Fabulous food at Les Parisiens [Paris, 7e]

Here for the first week of our Paris trip. I will do a complete trip report (in multiple parts) presently. But our lunch at Les Parisiens was so good that I felt compelled to write it up separately.

We’d been to and very much enjoyed Antoine (at Parn’s recommendation) a couple of times previously, so when he recommended Les Parisiens by Thibault Sombardier (the chef from Antoine) it went high on my list. When I realized it was only 3 minutes away from the apartment we are staying in the first week, it was a no-brainer.

The exec sum is simply a repeat of what Parn said: the food is without doubt Michelin star-worthy, and the Menu Dejeuner at 38E is a steal.

For a hotel restaurant (I checked the room prices - too rich for my blood!), the room was enjoyable, especially at lunch (seemed perhaps a little dim when peering in from the outside at dinner). I liked these whimsical pieces on the windowsill near us:

My wife, who doesn’t eat crustaceans, got the melon gazpacho from the a la carte menu. It was fine, and would make a refreshing starter on a hot summer day, but to me nothing more. My crab salad starter was interesting, light, somewhat familiar tasting and yet just a bit different (the buckwheat in it added interesting flavor and texture).

They offer a choice of two mains. Fortunately for us, they were out of the veal, which was on the printed menu, and since neither of us was in the mood for the steak substitute, we both had the fish. [Given that Antoine was a fish restaurant, I should have known better than to consider getting anything else here!]

The fish was “just” cod, but it was perfectly cooked, with an interesting parmesan and (light) cream sauce with some baby pasta.
It has been hard, and I’ve little doubt will be hard, for any of the other fish dishes we’ve had / will have to measure up to this one. In fact, so far only a veal dish on our Virtus tasting menu is in the same league IMO with this dish.

Dessert was pears with ice cream and a cake of sorts: to me, basically, a deconstructed apple pie using pears. It was excellent, and again a little bit different than a standard dessert at a quality restaurant.

Les Parisiens is now on our “must return” list, even if we’re not staying in the 6th. I’d encourage everyone to go quickly, especially at lunch, because the menu price is sure to rise, and likely rise more if and when they do get their Michelin star…

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I’m very chuffed that you have joined Les Parisiens fan club. And yes, very gifted Thibaut Sombardier (another of my chef crushes) can turn fish into an impressive symphony of flavours like no one else can. He’s juggling lots of balls these days and so probably wasn’t in the kitchen for your lunch but part of his talent is assembling a great team who can execute his recipes and techniques faultlessly.

Sadly, there seems to have been only 1 other HUNGONer who has experienced Les Parisiens and she seemed not too enthusiastic about her veal Orloff. So, like all restaurants, choice of dish deeply colours opinions. For Les Parisiens, the message is fish fish fish, it seems from your and my experiences there.

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Seems like a sure bet for my next visit to Paris! Looking really good.

And now there’s a larger sample size, since 3 of us had lunch there yesterday. I’ll let our dining companion write for himself (if he chooses), but my wife and I both thought that, overall, it was a very nice meal. With a couple of caveats. I had the fixed price lunch, while the others did not. The only choice for the 1st course was a squash veloute, which I thought was excellent. Thick, rich with flavor & some thinly sliced fresh yellow squash set in the soup. However, also in the soup was a dollop of mustard ice cream, also excellent, but which I thought detracted from the dish. As a separate amuse bouche or a dessert, it would’ve been quite good. I just didnt see the connection with the soup’s flavor. A nice try though, and varying taste buds might yield a different conclusion. My fish main was just about perfect, right down to the couple of pea shoots included. My wife had a similar experience, although in reverse order. Her snail appetizer (the details of which escape me) was pronounced great. Her chicken main was excellent chicken, but with a “sauce” of artichoke puree that didn’t seem to work. Nothing bad, just “filler”. And the non-fixed price dishes were very reasonable as well. So, overall, very enjoyable and a place I’d not hesitate to return to, hoping that the chef refines the palate a little.

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I was the heretofore anonymous third member of the lunch with Steve and his wife. I ordered off the carte, starting with a beautiful tarte fine of avocado and then followed with vol-au-vent of various shellfish that was delicious but quite rich. The wine list is good there at all levels. I was happy with the meal there, but that part of Paris, from the Rue Pré aux Clercs, where Les Parisiens is located, to the Esplanade is an extremely competitive area for fine dining and so although I definitely will return, I wouldn’t put Les Parisiens in my top three for that area.

It seems the food has increased in sophistication since my visit. And fish is THE dish.

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Well, we enjoyed Les Parisiens so much that “must return” couldn’t wait 'til next trip; we went back for dinner two weeks later on the second-to-last day of our trip.

I started with a very good daurade(?) tartare with a sorbet on top.

For mains we both had the turbot with chanterelles in a champagne butter sauce. Not particularly creative, and I can’t say the fish was cooked as perfectly as that cod, but well executed and really tasty.

The accompaniments happened to be almost identical sides as we had the night before at Canard & Champagne.

Dessert was a fantastic caramel millefeuille. My wife loved it and she’s usually not a millefeuille fan. Best one I’ve ever had.

Either Thibaut Sombardier has a better pastry chef than he had at Antoine, or his pastry chef has gotten better!

I was very happy with the two glasses of wine recommended by the sommelier, the pairings were good.

I was surprised that I actually liked the room better at night than I did at lunch. Part of it I think was the lighting, and part no doubt was that the room was full on the Saturday night, while not even half full for our midweek lunch.

I thought it was fair value. I might come back again at dinner, too, and of course returning for lunch is a must. In fact, if we lived in Paris, I think I’d come for lunch every 2-3 weeks.

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Finally getting to writing up our return to Paris in May/June this year.

The first night we returned to Les Parisiens, our current overall favorite Paris restaurant.

They completely forgot to bring my oysters to start, and so ended up comping them for me after the mains. First meaningful service issue I’ve had here. For mains I had the vol au vent, and my wife had the sea bass.

The vol-au-vent was very good… but did not compare to the excellent fish. You’d think I’d have learned by now my own rule to always choose fish at Les Parisiens.

The sides - including the unusual (to me) for Paris pasta side - were fine but nothing memorable:

The dessert was an excellent and refreshing (if not particularly original) lemon ice.

The moral of the story at Les Parisiens remains: focus on the fish, the fish the fish … and the desserts.

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One more lunch trip to Les Parisiens 3 weeks later:

Starter on the menu:

We got an order of the aguilletes de bar again from the carte, while my daughter and I each had the menu, which featured yet another wonderful fish dish:

Menu dessert:

The lunch menu has “skyrocketed” from 38E a year ago to 45E now; still a steal.

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