![A.lea, in Paris’s 18th arrondissement.](https://www.parisupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ParisUpdate-Alea-restaurant.jpg)
When I read a good review of a new restaurant with a female chef on the Rue Lamarck in Paris’s 18th arrondissement, I immediately alerted a friend who lives there and made a reservation. It is called A.lea, as in à Lea, I suppose, after the cheffe, co-owner of the restaurant with William, who handles the front of house.
The restaurant is prettily decorated with white tiles on the back wall, offset by pumpkin-orange walls behind the bar, framing the window onto the kitchen.
![Vegetable soup.](https://www.parisupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ParisUpdate-Alea-restaurant-soup.jpg)
The prices here are just slightly below the norm for this type of restaurant promising creative seasonal food. We were offered a complimentary amuse-bouche: vegetable soup topped with crushed nuts and containing an ingredient that popped up a bit too often in other dishes served later: grain mustard. The soup was good, but not sighing-with-pleasure good.
![Vol-au-vent.](https://www.parisupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ParisUpdate-Alea-restaurant-vol-au-vent.jpg)
I started with a very impressive-looking vol-au-vent: perfect pastry filled with leeks, shellfish and fish sauce. Nothing wrong there, but all in all, it was a bit bland.
![Veal tartare.](https://www.parisupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ParisUpdate-Alea-restaurant-veal.jpg)
My friend started with the veal tartare with confit lemon sitting on a pool of fish bisque and sprinkled with fresh tarragon. Again, all was fine and fresh, but it failed to bring a look of joy to my friend’s face.
![Duckling fillet.](https://www.parisupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ParisUpdate-Alea-restaurant-duck.jpg)
The cheffe finally worked some real magic with the star dish of the evening: duckling with kabocha squash, mushrooms, gojuchang (Korean red chili paste) and stunning meat gravy. The perfectly cooked duck was lusciously tender and married brilliantly with its accompaniments.
![Grilled meagre with cauliflower.](https://www.parisupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ParisUpdate-Alea-restaurant-fish.jpg)
The fish dish, on the other hand, was another case of good but not exciting: grilled maigre (stone bass) with cauliflower two ways (purée and florets), bone marrow (vegans and vegetarians are ignored in this restaurant; there were no all-veg dishes on the menu) and red-wine sauce.
![Tarte Tatin.](https://www.parisupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ParisUpdate-Alea-restaurant-tarte-tatin.jpg)
The dessert was a surprise: a classic tarte Tatin. I was prepared to scoff at the lack of originality – it wasn’t deconstructed or made with exotic fruits or doused with limoncello – but it was so delicious that I just shut up and scarfed it down. Long live the tarte Tatin! It’s a shame that it has pretty much disappeared from Parisian menus.
William the co-owning server, who was a chef himself in a former life and has worked in a few great restaurants, was cordial and friendly but strangely lacking in professional waiterly skills. When we were ready to order, he ignored us for quite a long time even though there were only a few people in the restaurant at that moment. Later, when I ordered a glass of red wine, he poured it into the glass that had previously held white wine instead of bringing a fresh glass as is the custom in good restaurants. Quibbles, but still …
The duck and the dessert prove that A.Lea deserves a return visit to see what else the cheffe can do.
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