Matt Carter’s first restaurant has been doing Paris at Kierland Commons since 2002 and has barely touched the menu, which is the point. A real zinc-topped bar, brasserie classics and a twinkle-lit garden patio most shoppers walk right past — it’s the Valley’s benchmark French bistro and the room that launched The Mission and Fat Ox.
Moules frites is the order. The onion soup and oysters are the supporting cast, and steak frites covers anyone who refuses shellfish.
When to go: off-hours at the bar for oysters, or dinner on the back patio when the weather turns. Book prime dinner hours in season.