Seize sur Seize

[Scott]

Hi Guys,

I have been recommended to Seize sur Seize, and I know it is fairly recently opened, but has anyone been or heard much about it so far?

would appreciate any help you could offer.

cheers

Scott

[Explorer]

We are thinking about adding it to our list for a January visit. Did you end-up going?

It has been a year now that Arabian left there and a new chef (ex-Meurice) has replaced her. GM had a nice review in their magazine on it.

If you went, please tell us your impressions. Thank you,

[admajoremgloriam]

Just so that everyone has the relevant info:

Restaurant " Seize au Seize "

16, avenue Bugeaud - 75116 - Paris -

Tel 01 56 28 16 16

Fax 01 56 28 16 78

Notice it's "Seize AU Seize", a pun on either the arrondissement or the street number.

The chef's name is Frédéric Simonin and the pastry chef is François Benot.

I have heard good things about the place but have not tried it yet.

[Scott]

went on saturday - 2 of the best dishes I have had this year were served.

Most exciting 'new' restaurant I have come across in lord knows how long...

more details to follow

Ok,

Had lunch at violon d'ingres earlier in the day, very good I might add, and planned this one for later that night.

arrived to quite a trendy choc/gold interiored restaurant, well comfortable but it did seem part aztec part morrocan.

Anyway, Nick Lander of the FT recommended this as Frederic Simonin had just been annointed the best young chef in paris upon his last visit. thought cool, let's go. Simonin is ex Maurice & Taillevent and his party chef is Francois Benot of Ledoyen. Robuchon I think is behind the backers somehow. anyway, they decided simonin at the ripe old age of 28 was perfect to take over from Ghislaine Arabian in this venue.

Good lord, the food was good. Now this is a no star restaurant open less than a year. Service was friendly but a little erratic, all well humoured and intended.

The menu has changed since opening, it is now a list of small tapas entree, mid sized mains, grand mains, and desserts or mini desserts.

the idea is 2 entree, 2 mini mains/1 grand main + dessert or 2 mini dessert. I wanted more starters but was informed that would not be wise. Excellent advice as I could not finish otherwise.

Prices were excellent, given the quality. I'd say the food was very solid 2 star in many cases, pushing skywards in one instance, and little lower on another.

Starters around 10 - 12 eur mid/mini mains 23 - 25 eur grand main 46 and desserts around 15 eur

so about 75 eur for a well judged menu, that grades upwards effortlessly, never out of sync, building nicely and ends beautifully. We were given an order that dishes should be served once we had selected and this was very accurate and demonstrated the care that had gone into planning composition and escalation of the menu.

Wine was fairly priced - 1/2 george vernay 2001 condrieu terrace l'empire 60 euro and a Montille 1988 Pommard les Pezerolles 110 eur

anyways the food, I haven't forgotten

No amuse Bouche - I suspect they forgot, ordinarily this would have pissed me to high heaven, but sometimes it's easier to forgive.

I started with Ravioli du Hommard, perfect toothy ravioli of lobster in a coriander and herbed emulsion. Immediately upon tasting it, I passed my fork to my wife silently - i never fail to comment, who was equally impressed. I stated then that this was about the best thing I have tasted this year. The lobster was juicy, well seasoned, sweet, good firm texture. It had obviously been prepared beforehand, expertly and gently sealed within the pasta. complex and well judged. I am particularly taken by this as I have had similar in many multi starred places and been disappointed, the lobster I often find a little flavourless in this preparation. So much so, my wife questioned why I ordered it - initially

My wife made do with a perfect 'elegant' mushroom risotto, with a light foam accompaniment, timing was excellent, again complex, understated, not too rich, harmony sprung to mind. Mushroom risotto is a crowd pleaser, it is not a complex dish - at least I used to think that.

I then had frog's legs in an airy tempura with a classical parsley and garlic dipping sauce. The meat bulbous and sweet, with the leg erect like a cocktail stick. utterly perfect in execution and conception, but lacked the complexity of other dishes. hey I ordered it, and I have never had better, though as a dish it has inherent limitations.

