Bistro Papillon

Delightful friendly bistro with fabulous fresh food. Regret I could not grab image quick enough to take a picture of guy with the baguettes and leeks walking in but this is not a tourist place where you have your photo capturing device handy.

I have to admit, before i went to this restaurant, i hadnt been to a lot of french inspired restaurants. Now, thats all i go to — french european– inspired restaurants! :-)
The reason why i went here, was to take my french friend to this restaurant who has been in Sydney for a few months, and was missing french food so badly! After we went here, he was very happy, so definitely two thumbs up for that!
So…Bistro Papillon is a small tiny restaurant in the CBD of Sydney, and i swear, as soon as you walk in, you just feel like you’re already in France :-) The music, the ambiance, the pictures on the walls, the friendly french waiters… you just feel immediately relaxed! :-)
Off to the food menu i go!!! The food was great. Very different… for starters we had the pâté de foie de vollaile … it was chicken liver parfait, pickled cucumber, capsicum, orange relish and baguette bread. That was oooooooooookkkkkaaayyyyy… it wasn’t the best entrée i’ve ever had but it was great start to the night… especially with a nice bottle of red wine! I love entrees that you can pick at and share and nibble on right before the mains. It was the perfect size for two people, especially when you’re just talking and drinking wine…
Even though the entrée wasn’t the greatest, from this point forward i have to admit, things got better :-) so my friend recommended this dessert/shot…yes! right before mains! i was like ummm… yeah idk how i feel about this but it was definitely interesting! so right after entrees we had a tru normand. It was a lemon lime sorbet served in a shot of vodka :-) it was soooo nice! apparently its called a ‘palette cleanser’…it was delicious! i’m sure i was up for 5 shots of those babies at the time… but clam down… the mains hadn’t arrived yet!
Now, the mains was amazing!!! i thought i would have a light entrée so i can have a big main so that i don’t get full… but uggghhhh!!! i couldn’t finish it! it was so huge for a tiny little asian like myself! I had the coq au vin. The coq au vin is a french classic! Its a Corn-​fed Chicken Casserole cooked in Red Wine with Smoked Bacon, Carrots, Mushrooms and Thyme… it was amazing! the sauce was amazing! the entire dish was soaking in this amazing red wine sauce! Now everytime i have chicken, i always critque it because chicken, when cooked, can easily be overcooked and turn out dry! but it was sooooo tender! i think the fact that it was swimming in that sauce, made it better for me to enjoy it.
The entrée put my rating down to an a-​ok, but i would definitely come back because the tru norman and the mains were delicious! And i must say, everytime i go to a french restaurant/​café, the french waiters are always nice. They give great service and are always friendly and approachable! i would definitely come back!

Oui monsieur, we ‘ve ze tabel.
I have been here a couple of times now and it is hard to fault. Small but efficient describes most aspects.
Menu — small but efficient;
wine list — ditto;
restaurant — ditto;
staff — ditto — or at least our waitress was :-)
We managed to sneak in recently for a dinner and thoroughly enjoyed it — for me beef tartare for entrée and duck confit for main, crème brûlée to finish — could you get more French without escargot? They are on the menu but I am not a fan, TBH.
All of my food was lovely — the steak tartare was tasty, with some crusty baguette slices, duck was crunchy and moist, although I could leave the lentils it was served with, and the crème brûlée had a magnificent crunchy top and a smooth creamy interior. Accompanied by a fine and reasonably priced burgundy, magnifique!

Very good experience with delicious food and romantic environment. I’ll recommend to my friends!

We ventured here last night for our first taste of French dining in Australia and found it enjoyably adequate. It’s quite tiny and intimate (which is nice), quiet music, dimly lit and good ambience. There’s a strict 2hr eating time, I believe they have dinner sessions at 6pm & 8pm. Cause when we neared 8pm we were reminded to leave because the table was booked for 8pm. We booked for 6pm, so yes reservations are needed!
We started with baguettes & oil, goats cheese/​pear/​walnuts/​croutons salad and flammkucken (which tasted more like crust pizza than traditional flammkuchen) for entrees. The flammkucken was actually part of a special menu which you could order the token snails dish. If you wanted. Which we didn’t. And never will.
The salad was the better of the three, it was for once not drowned in any sort of creamy dressing. And the cheese was delectable.
For mains my partner ordered the special of night, some kind of tender chicken strips with mushrooms and spaetzle, German inspired on account that the chef was from Strasbourg.
I had pan fried beef with bearnise sauce. It was medium rare but slightly too rare for me but my partner finished it so it was still edible. Some mains had included choice of sides, which I choose the mixed buttered vegetables because sometimes you get that veggies craving, yano? They tasted awesome.
The dessert was the main part that stood out for me, which is rare. We ordered French style bread and butter pudding with maple walnut icecream.
They did have a good selection of European wines menu which we didn’t sample. They were in a rush to take away our drinks (whether or not finished) but customer service was still polite, decent and attentive.
Honestly I found the interior whilst appropriate, they were slight weird touches like a big display of a book called «Butterflies of Australia» and the light lampshades on the wall were cravings of a woman making love to a snail (refer pics).
All in all it was a good introduction to Sydney French dining, but I doubt we’d return here anytime soon.
Oh yeah and this place is not cheap but then we knew that before we arrived.
To clarify I would give this restaurant a solid 3.5 star rating.

