You can’t really go to Paris without doing some shopping and despite the fact that the Euro is giving the Australian dollar a sound drubbing making it less splendid a past-time, an afternoon browsing the department stores is still compulsory. One thing that can make it even more pleasurable is the idea of having something unusual to eat and unusually good at that, in the department store itself. Délicabar is the baby of Sebastian Gaudard who delights in mixing savoury ideas with sweet eg chocolate and raspberry soup, Foie Gras and Chocolate and Salmon Mille Feuille. It’s like mixing metaphors but with more success (and judiciousness).
The Department Store Le Bon Marché was designed by Gustav Eiffel. At the moment, it has a lot of scaffolding to the side so it looks less than ideal. I also like to combine my shopping with a bit of the macabre (and I don’t mean Goth or Halloween outfits this time) so earlier that day we went to the Catacombs of Paris where 6 million bodies were buried in the late 18th century.
I’m not a ghostly apparition-honestly!
It certainly works up the appetite walking the 1.7kms and climbing the 82 stairs and descending the 130 stairs. After a quick browse at Le Bon Marché, we head up to the 1st floor and find the Délicabar, the concept of snack chic (i.e. the opposite of McDonalds-if the brightly coloured resin Alessi creatures were made into a restaurant, it would be this). It features bright pink and orange and plenty of whiter than white in the inside area and green and white on the balmy outside terrace. The menu is in French but we manage to decipher a few words and the fact that dishes in black text are savouries while the dishes in brown text are sweets. A waiter also thoughtfully comes by to explain some of the items in English for us.
Bread
A waiter also explains some of the recommendations, some of the items are no longer available but we order the Foie gras and chocolate on thinly sliced toast and the Salmon Mille Feuille and the chocolate and raspberry soup to finish.
Smoked Salmon Mille Feuille €13
The salmon Mille Feuille is a leaf shaped pastry top and bottom with an accent of poppyseeds and a filling of smoked salmon and cream cheese. A side salad of lightly dressed fennel accompanies this. It’s inventive but I can’t help feeling that it needs a bit more moisture from the filling although the pastry is incredibly crisp.
Pain Foie Gras Chocolat €18
The Foie Gras and chocolate on the other hand is fantastic and has you wondering why this is the first time we’ve seen this. The chocolate is thin enough so as not to overpower and oversweeten the foie gras and when spread on the thin toast with the dressed leaves, it’s superb. A word of warning though, and that is to share this plate with someone. I found that only having one piece of the Foie gras and chocolate was a little more than enough as it’s incredibly rich.
Chocolate and Raspberry soup €7
The chocolate soup with raspberries arrives and whilst it looks like hot chocolate it is slightly different. For starters it comes in a very large cup and eating it with a spoon gives it a different flavour. The raspberries are perhaps a bit too bitter with the bittersweet dark chocolate but if you like your chocolate bitter this dessert is for you. There is also a scattering of finely chopped nuts inside.
Fauchon’s Madeleine store
I also leave you with some of the food purchases I made that afternoon from Fauchon, the “Lips” chocolate boxes, white chocolate tablettes and an ice cream from Hediard across the road. And of course the Mothership, the Chanel Rue Cambon store. Bag Lust!
Fauchon “Lips” chocolate tablettes €22 and white chocolate blocks €4.50
Hediard ice cream stand outside the Madeleine store
Hediard ice cream, mango at the bottom, passionfruit at the top
Chanel’s Rue Cambon store
Délicabar
Le Bon Marché
24 rue de Sevres
6th Arrondissement, Paris 75006
Tel: 33 1 42 22 10 12
If you enjoyed this post, why not share it with your friends?
Follow me
on Twitter
RSS
16 Comments | Add your own
Love that photo of you in the catacombs.
Would that Pain Foie Gras Chocolat go with cheese? I definitely would like that, despite them being such an odd couple. I have been to Fauchon, everything was so rich and is always pretty busy. The lips chocolate box is adorable! Ah Paris…
The catacomb photo is beautiful, artistic… and you look like a real ghost
Wow, what a fabulous collection of photos! I’ll take the cone filled with icecream please.
sigh - was just having lunch there last week at this time!
loved it. we ate at some spectacular low budget places - meaning not the Michelin restaurants - and the food was consistently superb.
i might be able to tolerate foie gras if it was surrounded by chocolate–awesome.
and that soup. the words “chocolate” and “soup” seem so wrong together but are really so right.
I love the decore of Delicabar, very funky.
The chocolat foie gras sounds delicious.
Hi Y-Thanks, I didn’t even realise he took it until later! Too busy trying to not slip
Hi Maria-hmmm interesting proposition! It would be very, very, very rich is what I would guess. Fauchon is so purty I agree, especially since so much stuff is pink
Hi tuulikki-Thanks! I thought I looked rather ghostly when I first saw it.
Hi Kim-Thanks
The mango was really so good! It was hard to choose flavours.
Hi arundathi-Very cool! Was the weather good for you? It was on and off for us. It seems hard to get a bad meal in Paris
Hi grace-Isn’t everything better with chocolate?
Although I don’t think I could eat tripe with chocolate 
Hi melissah-The decor was great, I had heard it was nice but didn’t expect it as so many things are of the older design in Paris. It was a refreshing change to see something so modern!
Well, it did go from chilly to sunny, but a light sweater did the trick most times.
well - we did have one bad meal - and that was at the buddha bar (someone recommended it to us) - and we went only to be completely disappointed. a tourist trap with bad food.
but i must say every single other place we ate was superb.
Hi arundathi-Oh that is interesting about Buddha Bar, a colleague recommended it but it was more based on the decor and music than the food. Pity that the food doesn’t stack up
O.M.G. why is this the first that i am hearing about chocolate foie gras??? what a steal at 18 euros for such generous slices!
i never ate at le bon marche but i might need to make a trip to paris just for the foie gras (if only the euro could weaken to make paris more affordable for me).
Hi blythe-I’m 2000% sure that I told you about this not once but twice!
Mysterious Lorraine.. a silhouette! So you *are* real?!
I think some of this food would have been too rich for me.. but I liked the look of that icecream.. it looked like refreshing gelato.
I liked the design of the place too btw!
Hi Maria-I am indeedy!
It was definitely rich but thankfully we shared the chocolate and foie gras. I think that if I had both pieces it would have been way too much for me! The design was great as was the ice cream-so full of flavour 
Délicabar is a great experience isn’t it. Lovely design. It’s a bit of a pity that the quality of offerings and service has slowly dropped since it first opened three or four years ago — I gave it a miss this year.
Hi Duncan-I actually really enjoyed what we had (although it was very rich) and we had very hospitable service when we went.
Post a Comment