Brasserie Mollard Review: A Listed Paris Room Let Down by Plastic Flowers

I asked for the room with the original 1895 mosaics, got it, and then spent the evening sitting next to a vase of plastic flowers. That is Brasserie Mollard: a listed Art Nouveau room and properly good French cooking, undermined by details that cost almost nothing to fix.

Quick answer: Brasserie Mollard, the Art Nouveau brasserie opposite Gare Saint-Lazare, is worth booking for its listed 1895 mosaic interior and its 44.15 euro three course menu, but tired carpets, plastic flowers and flat service stop it short of a great Paris dinner.

• Location: 115 rue Saint-Lazare, 75008 Paris, opposite Gare Saint-Lazare and across the road from the Hilton Paris Opera
• Visited: October 2026, dinner for two
• Price paid: 184.80 euro for two, including a 76.45 euro bottle of wine. Taxes and 15 per cent service included
• Price range: Menu Carte 44.15 euro, seafood platters 48.45 euro to 154.20 euro
• Best for: architecture, seafood, an early dinner before something else
• Booking: we walked in during the day and got a table that evening. Book ahead for weekends, later sittings and the mosaic room
• Open: midday to midnight, every day, all year, no afternoon break
• Self funded. I booked it and I paid the bill in full
• Prices correct at time of visit

We were staying at the Hilton Paris Opera and Mollard is directly across the road. Every time we walked past it was full, which is recommendation enough, so we went in during the day and booked for 6.30pm. Absurdly early in Paris, but we had a late one the night before and an awards ceremony the next evening, so the plan was good food early and a proper night's sleep.

My expectations were about the building, not the plate. Tripadvisor reviews for Mollard are all over the place, which usually means the kitchen is fine and the service is a lottery. I had that the wrong way round.

You cannot miss it after dark: the name in blue neon above a stained glass canopy, the whole room lit up through the windows like a stage set.

I asked front of house for the room with the original mosaics and he gave it to us, no negotiation. Do this. It is one sentence and it is the difference between eating in a nice brasserie and eating inside a listed monument. At 6.30 the room was close to empty: perfect for photographs, wrong for atmosphere.

Monsieur and Madame Mollard arrived from Savoie in 1865 with a horse and cart and opened a bistro in front of Gare Saint-Lazare. The brasserie dates itself to 1867. Thirty years on, Mollard had the money to build what he intended to be the finest establishment in Paris.

That 1895 rebuild is what you sit in. He shipped mosaics from Italy and had the Sarreguemines workshops make one off ceramic panels on the theme of life around the station: Deauville, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Ville d'Avray, Alsace and Lorraine. The architect was Niermans, the man behind Le Negresco and Angelina, who drew the mosaics himself and designed the chairs, tables, light fittings and even the cashier's desk. After the First World War the decor was judged dated and painted over behind large mirrors, which accidentally preserved it for fifty years. The glass roof collapsed in 1920. From 1965 the paint came off, the frescoes were restored and only one was lost. Mollard was listed as a historic monument in 1989.

At your table that means a painted glass ceiling of flowers lit in soft violet, marble columns in beige and rust, mosaic flowers set with fat glass cabochons, and a full height ceramic panel of a woman in white walking through sunflowers at Ville d'Avray. No music, and none needed. The branding is relentless and, for once, correct: an M on the napkins, in the tablecloth, in gold on every plate, a mosaic star on the menu cover.

• The carpet needs a deep clean. Not replacing, cleaning. First thing I noticed, last thing I thought about on the way out.
• The flowers are plastic. In a room with hand painted glass and Italian mosaic, a fake hydrangea is a decision, and it is the wrong one.
• The menus. Heavy card cover, mosaic star, properly designed. Open it and you get photocopied sheets of A4. Prices move, I understand that. Reprint the inserts.

The waiters' station looks untouched since the 1880s and I would hate them to replace it. That is patina. A dirty carpet and a fake flower are not patina, they are a cleaning rota and a budget line.

Then there is this. The Mollard website still lists the three course menu at 41.90 euro and the lobster menu at 92.25 euro. My printed menu and my receipt both say 44.15 and 97.15. If a restaurant cannot keep its own prices current, that tells you everything you need to know about the attention to detail everywhere else.

We both took the Menu Carte at 44.15 euro: starter, main, dessert, drinks extra, with 4 euro supplements on the better dishes. Taxes and 15 per cent service are included, so the menu price is the price.

First came two warm gougères, choux buns baked with cheese, plus bread rolls and Échiré butter in a sealed foil pot that defeated both of us. We stabbed it and squeezed the butter out, which is not the look you want in a listed monument. I then dropped my gougère, which went airborne, did a full Julia Roberts and landed under the next table. The spare was dry. The bread was excellent.

I had the foie gras de canard maison with four pieces of toast, a 4 euro supplement and worth it. It came as a slab rather than a slice and I looked at it thinking there was no chance. I got through it. My friend had the Salade Saint-Lazare, grilled bacon, avocado, artichoke and dried tomatoes, which arrived the size of a main course.

I had the cuisse de canard confite, because when in France. Fantastic, and that is from someone already beaten by the foie gras. My friend had the pavé de saumon frais grillé, which I did not taste, so I am not scoring it. We added a portion of chips at 8.05 euro and did not need them. Skip the chips. I was tempted by the soupe à l'oignon gratinée, but we had eaten French onion soup the night before.

