It’s not always easy to get a decent three course meal in Paris without spending a fortune. Thanks once again to a tip off from Olivier who works at the Jardin de l’Odéon, we checked out the freshly-opened Nuxis restaurant not far from the Tour Montparnasse. Inventive nouvelle cuisine and reasonable prices awaited us…

photos : JasonW


The restaurant is in a small street south of Montparnasse, and there are already two or three others in the very near vicinity, so it might seem a risky venture to open another restaurant there. Upon arrival we found that the building looked very sweet…

…and there’s a decent size terrace that could come in handy for warm days, as the rue du Château is fairly quiet.

It’s a fairly small place with space for around 30 people. Painted orange with smart wooden furniture, we thought that the walls could do with a few paintings or photos to make the place feel a little less strict, but we were comfortable nonetheless.


There’s a story to be told about the restaurant that I really should get into straight away. The chef and owner Thierry Curiale used to work for mobile ‘phone company Orange, but they were looking to downsize and he wanted to leave, so they came to an arrangement… As Thierry had always loved cooking, Orange would pay for him to train as a chef and invest in his restaurant business! That’s the short version: of course it was a lot more complicated than that. Anyway, as Thierry says on the official site of the restaurant, “rather than continue a safe life that was all laid out for me, I prefer to gamble on my restaurant,” which is a laudable endeavour indeed.

On to the food! Even before we could check out the menu, we were given a couple of tiny salmon toasts to keep us from starving! This helped us during the choice of wine (we went for an organic red).

Then it arrived, hand written on the traditional blackboard. The dishes change regularly, but there are only three different starters, main courses and desserts at any one time. It’s a reduced choice that should still leave with something to choose that sounds tasty.

We decided to try and upset the system a little by choosing a main dish that wasn’t on the menu: a vegetarian dish. A lot of restaurants would just refuse, or serve you something rather bland. We were eager to see what the Nuxis would come up with. Thierry himself took the order, leaving the actual cooking to his new chef. As he explained, it is great devising the menu and getting everything running properly, but he was a little frustrated staying in the kitchen and is much happier out in the main room chatting with his customers (whilst still keeping an eye on everything happening out back, of course!). Asking the chef to concoct a vegetarian dish looked liked it needed a certain amount of diplomacy and negotiation, but we got the impression that something wonderful would be prepared.

Our first courses arrived. I had ordered “Fraîcheur d’avocat et de Pink Lady à l’huile de colza grillé, gomasio bio”, which was a cold preparation of avocado and Pink Lady apple with grilled rapeseed oil and gomasio seasoning. It was very fresh with the sugary apple complementing the smoothness of the avocado and the gomasio giving it all an extra hint of flavour.

My partner had gone for “Tartare de bar à l’huile de sésame, mangue et coriandre fraîche, blinis de maître Oumar “. This was a tartar of European seabass with sesame seed oil, mango and fresh coriander, served with (or rather ‘on’) a special fat (and delicious) blinis names after Oumar who is one of the chefs! It melted in the mouth, and did not have an overpowering taste of fish, meaning that it went well with the mango.coriander mix. It tasted almost like a dessert…

For the main course, my accomplice went for the “Dos de cabillaud au four, gambas thym/citronelle, risotto fondant, émulsion de beurre blanc,” a piece of oven-baked cod with a giant prawn wrapped in thyme and citronella, served with a melt-in-the-mouth risotto and white butter foam. It was quite impressive to behold, and the fish was obviously very fresh. As for the foam… well, it looked good!


And let’s not forget our vegetarian dish. The chef came up trumps, despite having to improvise. Beautifully presented, there were small tomatoes, a mix of fried mushrooms, some risotto, a little ‘timbale’ of potato and courgette and – the big surprise – damsons with ginger. The edge of plate was also streaked with home-made pesto and we really felt that an effort had been made. Not all restaurants go to the trouble…

Although the servings may not look large, they are very well calculated so that you do not feel stuffed before dessert. I would be surprised if someone left the restaurant still feeling hungry. It was pleasant to have enought space to enjoy a dessert. My co-diner decided to try the rose panacotta with grapes marinaded in organic tea. The taste of rose was a novel choice, and the grapes were pleasant enough although we weren’t quite convinced by the difference that the organic tea made to them. It was, however, very well presented…

My dessert was as amusing to eat as its name implied: “Tarte a chocolat vraiment déstructurée” means ‘a chocolate tart very much in several parts’ (or something like that) and that’s exactly what it was. Each element that could have been used to make the whole tart was served separately on the plate, with a chocolate mousse-like splodge, crispy crunchy bits, tubes of chocolate ganache and raspberries. Great fun and delicious!

We had a very enjoyable meal in all. Servings are smaller than you might find elsewhere, but what is quantity without quantity? The dishes at the Nuxis are impressive to see and delicious to eat. Not often do you find that combination at under 30 euros for a three-course meal. We wish Thierry all the best for living out his passion, but something tells me that his restaurant will be very full very shortly; the press have already raved about it and word of mouth is doing the rest…

Here’s all the essential information for the Nuxis restaurant in the Montparnasse area of Paris

Address
: 129 rue du château, 75014 Paris. Métro Pernety (line 13). Bus n°s 28 & 58
Opening hours: open for dinner only from Monday to Saturday, from around 7pm to 11pm (we advise that you reserve)
Telephone : 01 43 27 32 56
e-mail: nuxis@nuxis.fr
Official site: here

Bigger map here