Oyster from Normandy and sausage from Toulouse with Granny Smith apple

There is nothing that pleases me more than to have a good dinner, cooked and served by an enthusiastic young couple who have faith in tasty food.  This is what I found at Café des Ministères, a restaurant that Roxane and Jean Sévègres took over last February, a few meters from the Assemblée Nationale. He comes from Cahors in the Lot, and she from Lorient, in Brittany. They share a great mix of specialities which lead them to serving oyster with sausage, a delicious starter.

Roxane and her husband, chef Jean Sévègres

The restaurant only serves 24 at night because the chef likes to take his time to cook everything on the spot. We were a party of five and chose the great oyster with sausage from Toulouse and snails from the Drôme with bone marrow and mushrooms. Then the men shared a côte de veau, impeccably cooked while I had the dish of the day, a superb vol au vent with lamb sweetbreads, mushrooms and chicken. It was delicious.

Vol au vent with lamb sweetbreads and mushrooms

We could have taken the multicolor sugar beets with smoked eel and the little soles with haricots maïs, (a bean that grows along corn, imported from Mexico in the 19 th century) from Béarn… Again the south west meets Brittany…

Dessert was not a let down! we had Pear Pavlova, with incredible vanilla ice cream and Feuilleté aux pommes caramélisées… a refined version of taste aux pommel. The atmosphere in the restaurant is charming and unpretentious even though it is set at the heart of the snobbiest 7 th arrondissement!

Basque linen and a funny spoon/fork are the only decoration in a fairly stern place

For a full menu, you pay 42€ plus wine, and you leave feeling you have tasted the best food in Paris! At lunch time, there are lighter dishes, a cheaper menu, but make sure to book…

Café des Ministères, 83 rue de l’Université, 7 th. tel: 01 47 05 43 62

Feuilleté aux pommes caramélisées with a light vanilla cream