Paris Prestige
20630 Ashburn Rd
Ashburn, VA 20147
(703) 723-1267

Location: In Old Ashburn, where Jerry’s Sub Shop (and then Spice Town) used to be located. In the 7-11 strip mall, just before the firehouse and Partlows.

By the enthusiastic recommendation of an Ashburn Reviews visitor (thank you Ann!), I learned about this new French restaurant.

I am glad to say though, that my husband and I tried eating at Paris Prestige last week. I am torn on the rating of my review because while I loved some parts of our dinning experience, others I did not love.

Lets start with the good – the great really. The food was amazing. Easily PP gets my rating of 4 stars for their food – which I should note was a very pleasant surprise because I truly love to highlight new and good restaurants on this site.

My husband and I split a salad. The salad was fresh and served with a sweet vinaigrette dressing. Four complimentary garlic bread toasts were served with the salad. Our waiter told us that the bread was baked in the restaurant.

For entrees, upon the recommendation of the waiter, my husband tried the fillet, and I ordered the salmon.

The salmon was easily the best fish that I have had in the last 9 months or so. It was cooked perfect and had a great crispy skin on it. Alone the salmon would have been great, but to make it better, it was served sitting in a creamy sauce that had a lot of good flavor.

My husband enjoyed his fillet. He nearly licked his plate clean. I tried a bite and also really enjoyed it. The fillet was tender and juicy. My husband was able to cut it with a butter knife.

The two desserts we ordered to share were pass-out good. I would be tempted to return to Paris Prestige and order a whole table full of their desserts. I would like to try them all.

The first dessert a the semi-frozen chocolate moose bar sitting in a white cream sauce. It had an intense dark chocolate flavor. We loved it.

The other dessert was their special for the day – it was a small round cake with whipped cream and decorated fruit (strawberries, kiwi and a peach slice). Biting into that cake was just heavenly. It made me realize what all of those other places that try and serve little round fruit cakes (and charge a fortune for them) are trying to make. Just, yum. This cake was delicate and sweet. Charming is probably the best word for it.

Our waiter told us that PP makes all their desserts from scratch in the restaurant. I believe it. I hope that they can keep up that type of quality.

The coffee was french roast made with a french press. the coffee didn’t have a lot of body to it – but I enjoyed it a lot. It was just my kind of coffee, warm and tasty. I think it could have been a hair stronger for my husband.

Our waiter was excellent. We was friendly and warm and welcoming. There is truly a great difference between a good professional experienced wait staff and a young teenage wait staff.

Like I said above, the food rating of Paris Prestige is a 4, but it is the atmosphere of the place that knocked this rating down to a 3 for me.

To begin with the restaurant is located on the end of a mostly empty strip mall – the last shop on the right. And the way to identify Paris Prestige from the parking lot is by spotting a home made sign which features red letters hand cut and glued to a florescent green sign. Although I was able to see the sign clearly, it had a bit of an amateurish vibe to me. It looked like a sign that some one would make for a junior high school science fair. I’m hoping that sign is there only until the really nice on they ordered comes in. Maybe a nice window decal would be a good replacement?

I could ignore the location and the florescent sign – if inside the restaurant looked charming and sweet. But inside sadly – it’s history is not hidden. Except for some pretty yellow pendent lights, Paris Prestige look like a Jerry’s.

The most notable Jerry’s feature is a purple neon bar of light that circles the restaurant ceiling. The neon is probably the worst feature of the look of the restaurant. It just gives me the shivers when I think about such lovely food being served under a harsh purple light.

Also, less offending but still odd is that one dinning room wall and the hallway walls are covered with mirrors fake plastic stone. Again these are left over Jerry’s features.

The wall in front of the kitchen is one ginormous stainless steal monster of a wall.

The other two wall are covered with windows. The windows in my opinion should have curtains on them but instead are covered with cheap horizontal blinds.

The carpet is old, dark and industrial.

And on the tables – and this is a shame because they could have done this part right pretty easily – when they could have used lovely table cloths and cloth napkins, instead they use tan shelf-liner place mats and paper napkins.

I don’t want to nit pick about it. I don’t want to be the sort of person that needs my restaurant of choice to look perfect. But it is just for a meal that cost us over $65, I want my restaurant to look more upscale then Paris Prestige did. They have such great food and it isn’t being highlighted by the decor.

Here is what I think they need to do. Get rid of the neon first and foremost. If they need to add more lights in place of the neon, do so. Remove the mirrors and “stone”. And then paint the walls a nice red or golden or mushroom and put up a few French photos or posters and maybe some wall sconces. Replace the blinds on the window with curtains. They could either be cafe curtains (covering just the bottom half of the window) or big drape-like curtains. Swap out the paper napkins and shelf liner place mates for cloth napkins. Use either cloth place mats or a cloth table cloth. Swap out the carpet with a flooring that looks more welcoming. But without question – start with getting rid of the neon.

It is my great hope that Paris Prestige will work out their decor issues, and keep the quality of their food and wait staff high. This is just the kind of restaurant we need here. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for them.