Le Garde Champêtre

Winner of the 2019 Fooding d’amour award

This former SNCF train depot was taken over by a group of friends – Juan Sanchez (Semilla and Freddy’s in Paris), Emilie and Cédric Bouchard, Jean-Pierre and Véronique Josselin (winemakers in the Champagne region) and Peter Lippmann (a photographer) to be precise. What should you expect? A restaurant with staggeringly high ceilings, terrazzo tile floors, a big kitchen that opens out onto the bar and a terrace, which extends into the one-hectare organic vegetable patch, where the discreet Japanese chef Kazuya Miyashita (ex-Accents in Paris, who took over from Gil Nogueira and Sakaya Sawaguchi) picks his produce. The night we went, we began the meal with some delicate zakouski: an exquisite shot of watermelon juice with shiso oil, refreshed by some tomato sorbet; plump blood sausage beignets served over a bed of hay; decadent tuna sashimi with anzuboshi apricots, raw cream and an olive condiment; a small redfish fillet that was perfectly roasted in beurre blanc sauce and topped with a tuft of herbs from the garden; pork loin that was as tender as a hot knife through butter, juicy black trumpet mushrooms dotted with harissa, an oyster and sea beans; and for dessert, a deliciously tangy baked mirabelle plum with mascarpone ice cream and crumble topping. // Laura Dargent 

FEELING THIRSTY? : An entirely natural selection, rich in Aube champagnes: Les Terres Mêlées from the Domaine de Bichery (€14.90 a glass, €87 a bottle), an incredibly rare Origines produced by Salima and Alain Cordeuil (€90), Sur Charrière, a skin-contact wine from Alain Cordeuil (€90), Sur Charrière, another skin-contact wine from the Domaine Labet (€58), etc. 
PRICE: : Set menus €35 (weekday lunch), €48 (Saturday lunch) and €70 (dinner and Sunday lunch).