Paris! I haven’t been to the Ville Lumière since my January 2019 visit with Bert and Wim. Also, this March 2022 getaway in Paris marks the first overnight excursion with Thanh since our 2012 visit of the capital of France. Ten years ago! 

Sunday lunch. If you want a nice, perhaps trendy spot for Sunday lunch on a sunny early spring day, you need to book in advance. That’s what Thanh did. He booked Ventrus avec vue in La Villette. 

Presentation

Ventrus avec vue (with a view) is a wooden construction restaurant in La Villette park, near the Canal Saint-Martin. Ventru also mean with a belly, a potbelly.

Founder Guillaume Chupeau explains on the website. “I imagined my ideal restaurant. A restaurant where you eat well, where you drink well, and where every detail is part of a local and forward-looking approach.”

“It is not the beautiful views that are lacking in the world but more the restaurants to enjoy them. But a restaurant offering such views should not damage the exceptional place that hosts it. This means recycling waste, rationing and filtering water and having the ultimate goal of producing your own energy.

Ventrus is a traveling restaurant. “To discover more exceptional views, varied terroirs and offer a different catering offer wherever potbellied with a view arises. The structure has therefore been designed to be installed in less than a week in any location (city, countryside, sea)”, Chupeau says.

Ventrus calls itself locavore, a neologism involving local and the –vore of carnivore. “Because it is necessary to sublimate the terroirs and the local producers who work cleanly and with love. To offer creative but gourmet market cuisine carried out by chefs in residence for a few months who care about beauty, goodness and benevolence. In short, real potbellies. 

Book!

You almost imperatively need to book. We saw many people turned away, even if there are tables available. But as you can book until the 2PM time slot for lunch, the managers cannot but wait for the bookings to show up. 

Sometimes staff was a bit snappy or arrogant turning people away. On the other hand, this 2022. You can’t expect a hip and trendy food spot to be available without booking in a day and age where people look for ‘original’ things to do. That is also arrogant and self-centered. 

The menu

The menu changes weekly and is only displayed on a blackboard.

As starters, Thank had asparagus and I had the artichoke. 

As a main Thanh had the broccoletti and I had the lieu (pollack). 

For desert, Thanh had the financier and I had the thick chocolate cream-mousse. 

The soft drinks were very expensive, 6 or 6.50 euros. But I believe there is a sugar tax in France.

But is was real nice food. And great value for money. The setting and the restaurant’s story is also really nice. 

Food, gastronomy and restaurants

• REVIEW | Restaurant De Godevaart in Antwerp.
• REVIEW | Restaurant SELSation in Hemiksem.
• REVIEW | Breakfast at the 5-star superior Botanic Sanctuary Antwerp.
• REVIEW | Dinner at DINS Santi Taura in Palma de Mallorca.
• REVIEW | Restaurant 273 in Utrecht.
• REVIEW | Restauracja Ritz in Gdańsk.
• REVIEW | Carlton President Hotel Utrecht Maarssen ft. Restaurant One24.
• REVIEW | Van Der Valk Hotel Hoorn.
• REVIEW | Restaurant La Grange aux Canards in Paris.
• RIDE & DINE | Orient Dining Express by Stoomtrein Maldegem-Eeklo.
• Afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason in London.
• The German Gymnasium, Kings Cross / St Pancras, London.
• Hoftrammm, the tram dining experience.
• An airline meal for the holidays.
• More than, but also sausages: rich cuisine of Germany’s heartland Saxony, Franconia and Bavaria.
• Bars and drinks package on Majestic Princess.
• Restaurants and food on Majestic Princess.
• Food and drinks on board Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas.
• Comparing Royal Caribbean to MSC Cruises.
• Culinary, food and drinks markets in Antwerp.
• 5 (surprising) hotspots in Stockholm, Sweden.
• 8 food hotspots in Madrid for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
• POLAND | 3 hotspots of gastronomy in Kraków.

Paris 2022

1. Thalys Brussels – Paris – Brussels – Antwerp in 2022.
2. PARIS 2022 | Museum Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection.
3. PARIS 2022 | ‘Oh! Charley, Charley, Charley…’ by Charles Ray pushes male sexuality from the bottom to the top.
4. GAY PARIS | LGBTQIA+ bookshop Les Mots à la Bouche.
5. REVIEW | Restaurant La Grange aux Canards in Paris.
6. REVIEW | Hôtel 1K Paris.