After a very agreeable lunch at Didon recently, we wanted to try the owners’ other restaurant, Hébé, tout près de Notre-Dame.

The name comes from Hebe, the Greek goddess of youth who served the other Greek gods their nectar and ambrosia (thanks Wikipedia). Here’s how our visit went…

Carole and Imad Kanaan have three restaurants in Paris, all on the Left Bank near our hotels. There’s Levanese streetfood joint Ya Bayté, wood-fired bistronomy at Didon and the “inventive, delicate, seasonal cuisine” of Hébé. After our positive experience at Didon, we were quite looking forward to sampling Hébé.

The space, not far from the banks of the Seine on the Left Bank, is fairly minimally decorated, and actually quite small (with a handful of tables outdoors). We are not a fan of their plastic plants all along the ceiling, but the general feel is chic, with many details that have obviously been selected with care and taste.

Hébé is a restaurant to choose as a treat, probably not somewhere you’d go on a restricted budget. A quick look at the menu confirms that the prices are quite high – a tasting menu for three people to share (3 starters + 4 mains + 3 desserts) costs a little over 200€, and the two glasses of wine the team suggested we drink with our meal came to 46€ (which is more than the price of many bottles you can order at the Clos Belle Juliette).

But as we were saying, let’s not concentrate on the prices and evaluate the experience instead.

We chose a tasting menu for two, and this started with a little beetroot amuse-bouche, with homemade ‘ketchup’ and walnut. A cute start to our evening, and one that hinted that presentation was going to be important.

The next dishes were:

— mushroom ravioli with a meurette sauce, which were very fine and quite salty, followed by,

— candied carrot baked in its skin, which was melt-in-the-mouth, creamy and surprisingly spicy (a good counterpoint to the sweetness of it, with a touch of what was quite probably wine,

— more neutral-tasting gnocchi, served with almonds in the sauce which gave just the right amount of twist to the taste, and

— well-cooked turbot (not too dry), in a wakame sauce that had a particular taste to it, but with a sort of miso glaze that we found suppressed the taste of the fish a little.

And our desserts were a fresh, neutral tapioca (not over creamy like a rice pudding) served with a scoop of mango ice cream, and a deconstructed apple crumble (the apple and crumbled were separate) whose apple could have been tastier, served with a scoop of pitsachio ice cream.

Not disappointing by any means, and prettily presented, but perhaps not the most impressive dishes of the evening.

In a stylish setting with a competent, lively team, Hébé offers dishes composed with care and daring combinations of tastes. You may find some a little subtle, but this is often a way to mut the emphasis on another ingredient in the same dish. Some mixes may not appeal to everyone, but the chef’s sense of adventure is evident.

Ordering the tasting menu is not cheap, but there are other fixed menus priced more reasonably, dishes for vegetarians, and even lunchtime menus that border on the cheap (34€ for three courses, weekdays only). Just watch out for the cost of drinks (23€ for certain glasses of wine, 7€ for a bottle of sparkling water…)

And for us, the last restaurant of the group awaits our visit – the takeout experience of Ya Bayté. Expect to read our review soon!

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Hébé (here) is open every day for lunch (except Mondays) and dinner

Online bookings here

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