La Grande Cascade Restaurant, Paris

On a warm summer night in Paris, one of the best things you can do is head for the woods, or the Bois de Boulogne, the huge, beautiful park on the western edge of the city. Here lies the delightful La Grande Cascade restaurant, a well-mannered one-star that occupies a handsome glass-and-steel Belle Époque pavilion that was originally built for the 1900 Paris World Exposition.

The service takes place on a vast outdoor terrace overlooking the surrounding forest, and chef Frédéric Robert is a gifted Gallic culinary classicist whose delicious and inventive dishes will quickly awaken any appetite made lazy by the heat. Though the a la carte menu is expensive, they also offer an 85 euro prix-fixe menu du marche, which includes three courses plus a glass of wine with your starter and main course, as well as mineral water and coffee.

Dining here recently, we loved our starters of duck foie served with a balsamic vinegar spiked peach compote, and crab ravioli with crunchy vegetables in a Thai-inspired, coriander-brightened emulsion. Main courses were delicious too, including a paella-style dish of yellow pollack, squid and langoustine and Spanish pork tenderloin with eggplant, marinated girolles mushrooms and a very elegant barbecue sauce. We finished with a superb vanilla mille-feuille with salted butter caramel, and enjoyed the cool night air and the stylish crowd over coffee before returning to central Paris, a twenty-minute cab ride away.

La Grande Cascade, Bois de Boulogne, Allée de Longchamp, 16th arrondissement, Tel. (33) 01-45-27-33-51.