Café des Ministères is a medium-sized place with about 50 seats.  The small bare wood tables are set closely to allow the maximum number of guests.  Rustic embroidered towels serve as napkins, the wine glasses have the restaurant’s name on them and the first course’s flatware is a spork – all carefully designed to have the feel of a cozy, casual Paris bistro serving fine French cuisine.   The menu is in a small wood frame that is brought to your table when you are ready to order.   Bench seating is along the perifery and lots of windows bring the feel of the street inside.  There are tables out there if weather is agreeable.   Empty wine bottles serve as decorations and they had a counter but I only saw one seat.  The place covers 2 rooms and it was packed with a happy, casual crowd of all ages.  Seating is close enough you might even start a conversation with your neighbor, although mostly I heard French being spoken.  The food is served in a timely, friendly fashion with large portions and wonderful flavors.  If I lived in Paris I’d eat here often, however reservations are a must due to the popularity.  Hope you’ll try it and let me know what you think.

Set-up

 

Food

Brown bread was in slices and served with a dish of sour cream, shallot and chives along with nice butter.

 

Landes duck foie gras terrine with chutney was nicely cut in half for us to share.  The chutney was a tasty accompaniment but I almost preferred it solo to totally appreciate the velvet texture and rich creamy flavor.  It was also good with the house bread.

 

Beef hanger steak was with shallots in red wine sauce and sauteed potatoes.  The nicely rare meat was cut in large chunks and mixed with the well caramelized potatoes and lovely sauce.  Some bits were on the chewy side but all had good flavor and it was another large helping of good food.

 

Vol-au-vent (small hollow puff pastry) with sweetbreads, poultry, spinach, mushrooms and truffle jus came in a small or large portion.  I got the small which was still quite large.  This was divine.  The excellent cream sauce was covering perfectly cooked and tender sweetbreads and tasty pieces of pork belly with mushrooms.  The pastry was great with everything and made it a grand plate of classic French cuisine.

 

Creme caramel, traditional style, as opposed to the Parisian style that is in a crust was a tall custard surrounded by the caramelized syrup.  It had good texture  and nice taste.

 

Baba au whisky with citrus and chantilly cream had more whiskey poured on the cake at the table.  Not rum but whiskey for a fun change on a classic.   The cake on the bottom got totally soaked and was decadent with the nicely flavored cream on top.  This was simply yummy.  It was a perfect way to close out a fine meal so I added a grappa to seal that deal.