Amarante — Restaurant in Paris

For our family’s first trip to Paris, I wanted to eat French food beyond the tourist staples of steak and frites. This restaurant was mentioned on various food blogs and it did not disappoint. The lone waiter was friendly and knowledgeable about the wines to pair with our mains and fluent in English. Hearty meat and fish mains with no frites in sight; well, there were “frites” made from chickpea flour which are then carb-free (since chickpeas are legumes and a meat free protein source) which were crunchy and delicious paired with the monkfish. My daughter let me have one of them🙄The four of us shared 2 orders of the wild snails sautéed in butter and parsley with raw greens in a light vinaigrette- the chef was thoughtful to divide them into 4 plates for us. We also shared an appetizer of tripe in a buttery sauce with olives and bread. My son and husband shared the steak and mashed potatoes (meant for two), which I had to agree, was the best I have ever had! I enjoyed my order of seasoned lamb on a bed of wild rice and gravy. Barely had room for dessert and we shared 2 orders of the lemon crème brûlée- we enjoyed the tartness after such a filling meal! The restaurant was not too loud even though almost full with everyone talking and laughing. Don’t expect fancy presentations or garnishes here. Great value compared to other places we...

I read a good review in the FT so decided to organise a dinner there. While not disappointed I am certainly surprised by some of the raving reviews of the place.

The meat is divine - good quality and well cooked. Really unparalleled - the pork and the ris de veau were particularly fabulous! Unfortunately the fabulous taste of the meat is diminished by the horrible sides. We were a party of 5 and each and every one of us found their sides borderline disgusting - the crown jewel being the black-burned - completely inedible kneffles. From the entrés - the fois gras is ok, the veal brain - burnt and as cooks say nothing worse than burnt butter. We all took chocolate mousse - very particular iodine taste and almost fishy smell - it was not to my taste but some on the table did like it. The service was very cold, no smiles on the menu this evening - it felt as if we were disturbing the waiter.

Overall, if you are after a great piece of meat - I do recommend Amarante but attention - do not order any side - you risk having a butter burnt taste spoiling the meat divinity. I hope the cook will review the sides choice and pay more attention to serving black-burned stuff to people in the future. The service can be friendlier as well - people spend money there - they certainly...

Well, how to start… Last night we had dinner at Amarante. This is our first time in Paris, we’d like to try traditional French cuisine. We like to eat decent, good quality food made by fresh ingredients, with reasonable price. If you share our passion, Amarante is your place! We recommend you to read the short description on the website then make your choice. If you want a fancy restaurant with ‘instagrammable’ dishes, skip this restaurant.

We tried beef tongue and foie gras as starters. They are very good! The foie gras has a rich flavor that explodes in your mouth. We also liked tho tongue.

We continued with sweetbread and lamb as main dishes. We don’t eat much offals so I was curious about the taste and tissue. It was crispy outside but really soft and juicy inside.

We’re from Barcelona so we are not accustomed the fatty plates with lots of butter and sauce. We generally eat lighter dishes with olive oil. So they were a little bit heavy for us, because of that, we couldn’t finish our plates. It’s really hard to explain, after a while, our appetites were satisfied.

For closure we had chocolate mousse. On the contrary of the previous dishes, it was super light. It doesn’t have so much sugar, very smooth.

We really liked the restaurant. We’d like to return for...