Hidden in a small back-alley near Faubourg Saint-Antoine, Dersou is surprisingly calm considering its proximity to the chaos of Bastille. In the morning, there’s excellent coffee and the usual breakfast fare – cake, brioche, toast and cereal, all between €3.50 and €5. Then it morphs into a cosmopolitan cantine, serving daily specials and elegant sides (€12-15 with sides €4-9). By night, the lights soften and it becomes the place to mix food and cocktails (five courses and five cocktails is €90).
Pitched somewhere between Paris and Asia, the menu includes generous portions of soy-braised beef, fried Japanese chicken, lamb croquettes with aioli and feta with honey, with rice and all sorts of exotic herbs and flavours. Amaury Guyot (formerly of Prescription Cocktail Club and Sherry Butt) and a Japanese chef, Taku Sekine (once at Ducasse, Saturne and the Clown Bar) collaborated to produce the cuisine-meets-cocktails menu and we have to admit, it really works.
TRANSLATION: MEGAN CARNEGIE