The French movie “Amélie” definitely worked its magic on me when I saw it in 2001. For those of you who haven’t seen this movie, you’re missing out BIG TIME! It’s like a glimpse into the whimsical world of modern-day Montmartre. It’s not all that different in real life I’d say. You can even visit the Café des Deux Moulins where the character Amélie worked as a waitress on rue Lepic, my favorite street in the area and the most typical one as well.
Built on a hill 130 meters high during the Middle Ages, Montmartre was a completely independent and extremely RELIGIOUS village. It wasn’t until 1860 that it became officially a part of Paris. You can see traces of that charming village today. Just look at its haphazard streets loosely and freely intertwining each other. No Haussmannian avenues here.
Rue de l’Abreuvoir, “watering hole street,” one of the most picturesque streets in Montmartre
A major contrast from its religious beginnings, Montmartre became the HQ of sin and par-tays, especially from the 19th century. The streets were WILD and filled with musicians, writers, actors, cafés, bistros, cabarets, bars, and brothels. Absinthe, “la fée verte” (lah fay vehrt), was a-flowin’ and tripping out peeps like Van Gogh, Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, Oscar Wilde, Hemingway…
Typical Montmartre ball depicted in Renoir’s, “Bal du Moulin de la Galette” (1876)
It’s truly a marvelous place with hundreds of secrets and stories to be discovered for the curious.
Instead of exploring side streets and enjoying all the pizzazz Montmartre has to offer, a lot of tourists just stick to the chaotic area around Moulin Rouge or Place du Tertre, and sit on the steps of the Sacré-Coeur listening to some random guitarist sing “No Woman, No Cry.”
Any given weekend at Montmartre between April and October. Besides tourists, the place is packed with street vendors who may grab you to sell you their bracelets. Pickpockets also run amuck here.
Restaurants can be a complicated affaire. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been disappointed/pissed coming out of a restaurant in Montmartre. It’s TOURIST TRAPS GALORE over there. After years of trial and error, I’ve eliminated a ton of places that have neither good food nor good service. Victims of Montmartre’s success, restaurants just don’t see the point of service with a smile, or great food for that matter, when their customers come by the BUS LOAD, year after year…after year…
Place du Tertre, where I’d NEVER take anyone to eat.
There’s a new race of tourist traps now in Montmartre offering super friendly service and expensive mediocre food. At least the food isn’t gross and you don’t get treated like a farm animal….but still, you can do much better.
La Boîte aux Lettres (lah bwah toh leh-trh), meaning “mailbox” in French, is a great local alternative to other commercialized joints. Opened just last year on rue Lepic, it’s the little brother of another Montmartre restaurant La Balançoire.
First Impressions
Rue Lepic, a muuuuch quieter street next to Place du Tertre.
The ambiance is friendly, with local trendy Parisians mixing with a few other Europeans. Customers are mainly 25-35 yr-olds and everyone seems to be livin’ it up! The décor is simple and tasteful but it’s really quite small with around 9-10 tables one next to the other, so YES, you’ll be dining with your neighbors. Get used to it, you’re in Paris!
8pm: right before the place filled up completely, with people waiting outside
The new-wave bistro menu changes quite often depending on what the chef gets at the market. Don’t you just love that? I sound like a groupie…
I always wanna taste EVERYTHING at restaurants which is usually problematic but NOT HERE. They’ve got a special Indécis (anh-dey-see) Set Menu = Sampler starter + Main + Sampler dessert.
I obviously opted for that. Biiiiiig surprise.
The Food
They first brought out some amuse-bouches, homemade cheese puffs commonly known here as gougères (goo-jeyr). It was a nice touch and they were freshhh.
Then came my Indécis Starter composed of Cream of Pot-au-Feu, Crabmeat Vegetable Macedonia, and Foie Gras with Apple-Mango Chutney. A nice clean presentation.
Pot-au-Feu (poh-toh fuh) or beef stew, is a staple in traditional French cuisine. Here the chef reworked it into a velvety soup. It was reeeeeallly tasty and very well-seasoned. The Macedonia was yummy with all the chopped up veggies perfectly cooked, retaining all their flavor. The fresh crabmeat was a great addition and the dressing was tangy and extremely light. The Foie Gras was also very good and I love it when it’s paired with chutney.
Next I had a dish called “Yes Chicken!” LOL.
It was mind-blowingly good. Excellently-prepared, it was influenced by Japanese cuisine. The batter was perfectly light, thin and crisp with zero greasiness and the chicken meat inside was succulent and juicy.
I was less impressed with the tossed greens side with mint and crushed nuts. It had an Asian-type vinaigrette with a bit too much soy sauce = kinda salty. Luckily there were perfectly crisp and sweet snap peas and delicious nutty crunch to make amends.
My friend had a Muffin Burger with fries.
Who the heck is eating a burger with a fork and knife?? A Frenchie of course! 😀
For someone who’s immune to the burger-craze in Paris (clearly I didn’t move to France to eat American burgers), I must admit it was well-executed = choice meat, good seasoning, good bread, or in this case, good muffin. But whatevs, it’s a BURGER for Pete’s sake. It’s so easy to make at home, I don’t get why Parisians are so crazy about it. The fries, however, were EXCEPTIONALLY good, not fried but roasted and moist’n’smooth inside.
Then I had my Indécis Dessert with Baguette French Toast, Oreo Tiramisu, and Pineapple Basil Carpaccio.
The French Toast, that the French call Pain Perdu (pahn peyr-du) meaning “lost bread,” is one of those granny-warm-fuzzies kinda desserts. It was drizzled with caramel….ahhh…simply DIVIIIIIIINE. The Oreo Tiramisu was simple and fun, and in any case who doesn’t like Oreos?? The fresh and sweet Pineapple Basil Carpaccio was accompanied by a moist Financier (fee-nahn-see-ey), a small and very airy almond cake that’s literally loved by ALL Frenchies. All in all, a great dessert.
We finished the meal with a shot of homemade Kiwi Eau de Vie on the house 😀
YUP, you’re allowed to have as many shots of this delicious, and pretty strong, eau de vie as you want
A very nice ending to a very nice meal.
The Verdict 
This is a clearly a great choice if you want something more local and less touristy in Montmartre.
The service is friendly and attentive, the food is relatively simple but very good and very fresh, and the ambiance is FAB FAB FABULOUS! A great spot to people watch 😉
I always leave the restaurant feeling totally satisfied and all smiles.
La Boîte aux Lettres
108 rue Lepic
75018 Paris
01 42 51 76 84
Price: Indécis Set Menu (S + M + D) 38€ / Starters 7€ – 12€ / Mains 16€ – 20€ / Desserts 8€ – 10€
Paris for Epicureans 