With the arrival of the first frosts of autumn, here’s our selection of tables in the capital that’ll warm up your heart.
1. La Poule au Pot
Jean-François Piège has taken over the legendary restaurant in Les Halles with his wife Élodie. An institution founded in 1935 and still in its original state, with its wallpaper of vine leaves and bunches of grapes, its hunting fresco, its little multicolored tiles… The maestro of the kitchen celebrates bourgeois cuisine — with a self-serve dishes brought to the table instead of plated dishes — in the purest tradition: gratinée à l’oignon des Halles; galantine de canard with gelée corsée; frog legs in parsley; pike quenelle bathed in Nantua crayfish sauce; parmentier minced meat and beef cheek; poularde de la cour d’Armoise au pot; poire belle Hélène…
9, rue Vauvilliers, 75001 Paris. +33 01.42.36.32.96.
Prix fixe: 48€.
À la carte: from 40€ to 114€.
2. L’Assiette
This establishment has retained the original decor of the place that was once Lucienne Rousseau’s, with its red vermilion facade and its sublime ceiling decorated in the Italian style. David Rathgeber, who worked with Alain Ducasse for twelve years — at Louis XV in Monaco, and Plaza Athénée, Les Lyonnais, and Chez Benoît in Paris — transforms himself into a welcoming innkeeper at L’Assiette. The boy from Clermont-Ferrand reinterprets with brio the great French classics: game pie; escargots en pot with golden croutons; noix de saint-jacques à la grenobloise; pike-perch quenelle with nantua sauce; house-made cassoulet; canard sauvage rôti sur coffre with a strong dolce sauce; hare à la royale; tarte au chocolat and sorbet mandarine.
181, rue du Château, 75014 Paris. +33 01.43.22.64.86.
Prix fixe: from 23€ to 35€ (lunch).
À la carte: from 36€ to 77€.
3. Les Arlots
Thomas Brachet headed east one stop from the Gare du Nord into the 10th arrondissement to make his neo-bistro flourish. Working with an amazing curator of wines, sommelier Tristan Renoux, this mustachioed culinary troublemaker continues on his meteoric rise with a stunning menu that makes beautiful meals out of authentic recipes and daily dishes: pâté en croûte made with four meats; warm pig’s foot carpaccio with dentelles de parmesan and tarragon; Maldon smoked salmon and multicolored beets; sausage purée; cabbage stuffed with foie gras de canard and a carrot purée; cochon de lait with a mushroom and chard mix; rice pudding with orange zest and cinnamon.
136, rue du Faubourg-Poissonnière, 75010 Paris. +33 01.42.82.92.01.
Prix fixe: from 18€ to 21€ (lunch).
À la carte: from 32€ to 53€.
4. Le Beurre Noisette
We always come out of this place with the same feeling! Thierry Blanqui, who got his hands (and chef’s hat) dirty at the end of the 1990s working at the Ritz, creates an exciting bistronomic composition in his timeless culinary temple. Here there’s no fuss, no bluster or pretense, just raw, good and shiny thanks to a menu that changes almost every day: pâté en croûte of pheasant and fois gras; cuttlefish white tagliatelle fried with basil; saint-jacques poêlées with velvety green chard soup; noix de ris de veau fried in butter with chanterelles; wild duck puff pastry and foie gras; a Norwegian omelette flambéed with Cointreau…
68, rue Vasco-de-Gama, 75015 Paris. +33 01.48.56.82.49.
Prix fixe: from 25€ to 34€ (lunch), from 38€ to 56€ (dinner).
5. Bistrot Belhara
In his restaurant, named in reference to the mythical 15-meter-wave surfing spot in coastal Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Thierry Dufroux is upsetting gourmet culinary trends. This chef who worked under the tutelage of Michelin-star greats — Firmin Arrambide, Michel Guérard, the late Bernard Loiseau, and Alain Ducasse — pays a vibrant tribute to his beloved Basque Country: octopus fricassee in grated lemon with minced sweetbreads (émincé de ris de veau), farandole de champignons and duck foie gras; saint-jacques, braised fennel, confit de piperade and black truffle shavings; salmis de palombe with armagnac, salsifis rôtis, and soupçons de poitrine de cochon; apple soufflé flambé in calvados.
23, rue Duvivier, 75007 Paris. +33 01.45.51.41.77.
Prix fixe: from 24€ to 34€ (lunch), from 41€ to 58€ (dinner).
This article was written by THIBAUT DANANCHER, a journalist at Le Point
