Les Petits Plats, 75014 Paris

This restaurant, which had been open 1 year, 1 month and 1 day when I visited, has quickly gained a reputation for its excellent food and I was not disappointed, even though I couldn’t get a booking immediately.   The chef, Miquel, is only 28 but is already making a name for himself with his interesting and attractively presented petits plats.

The first course of the menu of the day was eggs poached in Beaufort cheese and cream, followed by a parillada of fish from the grill served with finely sliced saffron potatoes.

But the other  menu alternative, 4 petits plats  from any part of the menu that takes your fancy,  which means you can have 4 starters, or 4 main courses, or 4 cheese courses or 4 desserts for Euros 32 is very unusual ! Obviously most people take one of each, but I chose two starters:  a cream of shredded celery soup with hazelnuts, followed buy carpaccio of scallops, which was a very sophisticated dish with a combination of unusual tastes including ginger and marinated Japanese-style raw vegetables.  My main course was baked monkfish with endives and a wedge of herb-dusted potato, but there were also items such as  marinated veal escalope with truffle sauce, pig’s feet and raviolis of lamb in the main course selection.   By this time I wasn’t really very hungry any more, but still had the 4th course  to go.  I chose a pear poached in vanilla with cottage cheese from the short dessert menu, but it soon became clear that desserts were not the chef’s strong point compared with his other dishes, which were absolutely first-class and excellent value for money.  There is also a separate beef menu offering a selection of steaks from the Aubrac and what looked like excellent ribs of beef for two.

There were over 100 well- selected wines listed on the blackboard ranging in price from Euros 24 to Euros 100, as well as carafes of house wine, but no half bottles. . We had a 2008 Pouilly Fuissé which complemented the fish beautifully and  we left vowing that we would be back again before too long!