Le Thiou restaurant - Paris, France

When Madame Thiou - Paris’ undisputed queen of contemporary Thai gastronomy - decided to relocate her eponymous restaurant from the Quai d’Orsay to a quieter, more residential address in the same area, her request to designer Laura Gonzalez was to create an intimate dining room.

Gonzalez, brief in hand, set the stage by lining the walls with pale raw oak and furnishing the room with understated velvet chairs, cocooning terracotta leather banquettes and elegant tabletop lamps, while a linear fresco by local company Atelier Roma, injects a modern edge to the otherwise classic room. By night, the interior is suffused with a warm golden glow from Gonzalez’s frosted glass and brass lamps, which echoes the golden dome of the nearby Les Invalides.

Of course,the food continues to appease, with Thiou’s signature dishes, from her gourmet Pad Thai to the Tigre qui Pleure (chargrilled strips of beef marinated in hot spices), taking centre stage.