Au Petit Riche, bourgeois French cuisine without a wrinkle

Nearly 170 years in business and not a single wrinkle or speck of dust on the tables. Since its opening in 1854, Au Petit Riche has seduced the capital's upper middle class with its traditional French cuisine, prepared according to the rules of the art.

From then on, the "Tout-Paris" crowded the banquettes of this address, which was on the way to becoming a Parisian institution, from the greatest artists, theatrical figures and writers, led by Colette and Jean Marais, to the highest political spheres, with the restaurant seeing former Presidents of the Republic René Coty, Gaston Doumergue and, more recently, Valery Giscard d'Estaing.

The walls of the staircase pay homage to this past, rich in encounters and glitter, with numerous autographed photographs and little notes left by the personalities as tokens of a good gueuleton.

From the Second Empire to the Thirty Glorious Years, the Roaring Tw enties and the Belle Epoque, Au Petit Riche has weathered all these eras without changing its course, which is to offer refined, bourgeois French cuisine, authentic and generous on the plate as much as in its attentive service.

The restaurant's length reveals a number of different spaces: large rooms bathed in natural light, small lounges for greater intimacy, and private rooms upstairs that can accommodate from 6 to 45 people, all set in a Belle Epoque décor - red banquettes and crystal chandeliers here and there - that seems not to have moved one iota since it was renovated in 1880 after the fire at theOpéra Comique, just a stone's throw away.

However, Au Petit Riche did change its face recently, with the opening of a wine bar, faithful to the spirit of the place but with an added touch of modernity that blends into the decor, with clear ceramic bistro tables and eateries to mark the difference between the old and the new.

The opening of an area dedicated to the tasting of fine bottles was an obvious and even necessary move, given the restaurant's wine list, which is packed with clever beverages. With some 300 references, Au Petit Riche boasts one of the finest wine cellars in Paris, focusing mainly on Loire Valley wines, carefully selected by sommelier Jean-Paul Bruatto.

Here, too, the emphasis is on modernity, with organic, natural and biodynamic wines rubbing shoulders with more classic bottles, which are sipped with carefully thought-out food and wine pairings.

On the à la carte menu, chef Pablo Veiga defends a bourgeois French and Loire cuisine that's uncomplicated and contemporary, seasonal and well-sourced, always comforting and tasty. Generous, the institution 's cuisine is no less affordable, with lunch menus at €26 (starter/main course or main course/dessert) and €31 (starter/main course/dessert). As for the traditional weekly menu, it serves up its specialties day after day, the old-fashioned way: pollack on Tuesdays, whiting Colbert on Fridays, shoulder of lamb on Saturdays.

At our table, on the charming shaded terrace seating around 20, we are treated to a slice of poultry pâté en croûte (19€) of excellent quality, generous with foie gras and pistachios, trout prepared in gravlax (14€) on a cushion of celery remoulade, a quenelle of pike (21€) in the purest Lyonnaise tradition, with an excellent Nantua sauce, not a drop of which is left, or an excellent aioli (26€) with steamed seasonal vegetables and cod steak.

For dessert, we keep with tradition, with a baba (9€) generously drizzled with rum straight from the bottle brought to the table.