At Pradel, in Paris, “the flank steak with shallots arrives steaming on the tables, melting with each bite”

OYou enter Chez Pradel if you live nearby or if a local resident values ​​you enough to give you the address. Luckily, a precious friend from rue Championnet spilled the beans about this popular Parisian bistro like no other ever did. For ten years Karim Hakim, chef and owner of the place, has been shaking hands with his customers like greeting family: “Put your helmet on the counter, I’ve put a table of two at the back for you,” to a biker who arrived soaked for lunch. Men in shirt sleeves elbow each other at the table with a dressed-up retiree who has her assigned place, when a couple of women, in their twenties, squeeze in next to them. It didn’t take five minutes for these strangers to toast their way.

The slate, which varies every day, loosens tongues with great classics, such as herring and apples in oil served warm and coated in a sweet mustard seed vinaigrette or flank steak with shallots, star of the day. Seared full heat on the grill, slightly crusted here and there, it arrives steaming on the tables, thickly stringy when cut, melting in each bite. The tenderness is partly explained by the choice of the Angus breed, renowned for its marbling.

Here, no heavy sauce but shallots slipped on top, almost candied, which the chef took care to let slowly melt by the fire. The homemade fries that accompany it have neither the American look of thin golden sticks, nor the curve of the (too) thick half-moons of brasseries, but the regular shape of those that have been passed through a household fry cutter. Dipped twice in an oil bath, they come out instantly for an unstoppable crispness.

“The most beautiful recognition”

Founded in 1897 by an Auvergne family who gave it its name, this street corner restaurant has enjoyed a second lease of life since Karim Hakim took over it. After working in the kitchen in large Parisian houses such as La Tour d’Argent or Le Pré Catelan, it is in the bistro repertoire that he flourishes today: “I cut my teeth there, but the atmosphere of the brigades and the ego of the leaders weighed on me,” he says between two ” Have a good year ! » launched to customers. Experiences, he admits, from which he gained the rigor necessary to tackle bistro recipes, because, in cooking, nothing is more complicated than keeping things simple.

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A model of its kind: its free-range chicken with crispy skin under a homemade poultry jus that the chef reduces every day. The regulars, who nickname him “Coco”, greet him from one end of the room to the other. How can we not praise the one who offers a formula between 15 and 18 euros, starter, main course and dessert, where nothing is left to chance? “My parents ran a roadside restaurant on the main road from Créteil to Versailles before the highway arrived, he explains, I want to save these prices for lunch. There are workers who come here very often, it’s the greatest recognition. »

Building on his success, Karim Hakim opened a second address four years ago (Chez Pradel Bastille) in 11^e district, which his partner runs, but his followers barely know it as they only have eyes for their “Coco” on rue Ordener.