Coup de Tête, the very good restaurant on the heights of Belleville

On the heights of Belleville, the Coup de Tête restaurant welcomes hungry locals, and chef Jaime Corzo Lemos takes charge of delighting them with his inventive, gourmet bistro cuisine.

Today, we're climbing to the heights of Belleville, one of the capital's most popular and endearing neighborhoods, to discover the restaurant Coup de Tête, opened in 2019 by restaurateur Lorraine Sourdille - already at the helm of Quartier Rouge.

Lorraine Sourdille has opened this cosy bistro in a former fishmonger's shop , which takes its name, you guessed it, from Jean-Jacques Annaud's excellent film Coup de Tête, starring an actor with an unmistakable (good-looking) face who, in his day, could easily be imagined roaming the streets of the district: Patrick Dewaere.

With its vintage blue tiles on the floor, yellow banquettes and a small terrace for sunny days, Coup de Tête has a lot to offer. And chef Jaime Corzo Lemos, who has worked at Le Meurice, Trianon Palace, George V and Joël Robuchon's Atelier, won't tell you otherwise.

For Coup de Tête, the Colombian chef imagines a bistro-style cuisine enhanced by the techniques he acquired in the aforementioned fine kitchens, but also by his own personal touches, reminiscent of his native Colombia.

Atlunchtime, you can choose from 4 starters, 4 main courses and 4 desserts. It's a slim slate, just the way we like it, with an emphasis on seasonal produce. What's more, the lunchtime menu is very affordable: €15.50 starter/main course or main course/dessert, and €10 for the children's version - so you can introduce your little tribe to new flavors from an early age.

For our part, we fell for the whelks (9€) accompanied by a super-light syphon mayonnaise, the white asparagus (9€; the first of the season!) on a tasty parmesan cream, and the homemade foie gras (12€) marbled with bitter cocoa (original) with small slices of mango (also original) to mark the occasion.

As for the main courses, we hesitate, hesitate and finally fall for the saithe ceviche (15€) with tiger leche, creamy, punchy and laid out like a small painting; for the Thai cuttlefish and shrimp soup (17€), generous, thick and with clear-cut flavors (that broth!).

And finally, drum roll, we savor every last crumb of thepork loin (16€) cooked for a very, very, very long time at low temperature, and its grenaille potatoes with thyme. A great dish for the taste buds: the tender loin, cooked to perfection, literally melts in your mouth.

Accompany these excellent dishes with a glass of natural red wine, since the wine list - labeled Raisin, the label for natural wine - features attractive bottles of organic and biodynamic reds and whites, with no added sulfites.

We finish with two successful and diametrically opposed desserts: on the one hand, a tangy, soft lemon sponge cake (8€), and on the other, Coup de Tête's cult dessert, the Tonka bean pot de crème (7€), creamy (of course), round in the mouth, delicious all in all.