World_food_dina

I must say this restaurant is quite an experience. It has the atmosphere of a street food café but with outstanding cuisine!

The décor is, how can I say… missing! The only existing sign is the one from the previous establishment: City Café Sandwich. You need to be inside the restaurant to see on a bare wall four letters made of steel forming the word “abri”.

The façade is still under renovation. The inside is not much different. There are traces of plaster here and there, the concrete blocks are stripped in some places, and a door has been sealed off but is still visible. You wonder if more construction is scheduled or if the owner wants to make you think that the place will be finished one day…or never!
The tables are quite small and close to each other and the chairs are not very comfortable.

For sure Chef Katsuaki Okoyama has put all his focus on the cuisine and he has masterfully succeeded. The kitchen is in the middle of the tiny restaurant, where the chef and the cooks orchestrate the dance of the dishes that are dispatched in the restaurant by the servers. Chef Katsuaki Okoyama is quite an artist.

You only choose two possibilities for the main dish; the chef does the rest. After one simple question, “are you allergic to any food?” the die is cast. The plates parade at the discretion of the chef’s creativity. The dishes are beautiful and each table receives a different menu. You look at your plate and are astonished, yet you look at the table next to you and you want their plates as well. You can feel the dynamism in the restaurant; you can see that the chef is constantly looking to surprise and impress you.

The reservation is not easy to get. It’s a very small place and people are fighting over a bite at this restaurant. Mondays and Saturdays they serve tonkatsu (breaded deep-fried pork cutlet) sandwiches for lunch for €13. They don’t take reservations for these days. The rest of the week lunch is for €26 for 4-courses and dinner is €48 for 6-courses.

My friend and I went for lunch. I didn’t know what to expect at all. We started with mackerel served with grapefruit pulps, salmon roe, and nuts. It was truly very good.

Then came a dish with mussels and mushrooms covered with Parmesan emulsion. It was very tasty, and they added a bit of walnut. Exquisite!

I ordered the cod and my friend the duck. The duck came with caramelized shallots with coarse salt. The cod came with Brussels sprouts and mushroom emulsion. Both were absolutely delicious!

Dessert was a chocolate ganache with raspberry and sorbet of raspberry and beets. Quite surprising, isn’t it?

With our lunch, we took a glass of Sancerre for €3.50 and it was actually very good.

Can’t wait to go back to abri and taste the chef’s latest creations!

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abri
92 Rue du Faubourg Poissonnière, 75010 Paris
📞01 83 97 00 00

Price: $$
Four-course menu: €26
Six-course menu: €48

Closed Sunday and Monday
Tuesday – Friday: 12:30 – 2pm, 7:30 – 10pm
Saturday: 12:30 – 3pm, 7:30 – 10pm