Not all projects by young hipsters are a success, but Capsule – the brainchild of three young men – is soon to celebrate its first birthday, and the least one can say is that the restaurant has taken off, with the accent on fresh produce, natural wines and some very fairly-priced lunchtime menus.

We went down to sample the effervescence ourselves…

In an unassuming street opposite the Cochin Hospital, the Capsule restaurant has a long, thin designer space decked out in fresh, light green tones. The interior of the bar/brasserie that formerly occupied the space (the Cassini) can still be seen in 3D thanks to Google (below), allowing us to judge just how radical the change has been. (And for those nostalgic for Paris of the 1970s, a faded brown sign with the old name is still attached to the facade).

A fully-functional open kitchen had been created, where diners can see chef Mickaël Falotte (and four other people) preparing the dishes. The main room had been rejigged and – thankfully – stripped of the old accoutrements…

Open for lunch and dinner weekdays only, Capsule has a menu of modern French cuisine, favouring the best possible ingredients – fresh produce, natural wines, organic whenever possible and “the best bread in Paris” made by Jean-Luc Poujauran (not actually as exclusive as it sounds, because he apparently also supplies 350 other cafés / restaurants in the city, according to the newspaper Sud Ouest). 🤔

The day of our lunch visit, things were initially calm, but they didn’t stay that way for very long and the place filled up impressively quickly. We decided to profit from the reasonably-priced fixed-price menu (18€ for one course, 23€ for two courses, or 28€ for a starter, main and dessert).

Despite there being no choice in the menu, we thought all three propositions sounded great:

— a salmon and pear tartlet to start,
— pollock tempura as the main dish, served with truffle-infused celery mousse and tartare sauce, and
— a passion fruit / mango almond cake for dessert.

Of course if you don’t like the day’s selection, the main menu has more choice, at a higher price.

The tartlet is very delicate, and the pastry quite salty. The taste of the salmon and creamy soft pear were great foils to each other, and the presentation was great. A very capable start to proceedings.

The main dish, a pollock tempura, turned out to be… fish ‘n’ chips! Here though, it had been updated and elevated, with a fine, seemingly fat-free batter and very lightly-cooked fish, accompanied by a perfect celery mousse. A classic reborn!

And to finish, the passion fruit / mango almond cake was very cutely presented, perhaps a tad overcooked on the sides, but still utterly succulent.

We loved our lunch in the chic setting of Capsule, with its carefully-curated cuisine and exquisite presentation. The place fills rapidly at lunchtime, which may explain why our waiter didn’t smile as much as we had perhaps expected, but that’s just a detail that the food easily helped us to forget.

With new dishes on offer every day, the restaurant is somewhere you could return to often and always be impressed. We advise you to go down there during the week for either lunch or dinner to see for yourselves just how great it is!

P.S. Before or after your meal, check out the buildings on rue Cassini, three intriguing facades apparently created by the same architect…

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Capsule (here) is open for lunch and dinner from Monday to Friday

Tel. +33 (0)1 56 81 22 39

Online booking here

Website / Facebook / Instagram

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