Astara, the restaurant devoted to seafood

It is in Paris 1st arrondissement that Astara opened a restaurant doubling up as a super-complete sea delicatessen. On the menu, taramasalata, caviar and even smoked salmon and a lovely menu for the winter 2021.

Specialized in seafood for almost 40 years, Astara opened in 2019 its seafood restaurant in Paris 1st arrondissement to indulge as many people as possible. Head to rue des Petits Champs, between the Opera and the Palais-Royal, to discover the iodic menu featuring revisited sea classics and dishes from elsewhere.

In a refined, elegant and clean setting, Astara delights everyone as soon as appetizers are served, including cocktails based on vodka of course, another specialty of the house! Enjoy some Moscow Mule (€11), perfectly dosed for lunch and browse the menu.

For lunch throughout the week, Astara offers local workers and tourists a lunch menu for €19 including the dish of the day and coffee/tea, as well as a €24-lunch menu including croque caviar, smoked salmon tagliatelle or the dish of the day as well as coffee or tea with gourmet dessert.

Please also note the place provides hearty boards to share, three taramasalata recipes and the blini Astara style (€21), like a tart topped with DPO crème d'Isigny, Scottish smoked salmond, pickled red onions, and trout roe that delighted the last time we went to Astara.

And because we are here to try the novelties of the winter 2021, we went for two warm starters: the fish and crab fritters (€9) to dip in wakame mayonnaise, and the comforting lobster bisque quenelles (€9), a little wonder of softness.

Our cruise continues with the staple croque-caviar (€19) by the House, made with white bread from Carré Pain de Mie, candied sturgeon fillets, cream cheese and a spoonful of caviar Titane. An Astara classic that tasted dryer than usual - and we know the dish very well!

But you shall not miss the crunchy seabass tempura (€20), very tasty and served with winter vegetable julienne. A lovely novelty. Please also note sourcing at Astara is very thorough and promoted: Astara's caviars mostly come from the Giaveri farm in Italy where sturgeons are fed with organic food. And the same care is taken of wines which are organic and biodynamic!

As for the sweet offering, the chef brillantly revisits the classic rum baba with vodka (€9). But the sweet touch we highly recommend this winter is the semolina cake (€10) topped with fleshy roasted prunes and orangle blossom whipped cream. Or you can go for the pistachio crème brûlée (€8) topped with many caramelized seeds - although we found it slightly too sweet.

Finally, for those who would like to leave with a little something, Astara restaurant features a beautiful delicatessen providing a selection of smoked salmon, as well as caviar, sea urchin coral, taramasalata, salmon and trout roes, or even blinis!