Don’t be put off by the building site you’ve just crossed behind the concrete blocks of Paris’s university buildings to get to the restaurant: Le Buisson Ardent (or Burning Bush) is a taste haven.

Cosy and romantic, the small dining room is lined with leather banquettes and decorated with frescoes painted in 1925. In 2006, childhood friends Jean-Thomas Lopez and Stéphane Mauiduit took over the restaurant to bring fresh flavours to the traditional menu. Their style marries innovation with a French respect for ‘terroir.’

My date ordered a cute mini ‘parmentier’ (a French relative of cottage pie) made with oxtail, parsnip and parmesan crisps. I started with a rich meaty terrine of wild boar with chestnut and quince marmalades, served with the restaurant’s -erm- ‘sturdy’ home-baked rolls. These were the only (but please let me emphasize, only) things on the menu that fell flat – literally. Dense as black holes, if we hadn’t liked the rest of food so much we could have used them to take out a couple of waiters before shattering the plate-glass windows and making a run for it.

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