Café Pavane: Manon Hévin's restaurant and tea room

Facing the Jardin du Luxembourg, Café Pavane is the first tea room from Manon Hévin, daughter of Jean-Paul Hévin. For this gourmet address, she imagined a little cocoon featuring Russian-inspired dishes and the emblematic cakes of her dad, the famous MOF chocolatier. Here, at last, is an ideal place to enjoy Jean-Paul Hévin's Cheesecake Mazaltov, Pomme de terre and Longchamp chocolat!

Those nostalgic for Jean-Paul Hévin's tea rooms will be happy to know that his daughter, Manon, has decided to open Café Pavane, her first restaurant-tea room, where she brings back to life her father's dishes and desserts. We're off to discover this gourmet address, where father and daughter are in constant collaboration. If you're hanging around the superb Jardin du Luxembourg, this is a great place to treat yourself.

A menu signed (in part) by Jean-Paul Hévin

The spot, which opens in October 2019, features on its breakfast menu the pirojki, blinis and koulibiak served by his father in his tea room on rue Saint Honoré. The menu also includes Royans ravioli, quiches, croques and mixed salads. The dishes are just as good as at the old address: logical, since the chef at the helm is the former chef of the rue Saint Honoré tea room in the Hévin house for many years!

But the stars of Café Pavane are, of course, the pastries by Jean-Paul Hévin, the chocolatier awarded Meilleur Ouvrier de France in 1987. Among the wide range of his creations, a selection is on sale, carefully chosen by Manon.

You can choose between a Tonka made with Tonka bean cream on a praline crunch and Venezuelan dark chocolate mousse, a Lonchamp praliné or the famous Pomme de terre (la patate for those in the know), made with dark chocolate ganache covered with almond paste.

Although he trained as a chocolatier, non-chocolate pastries await us, such as Princesse pistache, an almond and pistachio meringue, Mazaltov, a cheesecake lighter than a cloud, or Turin, a chestnut cream and almond cream barquette on shortbread pastry. For Café Pavane, the pastry chef has imagined an exclusive creation, a millefeuille, the Pavane, made with pistachio ice cream spiked with yuzu and a thin layer of milk chocolate, all served with a raspberry coulis.

A local tearoom

Café Pavane is open from Monday to Saturday, from 12pm to 7.30pm, for our greatest pleasure. We arrive after lunch service, which ends at 3pm, and settle down in the tea room. So it's a millefeuille, the house specialty, a potato, hot chocolate and tea for us.

Manon leaves faster than she arrived, and returns almost immediately with the pastries! Because we're both curious, she kindly cut the millefeuille in half for a tasting of the novelty. Not too sweet, it eats itself. The pistachio is very subtle, which is a guarantee of quality. As for the Pomme de Terre, it's a Jean-Paul Hévin signature pastry for almond paste lovers only!

The hot chocolate takes a little longer to prepare, as it's whipped up in a minute... It's impossible to know how it's made (family secret), but Manon tells us it's made with whole milk and lots of spices. On the palate, it's a fairly light drink, a far cry from the creamy, body-holding hot chocolate. We like the strength and roundness of the hot chocolate on the palate, and the fact that it's not very sweet.

The small room, seating just 16 people, promises tranquillity even if the street is a little busy. With such a fine menu and tasty drinks - cappuccino, teas from Laï T'cha, and hot chocolate from Jean-Paul Hévin - needless to say, the address will soon be the spot for certain Sorbonne students and strollers after a stroll in the Jardin!

In short, a great new address to add to your list of Paris tea rooms to try out. Please note, however, that Café Pavane is not a Jean-Paul Hévin boutique, so there's no need to go looking for chocolate boxes and takeaway pastries. It's time to sit back and enjoy, friends!

Please note that it's been over 4 years since our last visit, so the place and experience may have changed.