Abri

Time Out says

Wed Oct 10 2012

Mondays and Saturdays, 10am-5pm, there’s only one reason to come to Abri (‘shelter’), a pocket-sized restaurant next to the Poissonière metro: their multi-layered, super-stacked, millfeuille-esque sandwiches, put together by chef Katsuaki Okiyama. One regal specimen contained grilled bread, a deep and lovely sauce, a vegetable omelette, crusty breaded pork (‘tonkatsu’), sweet and sour cauliflower purée and soft cheese.

The rest of the week, there are plenty more of the young Japanese chef’s talents to enjoy. His CV (Robuchon, Taillevent, Agapé) would already be impressive on a far older chef, and against a bare décor, he makes his experience felt with French cuisine enhanced by Japanese touches. It crops up, for example, in the sauce of the marinated mackerel, with its almost transparent sliced vegetables, or a winter squash soup with pumpkin seeds and coffee.

The tasting menus are a big draw – four dishes for €22 at lunchtimes, six at dinner for €38.50), including dessert. You’ll need to be patient and reserve far in advance to get one of the 20 tables, but once you get in the service is charming and disarmingly serene, in a postage-stamp-sized room where the open kitchen takes up half the space. A lovely place to take shelter, full of delights.

By TR/AW/EH