Badaude's Paris Addresses - Le Buisson Ardent

Don’t be put off by the building site you’ve just crossed behind the concrete blocks of Paris’s university buildings to get to the restaurant: Le Buisson Ardent (or Burning Bush) is a taste haven.

Cosy and romantic, the small dining room is lined with leather banquettes and decorated with frescoes painted in 1925. In 2006, childhood friends Jean-Thomas Lopez and Stéphane Mauiduit took over the restaurant to bring fresh flavours to the traditional menu. Their style marries innovation with a French respect for ‘terroir’.

My date ordered a cute mini ‘parmentier’ (a French relative of cottage pie) made with oxtail, parsnip and parmesan crisps. I started with a rich meaty terrine of wild boar with chestnut and quince marmalades, served with the restaurant’s -erm- 'sturdy' home-baked rolls. These were the only (but please let me emphasize, only) things on the menu that fell flat - literally. Dense as black holes, if we hadn't liked the rest of food so much we could have used them to take out a couple of waiters before shattering the plate-glass windows and making a run for it.

For main, I enjoyed meaty Saint Jacques scallops on a bed of crunchy coral lentils, squid and dill.  My date’s lamb was served with salsify, cress and preserved garlic. Both our orders were perfectly balanced between traditon and the fashion.

Dessert was a fine selection of cheeses and a mousse-y, crispy, mint-layered ‘fantasie’ on that truly British after-dinner tradition, the After Eight. It was slightly too-sweet, but then so is the sweet they're based on so I guess I can't complain.

We drank a mineraly Menetou-Salon 2007. For the nuls*, the list is helpfully divided into taste selections: choose from ‘fresh’ or ‘aromatic’ whites and ‘fruity’, ‘light’, ‘rich’ or ‘characterful’ reds.

The restaurant doesn’t stop within the confines of its cosy dining room but also offers a gourmet take-away service with home delivery for orders over 50 Euros. So if you want to impress but don’t want to spend all evening in the kitchen, treat your guests to a 3-course meal from the Equilibre (balanced) menu for 12.90 Euros per person; the Saveurs (flavour) menu at 15.90 Euros; or the Sur le Pouce (snack – soup + vegetarian or bread-based main course) at 10.90Euros.  Order before 2.30pm on the day. Paris delivery is free for order over 80 Euros.

Set menus in the restaurant are 18 Euros 50 for lunch and 30 Euros for dinner (3 courses).

Le Buisson Ardent, 25 Rue Jussieu, 75005 , 0033 (0)1 43 54 93 02

*nuls = dunces

Comments

[Iheartfashion]

Sounds absolutely delicious!