Freshly opened in June, the Brasserie des Prés is a cool three-floor establishment offering French cuisine classics, cocktails and ice-cream made on-site!

We had been to this space before, but many years ago when it was something completely different, and the new radical makeover is quite a change.

The colourful restaurant runs along an historic, typically-Parisian paved passageway that just happens to have the Hotel Saint-André des Arts at one end! In the long, thin main room (which used to be the only room), one of the walls now has what looks like part of a stone tower built into it, and around this there is a space at ceiling level allowing a partial view up to the first floor. There’s even a floor above that one, decorated like a club with huge speakers, apparently ready for club nights.

With the warm weather, most of the front of the restaurant opens up, giving the space a very open feel, and the terrace is frankly vast. Colour is everywhere, and there are sweet little touches, some of them retro (the mosaic drawings on the floor), other kitsch (the water jars in the form of animals or giant fruit).

The vibe is relaxed, the staff is young and the interior design is, in our opinion, a success!

Our starters were French classics (indeed, the whole menu leans heavily into nostalgia) confidently prepared – egg mimosa with celeriac in remoulade dressing, very prettily presented, very (too?) crunchy green beans with salad (it said on the menu), grilled on the barbecue and served with a ravigote sauce, and leeks in vinaigrette with butter croutons and roasted hazelnuts. All very pleasing!

We also appreciated the carefully-selected plates and fabric serviettes that added even more character to the place.

After having shared and finished the starters, our main courses take an age to arrive (rather frustrating at lunchtime, when time is of the essence), but when they did finally arrive they turned out to be very copiously served.

We attacked our Salers beef tartare with French-style seasoning (i.e. quite peppery), served with homemade French fries and a small salad, a sausage with mashed potato, for which the sausage is made by the in-house meat chef using a sauce that is simmered for 8 hours, very soft homemade gnocchi with a creamy goats cheese sauce and peas, and some tasty semi-cooked tuna with lots of seasoning, served with a piperade and sauge vierge with sweet peppers, olives and lemon.

The meat was high-quality, all dishes were cooked to perfection… Perhaps the only critiques would be that the mashed potato was a bit dry and thick, as if it had been waiting on the plate for a while and reheated before serving, and also that there is only one choice of main dish for vegetarians. Perhaps dishes without meat aren’t frenchie enough?

In any case, the portions were generous, and finishing everything on the plate was almost a challenge!

After waiting so long for the main dish to be served, we tried to order our desserts as quickly as possible, but these too took a while to appear. 🤷🤷🏽‍♀️

After a while we finally got to taste an intense chocolate mousse with a cacao cigarillo, nougat with cacao nibs, and in the centre some olive oil and salt flakes (a genius move), a Madagascar vanilla ice cream (made in-house) into which an espresso coffee was poured (the French version of an affogato) and a blackcurrant sorbet also made on-site (really good, with an extremely strong fruit taste).

The desserts were all a success, it was just a shame that it took so long to get to them – our lunch took over two hours!

It seemed to us that perhaps there was so much demand for food that the kitchen staff couldn’t keep up – perhaps this is proof of the restaurant’s success?!

In any case, the staff are all very friendly and smiley, the main dishes are (for the most part) irreprochable, and the prices are not excessive (although on the separate dinner menu you’ll find caviar at 100€ and sole meunière à 50€).

We really liked the interior design, and the large terrace is undeniably great for people watching. It would seem that the Brasserie des Prés is set to be an valued spot in the area for many years to come!

---

The Brasserie des Prés (here) is open every day from 9am until midnight for lunch and dinner (and drinks in-between/after both!)

Online booking here

Website / Facebook / Instagram

What3Words ///hacking.imposes.friction

Voir cette publication sur Instagram

Une publication partagée par LE GUIDE ULTIME DE PARIS (@leguideultime)