Paris Eats - Gettin' Brunchy With It at L'Echappée

I always feel a bit of pressure when it's up to me to propose a restaurant for brunch. Will the food be tasty? Will the service be good? What if the baguette is bland and the café is horrible and it's all my fault?  

When Dancer Friend suggested that we make plans on Sunday, I did a bit of Googling and found two options - L'Echappée and Café Rouge.

While I'd eaten dinner at Café Rouge, I'd never had brunch there (slight risk of failure), and L'Echappée was completely new (high risk! but recommended by Timeout ). The other l'Echappée plus- it is  conveniently located right down the street from my house! Always a bonus on Sunday morning when the last thing you want to do is take the metro! 

I ended up making a reservation for Café Rouge since l'Echappée had no tables left for six. But, at 10:30 on Sunday morning, as I was getting the pre-brunch coffee going chez moi, l'Echappée called to say that they'd had a cancellation and that we could come at 2 - parfait!

L'Echappée is not only a restaurant but a spa and yoga / pilates studio. You could easily miss the little black awning while walking along rue de la Folie Mericourt...

Upstairs in the restaurant, the ambiance is relaxed / urban cozy, with a combo of high wooden tables and stools and long table basse with couches and lounge chairs. A wall of windows brings in natural light, and the buffets of delicious sucré / salé are the perfect start to a lazy Sunday.

For 25 Euros we had:

Bottomless coffee, tea and hot chocolate
A glass of freshly squeezed orange juice
Fresh baguette, jams, butter, honey and Nutella
Fruit salad (with pomegranate seeds...yummy)

A plat du jour - choice of vegetarian lasagna, a zucchini and chevre tarte, or scrambled eggs and home fries

An "all you can eat" sweet buffet - rice pudding, crème brulée, moelleux au chocolat, apple almond cake, mango cake, berry pie, flan, fromage blanc, muesli...

An "all you can eat" savory buffet - selection of cheeses, soup of the day (that particular Sunday was pumpkin soup)

and crêpes for dessert! (as if you'd have room!)

coffeeeeeeee

with cinnamon! (this alone earns them 10 extra brunch points from me)

crème brulée on the buffet sucré

cheese platter - (after we had gone in for serving number 1)

Feeling like a delicious brunch in a relaxing setting? (great service and bathrooms too!)

L'Echappée
64 rue de la Folie Mericourt
75011 Paris
Tel: 01 58 30 12 50

Metro: Oberkampf (line 9 and 5), Parmentier (line 3), Saint Ambroise (line 9)