What a Cyrk-us! Choosing passion over a pension, the indefatigable Mauro Menichetti and Anne Camberlin (ex-Mauro, Nzet and Sgol) are back in the ring, delivering a frankly dazzling performance down a narrow pedestrian alley. Blink and you’ll miss the entrance, but step inside and the curtain rises on a place whose decor proudly walks the tightrope away from contemporary trends (weighty marble-topped wooden tables, Italian porcelain coffee cups, prim little bud vases perched on lace doilies). As for the chef’s menus, they land their tricks with the precision of a seasoned trapeze artist. Take the four-course act, the day we went for lunch: cauliflower mousse bejeweled with flying fish roe; scallop carpaccio sharpened with a zhuzh of ponzu; meltingly tender veal sweetbreads with morels sautéed in vin jaune; and a beautifully bronzed Reinette apple tart, pally with a scoop of freshly churned vanilla ice cream. Everything arrives piano piano, in tune with the unhurried rhythm of the room and its ringmaster. · Aline Flamme

FEELING THIRSTY? Shelves and shelves of natural wines: Danger 380 Volts, a Czech pet’ nat’ by Milan Nestarec (€12 a glass), Amphore, a chenin by Jean-Christophe Garnier (€75 a bottle) or Grotte Alte, a Sicilian red from Arianna Occhipinti (€82). Otherwise, go dry with a house-made passion fruit lemonade (€8).
PRICE: Lunch set menu €45 (2 courses), dinner menus €95-120 (4-5 courses), à la carte €59-78.