Café des Ministères — Restaurant in Paris

Cafe des Ministeres is a restaurant of remarkable warmth and superb food, featuring the cuisine of southwest France. This was our first visit to the restaurant; it was a memorable experience. We now understand the high praise of the restaurant from respected critics such as Meg Zimbeck of Paris By Mouth.

Cafe des Ministeres provides extraordinary hospitality and a warmth of service all too rare in today’s restaurant world - with gracious, friendly service overseen by the hands on co-owner, Roxanne Sevegnes. The restaurant reminded us of two long closed historic Paris bistros, Le Vieux Bistro and A. Sousceyrac, the latter venue renowned for its Cassoulet. The spirit of these bistros lives on in Cafe des Ministeres - with soulful, elevated cooking from Chef and co-owner Jean Sevegnes bringing a fresh, updated feel to the regional classics.

The food is delicious, from the signature Chou Farci, outstanding Cassoulet and a rich Vol au Vent. The Terrine Maison was excellent and the filets of Harengs (herring) were pristine, even better than the noteworthy version at Chez Georges. The Profiteroles provided a decadent conclusion to a perfect dinner.

The wine list is beautifully constructed, featuring a range of carefully selected producers from Cahors and other regions - at a range of price points and very fair prices. It is clear that the owners are adverse to the predatory wine pricing increasingly prevalent in Paris and have undertaken to build a restaurant with a family oriented, neighborhood “vibe”.

They have achieved this often elusive goal. As noted, Cafe des Ministeres is a remarkable achievement, a unique venue with a passionate husband and wife team at the helm, creating an environment of genuine warmth and hospitality, with superb cooking from a highly skilled chef. It is a special place one looks forward to...

This was our first time having dinner at Cafe des Ministeres and what a meal it was! It was one of the BEST dinners we had on this trip and if they had remained open the first week of January would have happily gone again. The warm welcome and exuberant smile as soon as we entered the restaurant by Roxane made us feel comfortable and at ease! The service provided by Roxane and her gentlemen server was professional, prompt and very friendly! Roxane was extremely helpful and patient in suggesting the best options for us to savour seeing it was our first time there! She was on point with all we chose and our grateful for her advice. The food by her Chef/husband Jean is wickedly delicious, well orchestrated and thought of with a beautiful marriage of flavours and a symphony of surprises on the palate! We loved and appreciated the concise, non elaborate menu giving emphasis to the quality, the freshness and the pureness of each dish. We savoured each plate beginning with the unique ‘amuse buche’ to the starter of house pate, eggs mimosa to our main dish of sweetbread/chicken vol-au-vant and the stuffed cabbage dish which delighted us with their bold and harmonious rich flavours exemplifying true French food! Kudos to Chef Jean for mastering and inviting us to savour these dishes in the purest form they should be eaten and enjoyed! We cannot wait to return soon as this will now become our restaurant ‘d’habitude’! Thank you once again Roxane and Jean for a memorable meal we are still talking...

I wrote this last September but never posted it on Google! I didn't realize this until I told my son that a visit to Paris for his honeymoon would not be complete without eating here. Here is the review: What a treat it was to have dinner last night at Cafe Des Ministeres. From the moment we arrived, Roxanne (co-owner with, Jean, running the kitchen), was helpful, welcoming and gracious. It was our anniversary and we were lucky enough to get a reservation which is not easy. The stuffed cabbage (pork and foie gras etc) was fabulous as were the sweetbreads both "Classique " on the menu. Roxanne was amazingly helpful in recommending the special starter of pork belly and clams which was terrific. She also suggested we take a bottle of Margaux which was much less expensive than the one I was looking at and was also terrific. The portions are very generous so even two big eaters could barely finish them. A really wonderful meal, exquisitely prepared by Jean whom I thanked in the kitchen afterwards. To be honest in spite of visiting Paris often we did not know Cafe Des Ministeres until we saw the renowned chef Helene Darroze interviewed calling it the best value restaurant in Paris! It will be now on regular rotation if we can get a...