Alea is almost 2 years old.  The small place is filled with tiny tables closely set.  A couple run the place, Chef Léa Lestage is in the kitchen and her husband runs the front of the house.  Music is in the background,  there’s one bench seat,  windows line the wall to the street, the kitchen is partially open through a window in the room and they have a partial bar.  Tile is on half the walls and books serve as decorations to the space that previously housed L’Arcane.   The dozen tables are set with paper napkins.  At lunch they a 2 or 3 course tasting with 2 choices for each course.  We both chose the same items in the 3 course venue.  While I had read good reviews of the place our lunch was disappointing and service was slow.  There seemed to be one server for the entire room with the solo cook, who was not Lea, also helping to serve.  It made for long waits but still the lunch is a good value for Paris.

Set-up

 

Food

Leeks, country ham, mustard seed and grilled grapefruit in a tarragon vinaigrette was topped with parmesan crisps.  The country ham was fried to crispy pieces. The leeks were soft and made a nice textural contrast to the crisp ham, parmesan crisp and mustard seeds.  It was good but the flavor did not have the depth you’d expect.

 

 

Hake fillet was plated with braised red cabbage with raisins and black sesame wine Matelote sauce (red wine and shallot sauce).  The large piece of fish was topped with mustard seeds and herbs.  The purple sauce worked colorwise with the red cabbage but made for an ugly plate.  I loved the accent of the raisins with the cabbage but disappointed to seed mustard seeds again.  The overall flavor was just okay.

 

Rice pudding was topped with salted caramel and caramelized almonds.  This was a fun dish to eat with lots of textures and flavor pops.  A touch of citrus was in the mix to add a contrast to the sweet, creamy and thick pudding.  Rice pudding and caramel are both favorites of mine so it would be hard to miss with this one.