Budha Bar in Paris - Is it worth a visit?
 

Our friends would like to go to Budha Bar in Paris. I hear drinks are outrageously expensive. Would you recommend a visit?

From Chatelet Station (Novotel Les Halles Hotel) how do you get there?

Thanks

Hi E,

How old are you?

((I))

I think old enough to go to a bar. I haven't been there so have no idea if it's worth it. I don't think the drinks are outrageously expensive, but guess it depends on the reference -- I mean in comparison to some other very expensive, trendy bars or hotels or restaurants (I think they are around 14-20 euro each).

But to get there, it is just off the place de la Concorde behind Hotel Crillon more or less. It's right near the Concorde metro stop, so you can take the metro from Chatelet to Concorde on line 1, it's only a couple stops. You could also just take the no. 72 bus which runs right along rue de Rivoli between those points.

Drink prices were not listed but their menu was... mmmm... not too expensive at all. I find that cocktails are pretty much always "relatively" expensive in Paris.
The commentary on bestrestaurantsparis mentions to come late and see the stars and glitterati "a' table".
Go, what harm can it do??

The place is lovely, the food not great.
Four drinks were 80€. I find it expensive. Had I not been a guest, I could not afford it. To get your coat back will cost you 3€.

Thank you All!

Oh yes! I am drinking age, actually procted age.

Close to Bofinger's is a bar called "The Martini Bar". When I was there with a girlfriend, she literally yanked me in so she could get one like she gets in America. Shaken until its almost like a vodka sno-cone! With a lot of laughter, she taught the lovely young Scandanavian bartender how to make her her American style Vodka martini... Nevertheless, the price was 15E's...I had my wine, about 3E's.

Hi E,

>Oh yes! I am drinking age, ...<

That's not the point. :)

Are you under 40? Over 55? It will make a difference.

((I))

Here are some reviews for you. We saw alot of folks in the fifty age range. Like most new bars after they reach their peak, the trendy crowd moves on.
http://www.worldsbestbars.com/city/p...-bar-paris.htm

Well, I certainly think it's worth a visit, I've recommended it enough to people on this board, and those who have gone have reported to really enjoy it!

I go whenever I'm in Paris, so the last time I was there was in September. The drinks are not "outrageously expensive" What is outrageously expensive? 9.00-10.00US for a specialty drink? I don't think so! I had sushi, very good, and a couple of drinks, I don't believe it ran me over 25.00. As always, the ambience of the most serene golden buddha presiding over the scene, the beautiful people who come to see and be seen (but more tourists I've noticed now, as well), the great music-late at night in Paris, this is the only place to go, for my money. This is a very cool spot. You can buy their CDs there, also T-shirts, and other Buddha bar things. The staff though, are unbelieveably friendly for a place like this. Check out their website here, and click "buddha bar" on the left:

www.buddha-bar.com/

Highly recommended.

Another nice thing about Buddha Bar-no cover charge to get in.

i think it's fair to say that if a club is the talk of fodor's, it's not cool. when you start to get whole fodor's threads about your club, it's time to close the doors and think of a new concept. i say the same thing for bed supper in bangkok...lots of fodor's threads and long past its sell-by date.

walkinaround, you really know how to hurt a forum, but I suspect you're dead on--or perhaps we nearly are. OTOH, cool like beauty is in the eye of the preener.

Well, if those two places, both of which I know quite well, were, in fact "past their sell-by date" then they'd close. That's the way it is with clubs. They become hot, a passing fancy, have their time in the sun, and then, poof! no more.

Both Buddha Bar and Bed SupperClub in Bangkok have shown that they have withstood the test of time, where many many others in those cities have not.

But unless you've actually been to both, and more than once, you're not really in any position to judge, one way or the other.

As for Bed, totally different concept than Buddha Bar-for one thing, Bed doesn't sell CDs that are world best-sellers year after year like Buddha Bar(and very expensive CDs to boot).

>Both Buddha Bar and Bed SupperClub in Bangkok have shown that they have withstood the test of time,...<

I guess that in today's climate, 11 years for one and 9 for the other could be construed, by some, to "have withstood the test of time". :)

((I))

Ira

Just turned 55!

