Paris is full of restaurants offering traditional, simple, local and hearty cuisine at all price ranges. Today we are having lunch with friends at the Auberge Bressane (7th) one of my favorite restaurants in Paris

In this article:

• The concept of the Auberge Bressane
• The setting
• The menu of the Auberge Bressane
• The meal and the dishes
• The atmosphere at the Auberge Bressane
• The service at the Auberge Bressane
• Bottom line

The concept of the Auberge Bressane

It’s all in the name: the Auberge Bressane offers a very traditional, hearty cuisine in a setting that is just as traditional and smells like the good old tables of our regions and countryside.

The setting

As I said, we are really in the concept of an Inn with a façade that already sets the scene.

The interior is the same with long tables with tablecloths that remind us more of a good country table than a starred restaurant.

There are also a few boxes of 4 people. Otherwise most of the time the tables will be lined up next to each other.

Our table of 4.

The decoration is totally in line with the spirit of the place as you could see.

In short, it’s coherent and authentic.

All this makes you want to see the menu.

The menu of the Auberge Bressane

I think I forgot a page because it lacks, among others, soufflés, frog legs….

We are well in line with the promise with traditional and local dishes. The menu changes according to the seasons to adapt to the products of the moment. Let’s add a special mention for the soufflé desserts, a speciality of the Auberge Bressane which is worth the visit alone.

During the week there is a menu at 24,50€ for lunch.

The wine list is as thick as the phone book. I propose you only a tiny extract of its more than 30 pages.

Fortunately, there are wines by the glass when you are alone or even two…and even with four people, the choice is quickly limited when you want want to pay a reasonable price. It is the main reproach that we make to the property with my friends (even if we love to go to eat there): if the wine list is of very good level, the prices are aligned and thus the wine list seems to us a little unbalanced in this perspective.

The meal and the dishes

The starters arrive quickly after the order.

As for me, I started with the herring-style salmon as a starter.

It is, for me, one of the signature dishes of the menu and I jump at it without thinking, even if it means not continuing to experiment with the other starters which look just as appetizing.

I am a fan of this salmon prepared in oil and served with hot potatoes as is traditionally done for herring.

The salmon has a lot of flavor and the potatoes are melting…I am enjoying it.

I can’t resist the opportunity to share the photos of the starters of the other guests at the table, namely :

In both cases the opinion is unanimous: it is both hearty and full of taste.

I also recommend the crab soufflé: a bit rustic looking with real chunks of crab in it, it is as pleasant to watch being prepared as it is to eat.

Next, one of my other favourite dishes: sweetbreads “pomme” with morels, which is the finest part of the sweebread and not the least hearty.

It is served in a separate pot, accompanied by another pot with mashed potatoes, and the guest is free to help himself as he wishes.

Here is the result on my plate.

The sweetbread is tasty and melting, the sauce full of flavour and the purée very smooth.

I remember a time when, as I recall, the sweetbread was a bit more hearty but no regrets: it was sometimes difficult to get to the end of the dish. Here it is just the right amount to be satisfied without struggling, especially if you have taken a large starter.

Making a choice at the Auberge Bressane is always complicated.

A friend had the bouchées à la reine, another signature dish of the restaurant. Authentic, good, hearty to the point that despite being a big eater she had trouble finishing it.

It’s hard to recommend dishes from the menu, having tried a lot of them all are good and it’s hard to pick one out of the bunch. While we’re at it and it’s still fresh in my mind, and even if the house doesn’t advertise it as its specialty, in terms of soufflés, the Auberge Bressane is well above …..Le Soufflé Not that there is anything to complain about with the latter, but it is simply above it, in terms of price as well (this may explain it).

For dessert, the 3 of us will choose a soufflé (a must at the Auberge Bressane to order at the beginning of the meal). We will be two to take a chartreuse soufflé and one a Grand Marnier soufflé.

A chartreuse soufflé and the Grand Marnier soufflé arrive quite quickly (considering the preparation time needed for this type of dish). The 3rd one has been “forgotten” and will arrive once the other two have finished.

So here is my Chartreuse soufflé, sprinkled with chocolate.

And its preparation: they add chocolate truffles, alcohol…. and flame.

Same ceremony for the Grand Marnier.

I remain a little disappointed. Apart from the fact that we had to leave a guest on the side of the road waiting for his forgotten soufflé to arrive, the chocolate truffles add nothing and even make the soufflé difficult to eat because they have not completely melted, far from it. I will eventually remove them from the soufflé, which my friend will also do.

As we leave we will see that on another table, served by another waiter, they are heated and melted before putting them in the soufflé. The result must certainly be more convincing.

Then to have observed the color of the chartreuse remained on the table while waiting for the service of the missing soufflé, as well as its consistency, we were more or less sure that it is cut to lower its alcohol level. It doesn’t prevent flaming but we wonder why.

I regret not having taken my usual Grand Marnier or the crêpe suzette which never disappointed me.

To accompany all this we had as often opted for a bottle of Beychevelle, one of the good value for money of the menu.

The atmosphere at the Auberge Bressane

We don’t come here for the atmosphere but for what’s on the plate and that’s good.

The Auberge Bressane’s setting inspires relaxation and a friendly atmosphere among friends, even if the prices are more reminiscent of more cozy restaurants.

The layout of the place and the proximity of the tables make it noisy when it is full and a certain promiscuity between the tables can be annoying, as well as the fact of being stuck on the bench: impossible to get up without moving the table and making the people sitting opposite get up.

But well, it is convivial, lively and good-natured, I prefer that to places where the conviviality disappears to the benefit of the appearance.

My experience is that I was sometimes disappointed in the evening: crowded restaurant, noisy, service a little slow … now we prefer Sunday lunch where it is more family, relaxed and where people arrive later.

Moreover, at noon you will see (at least on weekends) a magician coming to do tricks at the table. It is part of the folklore of the property and even if we know its tricks by heart it continues to amuse us.

The service at the Auberge Bressane

In two words and in the image of the property: warm and professional. But…

Yes there is a but…

I mentioned a little “bug” in the service with a “forgotten” soufflé that resulted in two of us eating ours while the third was watching…then vice versa.

No matter, these king of things happen. Yes, but a little too often according to my personal statistics. At my previous lunch here, with the same people moreover, there was an error on two dishes and a good half hour before the error was corrected. In short, when there is repetition, there is a tendency…

If our accounts are good, no less than 5 people took care of our table: one for the aperitif and the wine, one for the order, two for the service, one to clear the table and take the coffee order.

Individually professional but collectively when too many people are involved there is no longer a global view and this kind of bug can happen. In any case, this is our understanding.

It’s a pity because it’s the only reproach we have to make.

Bottom line

In the city inn category, the Auberge Bressane is at the top of the range in terms of both quality and price (a little less than 100 euros per head to my memory).

Apart from the service errors mentioned above, there is nothing to complain about: the menu keeps 100 times its promises, I’ve never been disappointed by a dish (it’s not a chartreuse soufflé that will make me change my mind) and apart from a wine list that lacks some good affordable wines and the fact that sometimes the evening it is a little too tight and noisy we have for his money even if sometimes the bill “stings” a little, especially if you go for very good wines.

A table I’m not about to give up.