Coretta, 151 bis rue Cardinet, Paris 17
Beatriz Gonzalez’s Coretta has been in my rotation since my first visit back in 2015. My most recent visit was this past Friday evening with friends from San Francisco who also hold down an apartment in Paris.
The restaurant sits on the edge of the Parc Martin Luther King, Jr. and bears the name of his wife. It sits on the first two floors of an attractive, airy modern building.
Although we’re no longer suffering from the heat of several days ago, it is still warm in the evenings, and so we sat outside.
The carte, which comes folded into quarters:
One of our friends seems to drink nothing but claret, while I rarely drink claret any more. Consequently, he ordered a 2014 Château Patache d’Aux, a cru bourgeois, and I ordered a Chinon from Olga Raffault. The wine list generally is excellent and you needn’t spend more than 30-40€ to get a really good bottle, although considerably more expensive bottles are also on the list.
I tasted the Patache d’Aux and it was a good Bordeaux and any overt oakiness had been resolved during the years in bottle. The Olga Raffault Chinon was spicy, pure, and lilting — a very good wine and excellent value.
We each received an amuse bouche in a little bowl consisting of fried cheese (this may have replaced last spring’s gougère as the most popular amuse bouche in Paris), and with its tiny hat of avocado purée, it was predictably fine.
Two of us took the artichauts poivrade as the first course, and it was flavorful and full of interest.
The other two of us took the smoked eel (anguille fumée) with leeks, virgin olive oil with pistachio and sage, and a sabayon of butter, hazelnut, and lemon. It was very fine in its combination of flavors and textures, especially the smoky eel playing against the tender and flavorful leeks.
For main courses, one of us took the cabaillaud (cod) with coco beans of Paimpol, greens, and cured lemons, which she very much liked.
I and one of the others took the suprême de pintade (guinea hen breast) with purée of parsley, green beans, chestnut, and a blue cheese mousse. The flavors worked very well with the guinea hen being plump, moist and flavorful, set off by the creamy and slight saltiness of the cheese mousse. The parsely purée worked well with the green beans, too.
The fourth of our group took the sweetbreads, which he very much liked, but the photo didn’t turn out.
We were too full to take dessert but received some light, delicious mignardises with the check.
Coretta, at the north end of the city, can be a relatively long journey, depending upon where you are coming from. However, you will be well rewarded with excellent quality products and cuisine. And as with Mova that I reviewed recently, you can explore the surrounding
Batignolles area.
Coretta
151 bis rue du Cardinet, 75017 Paris
Tél: 01.42.26.55.55
https://www.restaurantcoretta.com/
Monday through Friday, lunch and dinner
Métro: Brochant, Pont Cardinet