Neva Cuisine, 2 rue de Berne, Paris 8
I’ve been a fan of cheffe Beatriz Gonzalez for close to a decade. When I’m in Paris, I go to her restaurant Coretta every four to six weeks. It has been a delight and enlightenment for numerous friends I’ve taken there. When she also had a restaurant on the top floor of La Grande Épicerie on the rue de Passy, I would always have lunch there after visiting the Musée Marmottan Monet. I was aware that she had another restaurant, too, in the eighth arrondissement, but I never heard anyone talking about it, and so I’d always been happy just to return to Coretta.
Recently, after yet another successful meal at Coretta, I resolved to investigate the mysterious other restaurant of Mme Gonzalez. It is Neva Cuisine, and it opened in 2011, the first under her helm.
The restaurant is located in a corner of the eighth arrondissement near the Place de Clichy where the 8th, 9th, 17th, and 18th arrondissements all come together. With respect to what you normally think of as the eighth arrondissement (luxury), the restaurant is literally on the wrong side of the tracks — it is east of the tracks leading to the Gare Saint-Lazare. It used to be an insurance industry area and Google established its Paris headquarters in this part of town about the same time as the restaurant opened.
A quick search of the internet establishes that there was quite a bit of positive commentary about the Neva Cuisine when it opened, and then the conversation more or less stopped.
We arrived for lunch at 12.30, generally the beginning of the lunch hour, and I was surprised to find that the restaurant was nearly half-filled already. The space is not large, and although there are windows on two sides, the narrow streets prevent any sunlight from entering, at least in January.
The crowd seemed to be exclusively French except for us. They ranged in age from their twenties to their sixties or seventies. The crowd seemed to be people coming from work to meet friends for lunch, sometimes in twos, but there were also several large tables. Although the customers were casually dressed, they also seemed to be prosperous enough. In other words, an intellectual crowd, no doubt including many from Google. The atmosphere was buoyant with plenty of positive energy.
The food here is modern French, similar to that at Coretta, but perhaps a degree more complex and as a result the prices are a little higher.
While studying the carte, we were provided with delicious, light cumin chips topped with a smooth squash purée.
The excellent wine list overlaps to a large extent with that of Coretta, but here it is broader and deeper. We chose not to split a bottle and so went with the very good by-the-glass selections:
L took the vin de France Chardonnay from Guillot-Broux, one of my favorite Mâconnais (Southern Burgundy) producers, and I took the Touraine-Amboise (Loire Valley) “Clocher” from Domaine Bonnigal-Bodet (served from magnum):
Both were crisp and delicious with the Guillot-Broux showing more roundness and the Bonnigal-Bodel more minerality.
Salt and pepper:
I didn’t photograph the silverware, but it is Christofle.
L was very taken with her goat cheese and caramelised onion tart:
I took the winter radish salad with avocado with Korean pepper (mostly hidden beneath the rest of the salad) and grapefruit:
I loved this dish. It was flavorful and subtle refreshing, and very much speaking of the season, as well as being a joy to look at.
For her main course, L took the bourride de lieu jaune (pollack) with seasonal vegetables, which she was very enthusiastic about:
I took the pluma de cochon (pork shoulder):
The serving was generous, the pork flavorful and it was complemented perfectly by the squash, risotto, and hazelnuts. Again, it spoke very much to the season.
With the pork I took a glass of the red vin des Allobroges “Silice” from Domaine/Maison des Ardoisières in Savoie. I very much like the whites from this producer and was curious about the red, made from the Mondeuse grape:
It is an extremely rustic wine lacking any subtlety. I found it satisfactory, but not up to the level of the whites produced here.
We didn’t have room for dessert, but I took an expresso and we had delightful little puff pastries filled with chocolate-caramel cream as mignardises.
I didn’t get a photo of the bill, but the bottom line was 124€.
I’m so glad I finally got around to trying Neva Cuisine. The food and atmosphere receive my highest recommendation, and it will go into my regular rotation alongside its sister restaurant, Coretta. And by the way, Beatriz Gonzalez has now opened a taco (Mexican-style, not French, reflecting her Mexican origins) restaurant, Tacomesa, in the 9th arrondissement.)
Neva Cuisine
2 rue de Berne, 75008 Paris
Monday-Friday lunch and dinner
Tél: 01 42 22 18 91
https://www.nevacuisineparis.com/
Métro: Europe, Rome, Liège, Saint-Lazare