Dinner and the opera – all in one unique Parisian restaurant

I am regularly invited to dine at the Bel Canto restaurant in Paris by the owner, Jean Paul Morel, who has featured in Taste of France magazine. “When are you next in Paris?” he often asks me. “When are you coming to visit us?” It was nearly Christmas and I was staying with family in the centre of Paris,  so it seemed the perfect moment.

We walked through the festive cobbled streets, past Notre-Dame and over Pont Louis-Philippe, waving at the party-goers sailing past on bateaux mouches below, and arrived to find an enthusiastic queue already forming outside the restaurant.

We were warmly welcomed and quickly shown to our table by the hosts – who, as we later discovered, are also the opera singers.

The evening began in suitably celebratory style with flutes of champagne and a delicate amuse-bouche that set the tone for what followed.

Just as we settled in, the first duet rose from across the room as the staff burst into song. What brilliant fun. The songs are all familiar and what struck us most was the singers’ amazing voices and professionalism. These are not amateurs. They have trained in New York, Paris, the Royal Academy of Music in London and in Milan, and it shows. Even our most reluctant family member, who normally loathes opera, loved every minute.

But back to the food. To start, we enjoyed pressed beef with foie gras, onion compote and a cider and horseradish emulsion, and gravlax of Label Rouge salmon with cream cheese and mint and coriander peas.

For mains, we had free-range poultry supreme, accompanied by a crisp-edged truffle potato mille-feuille and a glossy port reduction. Dessert was an indulgent entremet made with 64% chocolate, paired with a softly sweet mousse of Ardèche chestnut.

As for the singing, everyone was invited to join in towards the end, and for a moment it felt as if we were living inside an Impressionist painting of a Parisian restaurant scene.

And as we walked back along the Seine, singing the songs together, we agreed: we would definitely be back for an encore.

Bel Canto, 72, quai de l’Hôtel de Ville, 75004 Paris

Tel.: + 33 (0)1 42 78 30 18

Email: [email protected]

lebelcanto.com/en