olivier zahm

It takes a special kind of restaurant to lure models to the Rue Saint-Denis area of eastern Paris to munch on bloodied steak and chocolate fondant.  Colette’s Fashion Week dinner for Alexander Wang at La Fidélité was well-documented in the blogosphere, with Purple’s Olivier Zahm, Natasha Poly, Dasha Zhukova, Lou Doillon, Lara Stone and Milla Jovovich in attendance.

La Fidélité is on the wrong side of the tracks from the bobo Canal Saint-Martin, but then again, the restaurant belongs to André and Lionel (of La Clique and Le Baron), so it must be worth a try, right?

Given that it’s La Fidélité’s first birthday this month and everyone is going out before Christmas, I thought that it would be almost impossible to get a table, but Coralie rang ahead and booked us in without any problems.

We arrived at 8pm and as usual, we stayed chatting and drinking wine until closing time at midnight!  La Fidélité has a traditional, unpretentious brasserie atmosphere and it feels sociable but more private than other restaurants, with the tables set quite far apart and cosy booths. The waiters were laid-back and friendly and didn’t try and hurry us up to free the table.

La Fidélité was most recently a brasserie called Les Zingot, before the take-over, so it attracts a mixed crowd of local regulars, in-the-know couples and groups of young, trendy friends.  At the end of the night, we saw a model and her boyfriend dancing around the bar to tradition French chansons, so its reputation is totally undeserved.

There is just enough choice on the menu and there were a number of different wines to go with whatever you order.  We chose a bottle of Brouilly (€30), and though it was on the pricey side, it was light, fruity and dangerously easy to drink.  Our waiter also brought a full basket of fresh rustic bread.

The food is mostly good old traditional brasserie fare, but I was more than happy to have steak with béarnaise sauce and grilled potatoes (€22) – Steven had the same.

When our meal came, the steak was enormous, juicy and cooked to perfection. The béarnaise sauce had a hint of tarragon and was so delicious, I couldn’t help slathering it all over my steak and potatoes and bread.  It also came on a bed of green salad with French dressing and the grilled potatoes were tasty but could have been a bit more fresh out of the oven.

Coralie went for a veal cutlet with a ragout of potatoes (€20) cooked pink.  Her potatoes came bubbling hot in a mini Le Creuset pot and the veal was, by her account, just right.

Even though Steven and I ate cake at almost every meal in Paris, we all couldn’t resist ordering a dessert each, well it was holiday time after all.  Coralie went for the brioche pain perdu with a caramel sauce (€8.50), which tasted incredible!  The brioche was moist and infused with a light custard and had a caramelised, crunchy top.

After watching Master Chef: The Professionals, I discovered just how hard it is to make a chocolate fondant, so we thought we’d test the chef’s skills.  The fondant had just the right level of gooiness and the molten chocolate sauce came oozing out straight away.

La Fidélité is now one of my favourite restaurants in Paris and I hope to keep revisiting whenever I’m in town.  It really does have everything – great food, a informal but buzzy atmosphere and friendly, genuine service.  Bravo André and Lionel, my next stop will be dinner at Hotel Amour!