Yes to: Escargot, Onion soup, Smoked Pork Sausage, Quail medallions in mushroom sauce, Spaetzle, Crème brûlée.
No to: Pork tenderloin, Beef Fillet, Ratatouille.
Still haven’t found a good enough French Bistro after Tabou in Surry Hills closed down.

small setting — probably seats ~30ppl. very nice atmosphere, friendly service. the food is great. we had the snails, the assorted entrée, duck salad and braised quail. the snails in garlic was done just right and the aroma was fabulous. the assorted entrée had a bit of everything. i really like the duck salad — the flavors really come together. the braised quail was tender and the pancetta was soft. will return.

Bœuf Tatare. That’s why.
A small and very busy Bistro in the middle of the city, Papillon is an exemplary model of how to give good service, good food and good wine.
Staff are attentive and polite, and can suggest good additions to your meal such as a palate cleaner of lemon and lime sorbet with vodka.
Wines and Cheeses imported from all over France, with an excellent description of the qualities of each.
Start with an Apéritif. I had a dry Vermouth Martini. Pick from the extensive wine list for something to go with your meal. Bordeaux perhaps?
We had the Charcuterie entrée for two which included country style Terrine, saucisson, and pork liver pâté. It came with fresh crispy baguette. (Of course)
Confit of duck legs. heck yes.
Beef Tatare is the house specialty. I hear it was excellent also. We ordered Duck fat potatoes and a side of buttered green veg. Supreme deluxe-​o.
They have snails in Burgundy, but I couldn’t bring myself to that adventure playground. After that scene from a Harry potter movie where slugs come out of someone’s mouth. No.
Dessert. They remembered that it was my man’s birthday (I told them when I booked) and even lit a candle on his meringue. I was stoked that they remembered. it’s the little things that make an experience great. And that crème Brulee. … Lord Jesus, take the wheel!
Good for a special occasion like a Birthday. Intimate environment, but can be very very noisy due the acoustics of the building.
Excellent service, excellent food.
Bring your Platinum.

First time visit for us, friendly staff, grea tbristro ambiance, stayed with the classics. Cunard Rillettes, coq au vin, lappin gnocci, crème brûlée, choc ganache, good french winelist

this is like little Paris right in the centre of Sydney., Food is amazing and the wine selection is suburb.

Fantastic French food. I have been here for dinner three times now. My recommendations are:
Entrees — the les tartine with baked brie, walnuts and honey; the les tartine with ratatouille and chevre cheese; and the tarte flambee (which looks and tastes kind of like a mini French-​onion-​dip-​flavoured pizza).
Mains — the linguine with prawns; the steak; and the confit of duck. The coq au vin is also very good.
Sides — the ratatouille and the potato gratin. I wouldn’t recommend the spaetzle as it’s quite stodgy and bland.
Dessert — the caramelised apple tart with walnut ice cream. The crème brûlée is OK but nothing out of the ordinary.
Service is excellent and the prices are reasonable. Ambience is also good: cozy décor with low lighting. This would be a nice place for a first date.

My favourite experiences in Paris involved having comfort food at the many bistros around the city which included onion soup, foie gras, beef fillets in red wine, coq au vin, and luscious classic desserts. You will find most of these favourites at Bistro Papillon and the place even looks like a typical French bistro. Staff are friendly and loved having a bit of a chat with us.
I ordered the coq au vin and crème brûlée for dessert and they were both delicious. There is a good French wine list with their recommendation on a fruity red being very good.
So if you want to be transported to Paris one evening, check this place out. Bön appetit!