Air France is shortly opening a pop-up restaurant, coinciding with the Paris Olympics. As an aviation geek, I love this concept, and am (almost) sad I’m not in Paris for the Olympics.
I first wrote about this several weeks ago, but wanted to provide an update, as Air France has provided more details, including real pictures of what this facility looks like.
In this post:
Air France’s restaurant at Palais de Tokyo in Paris
The Paris Olympics is taking place in late July and early August 2024. Air France is one of the sponsors, as of course this is a huge event for the airline (it’s not great for profitability, though). To celebrate the occasion, Air France has a special pop-up at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, from July 27 until August 11, 2024.
This include a freely accessible area spanning over 850 square meters (~9,150 square feet), showcasing all kinds of things having to do with Air France. Between 11:30AM and 6PM daily, visitors are able to try out Air France’s newest business class seat, there’s a virtual reality Airbus A350 cockpit visit opportunity, and much more.
However, here’s the coolest part — Air France is opening an 80-seat pop-up restaurant, offering a dining experience just like onboard. Now, of course the concept of voluntarily eating airplane food on the ground probably sounds bizarre to most people, but I’m sure I’m not the only aviation geek who would sign up for this in a heartbeat. Besides, Air France has among the better catering out there.
The restaurant is serving food from Air France’s long haul business class cabin. Each meal consists of an appetizer, starter, main dish, a cheese selection, and dessert, as well as a selection of wines, champagne, and other alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.
The presentation is even similar to how you’d be served on a plane, with the use of a meal tray. The dishes are created by French chef Arnaud Lallement, while the desserts are created by pastry chef Nina Métayer.
This experience costs €85 per person
While visiting the exhibition is complimentary, a meal in the Air France restaurant costs €85 per person. This is available from July 27 through August 11, 2024, with reservations available daily between 11:30AM and 3PM.
The price includes all the food, plus alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. You can make your reservation at this link.
This is the coolest opportunity we’ve seen to enjoy airplane meals on the ground in quite some time. The only cooler thing I can think of is back in 2020, during the early stages of the pandemic, when Singapore Airlines transformed an A380 into a restaurant (temporarily).
Bottom line
Air France is opening a pop-up restaurant at Palais de Tokyo during the Paris Olympics. For €85 per person, you can enjoy a multi-course meal plus drinks, just like you’d get onboard. While paying to enjoy airplane food on the ground will probably make most people chuckle (especially in a foodie city like Paris), I dig this idea.
Are any OMAAT readers attending the Paris Olympics and planning on checking this out?
Had this exact "Starter," main dish served separately, from CDG - IAD. The cream of pea soup (is what they called the green thing) and shredded lobster was to die for!
I just hope they do not serve cold hard bread of some kind, like they do on their inflight meals.
I wonder why American Airlines doesn’t do the same… LOL
Over the past 2 years, I've switched my 3-4 yearly transatlantic trips to Air France because the food and wine are generally very good to excellent. Delta just can't compete. Assuming it includes a bottle of wine or at least a glass of wine with every course, 85 euros is actually a very good value. Paris is not an inexpensive city for food. Especially white tablecloth restaurants. Sure, you can find an outside table at...
Over the past 2 years, I've switched my 3-4 yearly transatlantic trips to Air France because the food and wine are generally very good to excellent. Delta just can't compete. Assuming it includes a bottle of wine or at least a glass of wine with every course, 85 euros is actually a very good value. Paris is not an inexpensive city for food. Especially white tablecloth restaurants. Sure, you can find an outside table at a cafe and have a meal without wine for probably 20-25 euros, but it's not going to be a formal restaurant.
I can appreciate the novelty factor, but ultimately, €170 in a good Parisian bistro will buy you a much better meal for two with a bottle of very good wine.
Yea seriously. This is highway robbery. AF food is pretty solid, especially for on planes, but it's definitely not better than any solid bistro in the city which will cost you far less than this (I should know, I live in Paris). I'm also not sure how much demand there is among the general public to eat airplane food on the ground, even if it is business class food, especially for those prices.
Airplane food is delicious. I never understood the bad rap. Has everybody forgotten that the vast majority of restaurants, even in foodie cities like LA and NYC, utterly suck? The foodie reputations are buoyed by a handful of very good restaurants. The rest are staffed by cocaine addicted chefs smothering your food in salt and butter.
Ok, well you notably mentioned LA and NYC but not Paris. And as a Parisian I can assure you that for $85 a person you can get a much better meal than this. You can even dine at a lot of 1 star Michelin places at lunch for that price.