L'Entente, the excellent English brasserie a stone's throw from the Opéra Garnier

L'Entente, le British Brasserie hasn't waited for English cuisine to become fashionable in Paris before delighting Parisians in search of new discoveries and homesick Brits alike. For while the restaurant showcases the very best of British cuisine, it was also one of the first to open its doors in the capital.

* * *

Christmas Eve 2024 menu at L'Entente
85€/person

Chestnut and parsnip soup

or

Loch Fyne salmon rillettes, English muffin

Christmas roast with 'all the trimings'
Roast guinea fowl stuffed with sage and onion with gravy, roast potatoes, roast carrots
Brussels sprouts, pigs-in-blankets, redcurrant sauce
(Vegetarian dish available on request)

Steamed Christmas pudding and custard

or

Bite-size minced pies

or

English cheese - Montgomery cheddar, Red Leicester or Stilton with oatcakes and chutney

* * *

Behind the address is Oliver Woodhead, a Londoner who has lived in France for over 20 years, and who set himself the challenge, seven years ago, of bringing English cuisine to Paris. In the image of its elegant owner, L'Entente boasts an unmistakably British atmosphere, between hushed charm and slick chic.

Here, everything exudes England, right down to the smallest detail. The cocktails are classics from across the Channel (Pimm's, Bloody Mary), as is the champagne, which is none other than James Bond's favorite (Bollinger and nothing else!). But it's with French produce that L'Entente makes all its specialities.

And choice products: Gascony black pork raised in Ariège, fish from responsible fishing, vegetables from Terroirs d'Avenir, coffee from Coutume... With a few exceptions! Indeed, it's impossible for Oliver not to source his cheeses from London's Neal's Yard in Covent Garden - Stilton, Montgomery Cheddar and Red Leicester from Neal's Yard - as well as his salmon, raised in Scotland.

Oliver's love of good food can also be found in the glasses, with a number of carefully selected cuvées. On the owner's recommendation, discover the On S'en Fish cuvée from Domaine Gardies (€8.5 a glass), a lively red wine served very chilled - enough to ruffle the feathers of some wine aesthetes.

On the terrace or comfortably seated on the blue banquettes, silverware in hand (acquired at auction during a sale of Le Train Bleu furniture, please), traditional English dishes parade past, filled with comfort and generosity. Starting with the quail egg version of scotch eggs (18€ for three), to be happily dipped in a homemade picalilli sauce, and welsh rarebit (14€), a distant cousin of welsh picard. Of Welsh origin, it's a toast topped with melted cheddar and spiked with mustard; it's finger-licking good.

The rest of the lunch is very auspicious, with the timeless fish and chips (24€), with fish cooked to perfection, wrapped in a light English beer-based breading, triple-cooked fries and a tartar sauce whose secret we'd love to know. The farmhouse chicken and mushroom pie (32€) lives up to its reputation, as delicate inside as out, as does the beef Wellington (46€) and its incredible red wine sauce.

For dessert, if the idea of a simple chocolate cake delights you, wait until you discover the double baked chocolate cake (9€) which, as its name suggests, uses a double baking technique for a particularly naughty double-textured result.

• To be read
• English restaurants in Paris, our top addresses for British cuisine
• Lordy's Paris Club, the English restaurant at the Sofitel Paris Baltimore Tour Eiffel hotel
• Very French Beans, coffee shop, grocery store and English restaurant in Les Batignolles

Open on public holidays, including Christmas and New Year's, and late into the evening - the kitchen closes at 11pm - L'Entente is also open on Saturdays and Sundays for brunch (9am-4pm), with eggs, bacon, sausages, beans, pancakes, eggs Benedict and black pudding on the menu; and for the traditional sunday roast (Sundays from 5pm).

Rumour has it that a L'Entente lunch counter is due to open a few steps away in a few months' time... News that already has our taste buds tingling.