Café de Mars

In a busted-up corner bistro near Rue Saint-Dominique, Pierre Marfaing has created a blissful enclave: ceramic tile floors, a Formica bar, crimson banquettes and a tiny terrace lined with potted plants… What should you expect? As always, the talented California-born chef Gina Mclintock crafts the menus and her executive chef Jakaria Ahmed never misses an opportunity to bring them to life! The day we went for lunch, all of the following were brought out by the kind and attentive waitstaff: fantastic salmorejo, a chilled Andalusian soup that’s similar to gazpacho; a thrilling bacon cheeseburger served American style (with red onions, lettuce, tomatoes and cocktail sauce served on the side); new potatoes conscientiously adhering to the laws of both crispiness and tenderness; and a diabolically good cheesecake made with goat cheese and a blueberry coulis. Eyeballed hungrily on the next table over: manchego aged for 26 months with rosemary honey, roasted eggplant and saffron-spiced yogurt, duck confit spring rolls with yuzu-forward ponzu sauce, sea bream with preserved lemon and pomegranate, peach napoléon with blackberry coulis… // Albert Gredinbar

FEELING THIRSTY? A lovely selection of natural wines chosen by Antoine de la Tour (ex-Shabour and Mamagoto): a pineau d’Aunis from Le Clos du Tue Boeuf (€9 a glass), La Grande Parcelle, a syrah from the Domaine Garon (€40 a bottle), a Saint-Joseph produced Christophe Pichon (€54)…
PRICE: À la carte €34-50.