La Manufacture @ Paris

Our first night in Paris, Princess and I went looking for a place to have dinner. The teddy bears sitting around the restaurant caught our eyes.

La Manufacture is a café-restaurant offering bistro fare, brunch and cocktails in a wood-lined venue decorated with oversized teddy bears. It is named after Manufacture des Gobelins that produced tapestries and carpets of exceptional beauty and quality, and secured its place as the official supplier of tapestries and woven upholstery to the 17th century court of King Louis XIV.

We were staying the Citadines and the restaurant was right down the street. The server was very friendly, the atmosphere was laid back, and we were by the window and could do some good people watching there.

The shops in the area all have very large teddy bears which get up to all sorts of antics, all thanks to Philippe Labourel, the owner of a bookshop at No.25. He posed a large teddy bear in his window in June 2018 and in mid-October began making them available on request for 48 hours and posting the resulting photos on social media. And the rest is history.

Tonight’s dinner choices were all French bistro classics like velouté, escargot, boeuf tartare, steak frites, etc.

Velouté de champignons | Mushroom soup

First up, a nice hot bowl of velouté de champignons, or mushroom soup, to warm us up for a cold evening. It’s only early autumn and the temperature had dropped to around 10˚C outside. Hearty and creamy, came with some baguette. I love French baguette, and only in Paris.

Tartare de bœuf français préparé par nos soins, frites maison | French beef tartare prepared with care, homemade fries

Hand-cut or ground beef to which will be added onion, parsley, cornichons, capers, and in France, cognac. Herbs will be added in accordance with the chef’s preferences and all versions of Steak Tartare will have Tabasco or Worcester sauce added for spice. 

A steak in the manner of the Tartars, the famous and frightening fighters who rode to war under the direction of Genghis Khan beginning in the 13th century.   Twentieth-century folklore has the Tartar tribesmen riding to war with raw meat under their horses’ saddles.  As they rode they were said to cut off pieces of the raw meat with a knife, and eat as they rode; they only stopped riding to sleep.

Escargots de Bourgogne gratinés maison | Burgundy snails home gratinated

Burgundy snails, or “escargots de Bourgogne“, are usually seen on the table at festive family gatherings as a plate of twelve. Then you’ll need snail tongs to hold the shell, and a snail fork to remove them from the shell to eat. The version here is without the shell, so you can just eat the snails with a tea spoon. The snails are cooked with “beurre d’escargots” (butter, garlic, parsley), and topped with a cheesy, creamy gratin.

Faux-filet de boeuf français, frites maison, sauce au poivre vert | French sirloin steak, homemade fries, green pepper sauce

The steak is a faux-filet (lit. “fake filet”), or sirloin, pan-fried rare (“saignant“ or lit. “bloody”) with hollandaise sauce, served with deep-fried potatoes (French fries). The doneness was spot-on with a well-seared crust. McD has better fries, but they were good enough. The French will leave the fats untrimmed as they give good flavours to the steak during the searing.

Fish and chips de daurade, sauce tartare | Sea bream fish and chips, tartar sauce

Princess order fish and chips, and the French does it with style using a filet of sea bream. Breaded and then deep fried to a crisp, the fish was still tender and moist and came with homemade tartar sauce. Delish.

Profiteroles maison, chantilly au siphon | Homemade profiteroles, whipped cream

And to round up our excellent dinner, we shared a plate of chocolate profiteroles, which are crispy hollow choux pastry balls filled with custard and then drizzled with chocolate. Came with more whipped cream for that luxurious finish.

We had dinner here, the food was really good, the serving great and the atmosphere really pleasant. The staff is welcoming and you can have a random chat easily. And of course, the teddy bears; amazing how they came up with it.

La Manufacture Cafe-Restaurant
62 Av. des Gobelins, 75013 Paris, France
Tel : +33 1 43 31 01 36

Visited Oct 2024