. and I had the min-Paris-Brests which were pretty good and Madame the Bayadere with vanillized raspberries which she thought quite good.
Go? This is a tough one - if a visitor is a first-timer to Paris and it's a nice day, which it was today, and you can sit by the window (which we did), it's maybe worth it, but otherwise I'd say "nah" unless I hear they have a new sous-chef at the meat station.
