The lively neighbourhood around the rue de Buci, not far from our hotels, has a number of interesting restaurants (like Huguette and Fish la Boissonnerie that we’ve already written about on the blog).

The latest arrival, Gilberte, opened last June with an on-site rotisserie, a wine list with over 300 different bottles and interior design reminiscent of a the world’s chicest shed (perfect for winter).

We went down there for lunch, and here’s what we thought!

A butcher’s closes and a restaurant opens in its place – please welcome Gilberte to the rue de Seine, with its long terrace (heated in the winter) bordering the quiet street, and a large room indoors with cosy interior design very much in the modern style.

If you don’t like wood, you are going to hate it.

Copper, marble… The decor seems to suggest, not too subtly, that Gilberte is not messing around. A huge display case shows some of their 300 different bottles of wine ? and the five or six people in the small kitchen shows that they are very serious about their food.

After a warm and sincere welcome, we took a look at the menu (also housed in wood) and decided to start by sharing a burrata. This turned out to be very fresh and was served with crunchy, perfectly salted green beans drizzled with a light oil. A very proficient start, as indeed it should be for 17 euros.

For the main dishes, we chose a vegetarian salad with chia and pumpkin seeds (more or less the only vegetarian dish on the menu), and a crunchy pork belly.

The salad was very copiously served, with strands of courgette, green beans (again), pieces of cauliflower and a few (absolutely delicious) cherry tomatoes, all liberally drizzled in oil, perhaps a little too liberally. But we split hairs – it was basic but great, perhaps too large even for a luncheon.

As for the roasted pork belly, it was crunchy as promised without being dry, and served in a sweet ‘n’ sour sauce that had an extra little taste of what seemed like ginger. Meat dishes are obviously where the chefs shine.

The restaurant’s desserts are not cheap, and we weren’t very hungry, but we decided to test ourselves and share a portion of brioche French toast.

It arrived moist, warm, sufficiently sugary without being overbearing and served with a scoop of neutral ice cream (vanilla?). Even at 11 euros, we were not disappointed. Just looking at our photos again makes us want to return!

Gilberte has a fixed-price menu for lunch at around 25 euros. This allows you to have two dishes (starter-main, main-dessert, or starter-dessert), but there is no choice for each course. You may find this a more economical way of trying out the cuisine of young chef Romain Dubuisson.

We think the restaurant would undoubtedly be a good choice for a business lunch (with a client you want to impress) or for a late-night lovers’ tete-a-tete. The interior design will definitely impress, and the dishes will not disappoint. We look forward to enjoying the long terrace when the weather gets warm again!

Gilberte (here) is open every day of the week non-stop from midday until 1am

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Pour voir toutes nos photos de Gilberte, cliquez ici.