Le Cafe Chinois
Add: 7 Rue de Béarn, 75003 Paris
Tel: 01 42 71 47 43
Hours: [Tue-Fri] 12-5pm [Sat] 12-6pm
Website: www.lecafechinois.fr
Price: [lunch] €11-13/plate [tea] €2-5
Visited: May 2015
I wasn’t sure whether to put Le Cafe Chinois on the blog or not. I’ve passed by this curious little place a few times when it was closed, and as I peered through the window, I couldn’t help but be intrigued by the decor inside. I finally came by for lunch and tea this past week, curious to see what this “Chinese Cafe” is about. It turns out that while the interior is indeed charming and the service quite lovely, the food and desserts here really aren’t made for my taste…
What we tried: riz rouge au curry de tofu, sauce coco (€11.50), red glutinous rice with curried tofu and coconut sauce, and riz au thon sauce gigimbre (€11), rice with tuna and ginger sauce. We also added a side order of “tomyam” (+€2) thinking that it was something like Thai tomyam soup, but it turned out to be just pork floss flavored with lemongrass. Meh.
For desserts, we chose gateaux vietnamien banane (€5) and tiramisu au tofu soyeux (€5) with a pot of sencha (€4.50). At first bite, both desserts were quite strange to me…but while the Vietnamese banana cake was starting to get better after a few bites, the tofu tiramisu was just not something I could get used to. The sencha tea was pretty good though.
So why is this place still on the blog? Because the Asian-inspired decor is shabby chic and the couple running the place seem like very nice people. I wouldn’t mind coming back for a cup of tea.
