“Serendipity” is one of those words that you have to love, and I am even more grateful to it since my discovery of L’Ebauchoir the other evening. The word was coined by one of the great 18th-century letter-writers, Horace Walpole, and refers to the accidental discovery of something fortunate while looking for something completely different. Quite.

I had gone to try out a restaurant serving food from that far-flung bit of France in the Indian Ocean, La Réunion, without booking a table. Even on a Monday evening, however, Le Goyavier was full, so you’ll have to wait for my review of it. As we came out, my friend Nicole pointed out L’Ebauchoir across the way, and, as Horace Walpole might have written, thither we presently repaired.

I was so struck by the wash of busy happiness (or happy busyness) as I walked through the door that, ever since, the “Hi Ho!” song of the dwarves’ in Disney’s Snow White has been insistently drowning out all thoughts in my head. The restaurant’s ocher walls are hung with paintings and posters, and one wall has a large naïf-style mural depicting life in the neighborhood. The wooden bistro tables in the spacious front room are generously laid out, and there’s a decent-sized no-smoking room in the rear.

Everything about L’Ebauchoir is generous, which is what eating out is all about. My confit lamb sweetbread salad was just the ticket, and Nicole’s sizable serving of cream of asparagus soup (it was a chilly evening) with slivers of foie gras was intensely green and full of asparagus flavor, a very satisfying start to the meal. Neither of us had noticed that the bottle of Morgon the waitress had brought and served was not the same one we had ordered, but the waitress did notice and was quite insistent about changing it. We were happy with what we were drinking, however, and stayed with it.

For our main course we had  fish – a tuna steak with mint-and-lemon sauce for Nicole and perch-pike with chorizo cream sauce for me. Unfortunately, they were overdone, but the sauces and vegetables, including fresh garden peas, were excellent. I have no problem with  frozen peas, but there is something really special about the fresh kind, properly prepared, as these were.

I mentioned the fact that the fish was overcooked to the waitress, who seemed genuinely sorry about it. She said she would warn the kitchen to be more careful and then served us double dessert to make up for it: a terrine of rice pudding whose slightly bitter caramel undertow beautifully offset the sweetness of the rice. She generously left the large dish on the table so we could eat all we liked. You can see why I went back there for lunch the next day.

This neighborhood not far from the Bastille seems to abound in this kind of restaurant catering to locals and turning out far better fare than your run-off-the-mill brasseries at very affordable prices. The cooperative, egalitarian feel of L’Ebauchoir, with its laidback but supremely attentive service, is an additional bonus. Its Web site offers a foretaste of the ambiance. Have a look at the video “Cinébauchoir,” an entertaining two-minute “day in the life” of the restaurant with a zippy jazz guitar soundtrack.

By the way, I noticed recently that two of the restaurants reviewed here in the past year, Dominique Bouchet and Les Fables de la Fontaine, each collected a Michelin star in the latest edition of the red guide. Let’s hope it doesn’t go to their heads (and our pocketbooks).

Richard Hesse

L’Ebauchoir: 43, rue de Citeaux, 75012 Paris. Métro: Faidherbe-Chaligny. Tel: 01 43 42 49 31. Closed Sunday and Monday lunchtime. Fixed-price menus (lunch only): €14 and €25. A la carte: around €30-35. www.lebauchoir.com

© 2007 Paris Update

More reviews of Paris restaurants.

Reader Reaction
Click here to respond to this article (your
response may be published on this page and is
subject to editing).