To unlock the secret of the confidential Trente-Trois restaurant, you need to enter the equally discreet Maison Villeroy hotel, just off the Champs-Elysées. Like this pocket palace, with just eleven rooms and apartments in the style of a private home, the restaurant reveals just a few covers at lunch and dinner, in the intimate wood-panelled dining room of the boutique-hotel.
Orchestrated by chef Sébastien Sanjou, Trente-Trois was awardeda Michelin star in January 2021. However, the lunch menu is designed to be affordable, with a starter/main course or main course/dessert menu at €60 and a starter/main course/dessert menu at €75. For lunch and dinner, guests can also opt for longer menus, in 4 courses (110€) and 6 courses (140€).
Behind the stoves, chef Jonathan Rubat composes a classic but well-executed French cuisine that follows the rhythm of the seasons. A trio of amuse-bouches in the form of tartlets start the dance: pea tartlet with buckwheat slivers; puffed rice tart, mimosa egg, onion and olive pickles; carrot tart, hazelnut slivers and parmesan.
Then there's green asparagus from Provence, which we'd have liked more generous, with sorrel, ewe's milk and a candied egg yolk; Roscoff crab, shelled on a bed of minty peas and covered with a delicate crab jelly; asparagus (white, from Ventoux) with iodized béarnaise and shellfish; andsuckling lamb from the Pyrenees, for a meaty note, accompanied by wild garlic, fava beans and pommes grenaille.
There's no doubt that asparagus and fresh peas are well and truly in season, as are rhubarb and strawberries, which express themselves respectively in a dessert with burrata and hibiscus, and in the other, with an association that works wonders - bell bell pepper, burrata and basil.
Before the sweet stuff (which is just the right amount of sweet), let's take a trip to Martine Dubois' farmhouse cheeses, including a Trappe Échourgnac with a wonderful nutty flavor.
Location
Le Trente-Trois
33 Rue Jean Goujon
75008 Paris 8
Prices
Menu déjeuner E/P ou P/D: €60
Menu déjeuner E/P/D: €75
Menu en 4 services: €110
Menu en 6 services: €140
Official website
www.restaurant-trente-trois.com
Booking
www.restaurant-trente-trois.com