Mollard is a seafood house and I ordered off the set menu like a sensible person. As the room filled, the fruits de mer platters started going past and they are a real spectacle. The printed menu lists the Plateau du Pêcheur at 48.45 euro, the Plateau du Mareyeur at 103.30 euro, the Plateau de Fruits de Mer at 110.20 euro and the Royal Mollard at 154.20 euro for two. Next time, one of those.

Dessert comes with the menu, 4 euro extra for the flambéed crêpes. The menu names them Crêpes Flambées au Grand Marnier and the waiter said yes immediately. Two things. The pancakes were already made and waiting on the side, which I can forgive at this volume. And whatever went into that pan, it was not Grand Marnier. If you print a brand on your menu, pour that brand.

The flambé itself is proper theatre. He did not bring the trolley over, which is how the restaurant describes its tableside preparations and how I would have preferred it. Instead he caught my eye across the room, mimed the whole thing and asked if I wanted to watch. Best 4 euro on the menu.

One bottle of Blanc-Fumé de Pouilly 2024 from Famille Pénard, on the list as Pouilly Fumé A.C. Blanc Fumé, Pénard et Fils, at 76.45 euro. Lovely, and also 41 per cent of the bill. There are glasses from 8.05 euro for 18cl and pichets from 12.10 euro for 25cl. Next time I drink a pichet and put the difference into a seafood platter.

Our waiter was Sergio. Perfectly fine, and completely flat for the first half of the meal. He only warmed up once the room filled, which tells me the energy in that building comes from the guests rather than the staff. For a brasserie charging 15 per cent service as standard, that is the wrong way round. Nobody was rude and nothing was slow. They just need more enthusiasm, about all of it.

Credit where due: front of house handed us the mosaic room the second we asked. The toilets are clean, with a big mirror and the same branding as everything else, which is not a given in France.

Yes, with conditions. Three courses at 44.15 euro, house foie gras for 4 euro more, inside a listed 1895 interior in the 8th, is a good deal, and service and taxes are in. Our bill came to 184.80 euro for two:

• Two Menu Carte at 44.15 euro: 88.30 euro
• Foie gras supplement: 4.00 euro
• Two crêpes flambées supplements: 8.00 euro
• Bottle of Pouilly Fumé: 76.45 euro
• Portion of chips: 8.05 euro
• Total: 184.80 euro, taxes and 15 per cent service included

Drink modestly and two people eat three courses each for a little over 100 euro. Order a platter and a bottle and you are nearer 250.

We ate at Café de la Paix the night before, and both trade on being a famous Paris room. Mollard has the better interior by a distance. Café de la Paix had the better waiter: Denis was a performance in his own right and Sergio had nothing on him. So if you want one grand Paris dinner where you are properly looked after, go there. If you want the architecture and a set menu that does not punish you, Mollard takes it.

At 6.30pm the room felt like a museum after closing. By the time we left it had filled, the noise had come up and the staff had visibly switched on. Same room, different restaurant. Book from 8pm for the buzz, or 6.30pm if you want the mosaics to yourself for photographs. Mollard serves midday to midnight with no break, every day of the year.

• Ask for the room with the original mosaics when you book and again when you arrive. They say yes.
• Order seafood. The platters going past your table will make you regret a set menu.
• On the set menu, the two supplements worth paying are the foie gras and the crêpes.
• Drink a pichet rather than a bottle unless the wine is the point.
• There is a virtual tour on mollard.fr if you want to pick your room before you call. Ignore the prices there, they are out of date.
• Cheques and 500 euro notes are not accepted. The restaurant points you to four nearby car parks.

Worth it, for the right person. If you care about buildings, Brasserie Mollard is one of the most beautiful rooms you can eat in anywhere in Paris, and the cooking holds its end up: the foie gras and the duck were both excellent and the set menu is serious value for the 8th.

What stops it being a great night is everything around the food. The carpet, the plastic flowers, the photocopied menus, a house pouring something that is not the brand printed on its own dessert, and a service team that needs an injection of enthusiasm. None of those are expensive problems. All of them are choices.

Go if you love Art Nouveau or want good value French food near Gare Saint-Lazare. Skip it if a special dinner means being made to feel looked after. Would I go back? Yes. 8pm, mosaic room, Plateau du Pêcheur, a pichet instead of a bottle, no chips.

Find it: Brasserie Mollard, 115 rue Saint-Lazare, 75008 Paris. Book: mollard.fr

Brasserie Mollard is worth visiting for its 1895 Art Nouveau interior, listed as a historic monument in 1989, and for sound French cooking at fair prices. The foie gras and duck confit were both excellent. Tired carpets, plastic flowers and flat service keep it from being a great night.

Dinner for two at Brasserie Mollard cost us 184.80 euro in October 2026, including a 76.45 euro bottle of Pouilly Fumé. The three course Menu Carte was 44.15 euro each, with 4 euro supplements on some dishes. Taxes and 15 per cent service are already included in menu prices.

Brasserie Mollard took our walk in booking on the day for 6.30pm the same evening, so a midweek table at short notice is realistic. Book ahead for weekends, for later sittings when the room fills up, and request the salon with the original mosaics, which is the one you want.

Order seafood at Brasserie Mollard, because it is a fruits de mer house, with platters from 48.45 euro up to 154.20 euro for two. If you take the 44.15 euro set menu instead, the house foie gras is worth its 4 euro supplement, and so are the crêpes flambéed in front of you.

Brasserie Mollard is at 115 rue Saint-Lazare in the 8th arrondissement, opposite Gare Saint-Lazare and across the road from the Hilton Paris Opera. It opens every day of the year from midday to midnight with no afternoon break, and the restaurant suggests four nearby car parks for drivers.

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