Again my wife suffered through fried oysters in a curry crust, served with a szechuan dipping sauce. the crowd swooned at the flavours, big, uplifting, aromatic and enticing - delicious but again not complex. it's very clean and fresh and I would eat this dish every day of the year if I could.

Interesting that we each had 2 starters 1 that was sublime in it's complexity, and another that was delicious, satisfying and easy to understand. Perhaps 2 dishes to measure the chef and 2 to enjoy??

very, very good start.

my wife ordered 2 mini mains, a john dory and duck in orange sauce - to summise, good, maybe very good, but not great. perhaps a bit obvious in their preparations, no surprises and I lost interest a little too quickly. in no way bad, but not in the league of my main.

Now I have eaten half a dozen times in 3 star restaurants and maybe 4 times as many in 2 stars, and fuck knows how many 1 stars, but I have never had a more perfect dish that my 'grand' main - ever.

Sea Bass with truffles. a perfect slab of bass, almost translucent in the middle, fraction undercooked giving a fresh, briny character to the meat, whilst still showing some firmness to the tooth. a very confident hand shown here, with great timing. 3 discs of truffle adorned it, and speckled throughout the ever present emulsion, and a truffled fish sauce which I can't quite describe, other than many little fishy things had been boiled into nothing. The smoky, aromtic complexity of the truffle, the succlence of the fish, a rich lusciousness of the sauce, lightened by the foam - it was heaven. I passed sliently the fork, and said nothing - for about the 2nd time ever, and twice in the last hour! This was as good as anything I had ever had. We agreed it was different class, and started thinking of prior dishes and occasions.

Like a prize fool, and I am a fool - I have the championship belt to prove it , i noticed I had not touched the 3 half heads of caramelised chicory. I tasted a piece, delicious and slightly smoky sweet. hmmm... do I risk wasting a piece of already fish with another accompaniment - how I debated! so I do. This then brought every element of the dish into a greater harmony, then the crushing realisation I had wasted half a perfect dish, eating it in a state of less than total perfection. I'll get over it, but not quickly. The composition of the dish, the timing and execution, complexity of complemtary flavours added up to a grand achievement. I made this clear to the staff that I considered this a 3 * dish. I got the impression that they may have been aware of this.

The Pommard matched the dish very well, better than it matched the wife's duck in fact.

desserts, well I never pay much attention here, but 1 was of the highest standard, 1 was very good and 1 was not to my taste.

I had mini desert with orange sorbet on an orange biscuity construction covered with mandarin flesh. very good.

I also had some rose sorbet that I didn't rate,

wife had the plate seize au seize. Benot was fanous for his choc at ledoyen, and I know why. though the wench was as keen to share her dessert her as had been with my bass. damn her. Anyway, it was just a bowl of choc stuff.

actually it was different preparations of choc, to different densities and textures layered. from a white choc whipped fluffy mousse, to a liquid dark choc, to a milk choc pudding consistency, separated by biscuit & grated choc 'flakes' with a choc brulee like lid. perfectly light and rich at the same time, very elegant choc plate, and that's not always easy to do. many layers of flavour and texture made this a superb dish that was very, easy to eat for a non choc person.

coffee good.

In short, not only was this a truly exciting meal, it was such a treat to find this hidden away in the 16th. I felt I had discovered a great talent waiting to take his place at the height of culinary recognition.

28 years old huh? - damned show off bastard

Edited December 15, 2003 by Scott (log)

[Scott]

Oh and I probably should add,

Lunch the next day at Tour D'argent was as expected.

- view great

- staff surly

- food average

- wine list otherwordly.

[fresh_a]

Fréderic is a great guy, I knew him when he worked at Le Cinq...

[sumac]

We went in March and were so impressed that I intended to post, but was lazy.....sorry. I agree with all Scott said and then some. It was a wonderful experience and if the chef is still there when we are in Paris next time, we will be there again. La Belle France wrote a wonderful review in February of 2003 which is why we went there. Truly special!!

sumac

[fresh_a]

An interesting aside is that the owner of Seize au Seize, Greek billionaire Theodore Margellos, actually owns Joel Robuchon's Atelier in Paris (or is the major financial partner at 49%)

Here's a small mention of him at the bottom of this article...

Edited January 9, 2004 by fresh_a (log)