The Rue Ramey in Montmartre is lined with restaurants, few of which are open on Monday evening, which is why I chose L’Almanach for a catch-up chat with a friend. Luckily for us, Monday opening was not its only strong point by a long stretch.
The blessedly quiet dining room, prettily decorated with simple furnishings and hanging globes emitting soft light, was the perfect spot for our chat. We were seated right next to the open kitchen, and I enjoyed watching two young sous-chefs preparing each dish with great concentration. We later discovered that the lovely man who was serving the entire dining room was actually the chef/owner, Léo Giorgis, standing in for an absent server.
As is usual in this type of small Parisian bistronomic restaurant, the menu was short. And, as in the best of them, the dishes were unique, not just copies of currently trendy concoctions.
I started off with a tasty dish of grilled white asparagus, artfully arranged on the plate and dotted with hollandaise sauce and bits of haddock, which added occasional bursts of salty flavor.
My friend Jeff opted for the oysters, three big fat ones topped with ail des ours (wild garlic) butter, a felicitous combination that he found highly satisfying.
The mushroom ravioli I had as a main course was a pure delight. The generous helping of sautéed pleurotes (oyster mushrooms) was cooked in a way I could never achieve at home, tender yet crispy. The ravioli was house-made, and the sauce (an emulsion of mushrooms) was luscious. Who needs meat when you can have so much flavor without it?
Jeff also went joyfully meatless with the seiche (cuttlefish), served with Jerusalem artichoke gnocchi (new to me) in a sauce of cuttlefish ink and citron.
Happily full, we nonetheless chose to share a dessert. The round carrot cake was exceptionally flavorful – you could really taste the carrots without them being overwhelming – and we didn’t even miss what we usually love the best about carrot cake: thick icing made with cream cheese. Here, the cake was dotted with delicious icing made with purple carrots.
With our meal, we drank a delicious 2023 Côteaux Bourguignons from the Château des Correaux for the eminently reasonable price of €28.
Aside from its excellent food and wine, the restaurant offers rotating art exhibitions. The current one features discreet nature-inspired works by Janique Bourget made with metal, cutout paper or even crystallized salt.
This is an almanac I plan to consult frequently.
See our Favorite Restaurants by Arrondissement page to find a good restaurant in the neighborhood where you want to eat.
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