A deli combined with a restaurant is now quite normal. But a butchers that doubles as an eaterie is really unusual, even more so if you add kosher into the mix. A kosher butcher/restaurant must be unique. There is certainly only one in Paris.
Recently refurbished, Chez Victor offers customers the chance to choose their cut of meat and then promises excellent quality in the cooking. Lured in by this different approach to dining I decided to sample the food, despite mixed reviews online (and some are really scathing!).
We ordered a bottle of Israeli cabernet sauvignon (€22.00) and I ordered the steak mignon with bernaise sauce and fries/chips (€20.00).
This is pretty standard fare but that’s always a good basis on which to judge food – if you can get the basics right, there’s a good chance that more complex dishes will work, and vice versa!
The wine was delicious, and I have to say, contrary to what a lot of other people have written about Chez Victor, the food was pretty good too. Having not chosen one of the best cuts, I did expect it to perhaps be a little tough or not quite live up to my standards- but I was wrong. It was nearly all perfectly tender, save for a stray piece of additional steak mignon that seem to have been separated in the cooking process and thus dried out. Leaving that by the wayside, the rest was very good. The fries/chips were fine, though not that good they were worth raving about.
Considering one of the lesser cuts was this tender, I am curious to know what shelling out €30 or €40 would give me, seeing the veritable feasts and sharing platters going on around us. Chez Victor clearly does indeed pride itself on its meat- an added bonus if you need to eat kosher while visiting Paris.
Olivia Thiessen
Address: 53 Avenue du Dr Arnold Netter, 75012 Paris
Metro: M6, Picpus
Phone: 01 47 70 50 58
Open: 08:00 to 22:00 Sunday to Thursday, Friday lunchtime only, Saturday closed.
