Man Ray > Reviews > Man what a restaurant!

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Excellent
Atmosphere	Excellent
Standard of Service	Excellent
Cleanliness	Excellent

Advantages:	Stunning, excellent food, a real experience to dine there
Disadvantages:	You need to get dressed up, service a tiny bit slow

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I had the wonderful experience of dining at Man Ray back in June of 2005 while on a short break in Paris. My lovely other half saw the restaurant on TopTable website and booked it as a treat. The only slight downside was as I'd packed light for the weekend, and neither of us had been there before I wasnt as dressed up as I'd have liked to be for somewhere of this calibre.
They have also now changed their name to Mandala Ray just in case you want to search for it on a search engine.

Location

The restaurant is located at 34 rue Marbeuf, which is about half way down the Champ Elysies just after the massive Louis Vitton shop. The nearest tube station is Franklin D Roosevelt.

Opening Hours

Mon - Sat 7pm - 12am
Bar: 6pm - 2am

Average Cost per head

£35-£44/€57-€72

Payment Options

All major cards accepted

Information on the restaurant

Man Ray is owned by Johnny Depp, Sean Penn and John Malkovich which impressed me when I found out. I didnt see any of them here but hey its not like you ever see Gordon Ramsey when you go to any of his places either.

You enter the restaurant via a road entrance and once you make yourself known at the reception desk a very attractive female (must be a model or something) leads you down into the crazy circus that is the restaurant. All the waiting staff were very goodlooking and well dressed, hence why I felt a little out of place not being in my best gear too. But they are also very polite and friendly. English is spoken but they were all French staff there. They dont mind if you want to speak a little french is you can, but they certainly dont mind taking your order in English either.

The reason I descibe this place as a circus is that the layout had a definate Moulin Rogue (the film version) feel to it. I have heard it descibed as " the decor of a Buddhist temple" but I felt with all the glitter disco balls hanging down from the ceiling and the massive ships mascot shaped statue (think the old Sinbad movies where the women statues come to life) and the way that the bars are all on a mezzanine level above you, you feel very much like its all a bit crazy.

Menu

I found the menu a little mixed, you could order meze type dishes or proper meat and two veg, or sushi. It certainly had a choice for everyone. I would say the cheapest you could eat there would be a minumn of £25 a head plus wine.
We ordered a starter of mixed spring rolls, duck, crispy sea weed and satay. It was delicious. Then for my main course I had a piece of Lamb, done just under medium as requested, with olive oil mashed potatoes. My partner ordered Sea bass.
We ordered wine with the meal and their list was very good, wines started from £12 a bottle and went up to hundreds for champagnes.

The restaurant was packed the whole time we were there but the staff were very professional and kept everyone happy, there were a few longer breaks between things arriving at the table than I would have liked, but because the overall experience felt so good I didnt mind

We arrived at 8 and left at 11.30 after drinks etc and it was packed at that time with a queue out of the door to get into the bar.

I'd really recommend this place to any couple or group or friends looking for a buzzy, a little bit mad, place with fab food, staff, value for money and great people watching opportunities!
I wouldnt recommend it to a family with young children, as the French still smoke away merrily everywhere, plus the fact this is a noisy sort of place I dont think children would enjoy it that much, and I dont think its aimed at being a family sort of place either.

Just to add that when the bill came we were shocked at how cheap it really was. We are used to eating out in London at similar places and you never come away with much less than a £150 bill including wine, the cost here was just £95 in total. So much for Paris being really pricey!