Cobéa

Cobéa - Paris ©hystericstudios

A star is born in the 14th arrondissement of Paris

Cobéa is the new discovery on everyone’s lips. The arrondissement has until now been cruelly lacking in restaurants worthy of the title, defect that has been corrected since last September thanks to Philippe Bélissent, former Michelin-starred chef at L'Hôtel (rue des Beaux Arts) and his front of house partner, Jérôme Cobou.

The young men have opened their restaurant on the former site of the well-known Monsieur Lapin.

If the interior design seems a little old-fashioned (with an air of Sunday family lunch), the idea of opening the kitchen out onto the dining room is excellent. Our taste buds start to tingle at the simple sight of the head chef behind his stove.

The menu is refined and seasonally inspired, always premium. The two partners have retained the 38 Euro lunch menu so successfully installed by Monsieur Lapin. After delicious nibbles, razor clam with squid accompaniment is delivered to our table, followed closely by foie-gras sautéed with chestnut. As for the main dishes: wild young partridge cooked à la plancha, cod with braised green cabbage. The plates are both works of art and divine in the mouth. The partridge needs a little sauce? The chef himself comes from kitchen, saucepan in hand, to drizzle some over.

Comté aged for 24 months with a yellow wine zabaglione followed by a lemon-ginger sorbet to cleanse the palette, and it is already time to finish with the round biscuit dressed with a salted crème caramel.

The service is lively, the kitchen worthy of a star, the lunch menu is a boon.

The 14th arrondissement can at last boast its own grand chef!

Vanessa Besnard, Terroirs de Chefs