Clearly, when you are talking about a club, let alone a restaurant, that is an exceptionally long time.

HI EP.

>Just turned 55!

Are you sure that you want to visit a "trendy" nightspot?

You can be trendy at any age.

As hard as it is to admit, I agree with "walkinaround." Even though I like to pretend to know what's happening around town....let's face it: when you're 40+, working, with a family...it's just not that easy to know the really happening places. Sure, you can READ about them...but the really happening places don't necessarily make the news. Sigh. Such is life!

In September, I went to LA and was dragged to the Sky Bar. I thought, "Surely, if I, a gal from the midwest, has heard about the Sky Bar, it can't be that cool/hip anymore." That being said, I did enjoy it. It surely isn't LA's "it" bar anymore, but it was still fun to go...if only to enjoy the after-glow of the "it scene." (Plus, if you get there early enough you can score an incredible "bed" overlooking LA and watch the parade of people fill up the place.)

So....go to the Buddha Bar. Enjoy it. Pretend it just opened & have an outrageous cocktail for all of us aging wanna-be hipsters.

Ira, come to LA, you will see many hip fifty-ish year olds.

Some born in the 1950's: Iman Christie Brinkley, Sting

Fifty is the new 30!

please lighten up spy...i was only saying that when a club becomes the talk of a website whose average age is probably 50 and whose idea of hip is removing the 'fanny pack', it's not so cool. even being the talk of thorn tree would make many hip club owners cringe...but fodor's!?!?!? insert requisite smiley here :-)

and yes, i have been to both bed supper and buddha...not such a big deal as these are both huge tourist attractions in their respective cities....visited by probably millions.

i was only trying to poke a little fun at ourselves. insert another requisite smiley here :-)

and i totally agree with NThea...if it makes you feel good to go there, then it is a good thing. most of the hottest clubs are well off limits to mere mortals (and certainly to almost all accountants and lawyers in their 40s and 50's) so why not go to the more accessible ones like buddha and bsc and have a good time....and with places like buddha and bsc, it's easy to pretend you are in a hip club...as long as you don't look to closely at the other customers....running into martha from minnesota might ruin it for you. final requisite smiley :-)

Let me try to understand this.
I believe (probably will be wrong but I KNOW someone will correct me...)
Was it Mark Twain or Will Rogers who said, "I don't want to belong to a club who would like someone like me in."

Is this the same theory?

sheesh..that would be "I don't want to belong to a club that would LET someone like me in."

>Fifty is the new 30!

As long as you take your Vitamin B12, Lipitor, Lotrel, Flomax or Hormone Therapy. :)

((I))

You forgot ginseng!

If anyone wants to have the Buddha Bar experience and they're in the area of Evian, they just opened one in the new Hilton Spa hotel there.

Gee Ira... I'm well over fifty
(okay, I'm sixty) and I don't take any of that stuff ! Are you feeling a bit out of sorts today ?

oh... what are lotrel and flomax ?

Patricia

I don't know what they are either but they sound a little scarey, flomax? eek.

Ira,

You got yourself into this one, Buddy. Now you have to explain to our female friends what Flomax is all about for all of us over the hill males.

:-)

Never understood the appeal of trendy clubs anyway. Give me a local dive with no TV and the jukebox set low so you can carry on a conversation and I'm happy. If the beer is good.

>Now you have to explain to our female friends what Flomax is...

All necessary info can be found by googling. :)

((I))

SeaUrchin wrote:
"you will see many hip fifty-ish year olds. Some born in the 1950's: Iman Christie Brinkley, Sting

Fifty is the new 30!"

Reminds me of an old New Yorker cartoon -- from about twenty years ago. It shows a middle-aged man plodding down the street wearing an overcoat and holding a briefcase, a glum expression on his face.

The caption reads: "Man born the same year as Mick Jagger."

And my response, walk, is, if you actually HAVE been to these places, once, and you find them so tired and boring, and it just doesn't make you feel good to go there, well, then don't go-those of us who DO like these places, (particularly the performance art at Bed) will continue to hang out here, thus continuing the tradition, and contributing to their longevity (insert smiley here).