PARIS TRAIN STATION RESTAURANT

L'Etoile du Nord continues a push by the French rail company S.N.C.F. to raise the bar on station food...........

For the 700,000 or so people who surge daily through the Gare du Nord in Paris, one of Europe's busiest train stations has offered little respite from noise and crowds -let alone a decent meal.

But the Parisian chef Thierry Marx aims to change that with L'Etoile du Nord, a brasserie with an upstairs wine bar that opened in November in a-

Two-story pavilion of concrete, polished metal and glass inside the station's bustling hall.

''I wanted to create a brasserie inspired by the  old buffets de gare,'' Mr. Marx said. ''where you could eat a good meal made with quality ingredient-

In the days before everything at a station became a prepackaged industrial food.''

Using some of the same suppliers he uses for his Michelin-starred restaurant, Sur Messure, he devised a contemporary-

French menu with a few dishes, like  fish and chips and a Liege-style waffle, that nod to London, Amsterdam and the other destinations served by the station.

During a recent weekday lunch, a lively crowd of business people in suits and travelers with rolling suitcases filled the-

120-seat  dinning room, where red Scandinavian modern style chairs and touches of knotty pine paneling warm a space that otherwise feels spare.

Floor to ceiling glass walls afford views of passengers hurrying to and from platforms.