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A Braccetto restaurant, Paris – great Italian food

In an area with a lot of students from the Sorbonne, as well as tourists eager to eat anything as long as it’s fast, the rue Soufflot isn’t overflowing with quality eateries.

A Braccetto is the exception, and a welcome one. Just minutes away from the Hotel des Grands Hommes, Hotel les Dames du Panthéon, Hotel Baume and Hotel Design Sorbonne, what used to be a grungy beer bar has been transformed into a carefully curated Italian restaurant with really delicious food and (for the moment) up to 50% off the à la carte menu !

Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris
photos: JasonW

Open since March (although the official opening party was early April), A Braccetto replaces a naff beer bar (called La Gueuze) that no-one will miss. The interior has been opened up, brightened, modernised and tastefully decorated, quite an achievement for this oddly-arranged space, with a long thin room leading far back to a larger space on the left with a glass roof and real sense of space.

Each part of the restaurant has its own feel – busier up front near the bar and pizza oven, calmer towards the back where there’s even a semi-private niche where five guests can dine discreetly at a round table. The corridor between the two spaces is even big enough to hold mini concerts (like the Brazilian one we happened upon by accident).

The terrace will also undoubtedly be the place to be this summer…

Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris
Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris
Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris
Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris
Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris
Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris
Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris
Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris
Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris
Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris

With its mix of young and slightly less-young local hipsters and very smiley staff, the restaurant has quite a hip vibe to it, and the mini-concert is a cool addition.

After being seated and ordering some wine, we started our meal with Cichetti di Culatello, small corners of pizza dough fried Napolitan-style with Parma ham, taggiasche olives and capers. Unfortunately we didn’t realise that ordering this dish without ham left us with just fried bread, more or less (totally our fault).

In any case, the dish quite small, but soft and not too greasy. Perhaps we should try it again with the ham to see whether the price (12€ 😳) is justified…

Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris

For the main dish we chose grilled octopus with pan-fried spinach, dried tomatoes, and new potatoes with organic olive oil with thyme, and Gnocchi Gratinati, potato gnocchis served with a fondue of Italian fontine au gratin (cheese from the Aoste valley).

The octopus was well cooked, not elastic, quite tender, and the spinach is obviously fresh. Instead of the sun-dried tomatoes, it seemed our dish was served on a bed of tomato sauce similar to what you might find on a pizza, served with oven-cooked new potatoes.

The gnocchi were also well cooked, super melt-in-the-mouth, and the cheese au gratin was amazing, but we would advise you to skip the supplement for fresh truffle, as we found it didn’t really have much taste to it, which was quite a disappointment.

This aside, both dishes were extremely well executed.

Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris
Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris
Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris
Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris

And finally it was time for dessert, often our favourite part of a meal! We were eager to try the Pavlova (meringue with blackberry, blueberry and black grape) and the enigmatic iced, ‘destructured’ Snickers!

Both were a success. The pavlova was both crunchy and soft, with great fruit tastes, and the peanut ice cream really looked like a Snickers bar, with a welcome generous drizzle of caramel. Bravissimo!

Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris
Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris
Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris

In all, A Braccetto was a very agreeable surprise. The young team is very professional and relaxed, and the food was exceptional.

Although the prices may seem just a little high, you can currently book on TheFork where (for the moment) there’s 30%-50% off the à la carte menu (depending on what time you book your table for), which makes everything a bargain!

The restaurant is also open seven days a week, and really close to our hotels. We can’t wait to go back!

Restaurant A Braccetto, Paris

A Braccetto (here) is open every day for lunch and dinner

Online bookings here

Tel: +33 (0)1 42 01 01 07

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