Eunoe is the name of a river invented by Dante for his Divine Comedy. After passing through Purgatory, the dead take a dip in the River Lethe, where they forget their earthly sins, then in the River Eunoe, where they remember their good deeds before heading up to Paradise.
This unusual name is apt for the restaurant where I ate the other night, but with a twist: I will certainly remember not my own good deeds but those of the chef of Eunoé, who regaled us with memorable dishes throughout the evening.
At first sight, Eunoé has many qualities that would normally be considered demerits. First, in the decor department, there is not much to be said about this restaurant. It is just plain, with rough wood tables and some kind of weird cloud-shaped caramel-brown incrustations on the walls, which I presume are supposed to be art. Personally, I don’t care that much about decor – the food and service come first – but this was unusually dull. There were so many people in the restaurant when we arrived at 8 o’clock, however, that I didn’t even notice the decor until much later in the meal. Forgiven.
Second, throughout the meal, we could hear the boom boom, boom of lounge music without actually hearing the music, something that would normally drive me nuts, but, bizarrely, we were still able to hear each other speak in spite of that, even with so many people in the room. Forgiven.
Third, the wait between dishes was quite long throughout the evening, but somehow I didn’t really mind. I put this down to the fact that I was enjoying the company of my friends and to the general upbeat ambiance of the restaurant. I even commented to my friends that the long wait gave us time to digest between courses. When the server arrived with our main courses, he coyly said exactly the same thing, implying that they do it on purpose for the sake of our digestion. Forgiven anyway.
What did not need forgiveness was the food. The menu is short but seasonal and well-seasoned. We sampled three starters. One was asparagus, currently on the menu of every restaurant that cares about such things, although in meager portions because it is so expensive. Here we had two large stalks of perfectly cooked green asparagus and a couple of small raw ones for crunch, surrounded by mounds of creamy accompaniments, including basil zabaglione and almond foam.
Bill had the raw bass marinated in kombucha with smoked labneh, sudashi (a Japanese citrus fruit), cucumber and green apple, a highly felicitous combination (pictured at the top of this page). This was his favorite dish of the evening.
Marco had a real star of a starter, the restaurant’s signature dish: knife-cut beef tartare seasoned with chili lime. We were a bit confused when he was served a plate that appeared to contain nothing but a pile of fresh coriander. Minutes later, an ice cream cone decked out with flowers, parsley and apple slices appeared, adding to the confusion. The server instructed him to turn it upside down on his plate, crumble up the cone on top of the contents and mix it all together. A clever way to serve an excellent tartare.
Bill followed up with another fish dish: a barbecued whitefish with beurre blanc with carrots, a Japanese-style carrot-and-ginger mousse and even more carrots, cooked in different ways.
It was a delightful dish, but luckily he was able to also indulge in a little meat by dipping into the huge platter of veal for two that Marco and I were sharing. For me, this was a highlight of the meal. Different cuts of meat were prepared differently, each delicious in its own way. Barbecued kebabs came with miso sauce on the side, while the big plate offered juicy chunks of fillet barbecued with teriyaki sauce and a rib bone (we all wanted to pick it up and gnaw on the meat still clinging to it but didn’t dare; later we saw the couple at the table next to us doing just that). Vegetables were not forgotten, with pieces of carrot and cauliflower floating around with morel and shimeji mushrooms in the fabulous creamy sauce, just waiting to be soaked up with the crusty dark bread.
Desserts: we tried two of two. The chocolate mousse with anko (red bean paste) and kiwi sauce looked beautiful and tasted fine, but we all agreed that kiwi just doesn’t go well with chocolate.
Far more popular among the three of us was the stunning dessert of strawberries with thyme, Crémet d’Anjou (a creamy dessert from Anjou), strawberry sauce and lemon crumble. Refreshing and totally satisfying to the sweet tooth without being too sweet.
Four visiting friends and I ate at four different excellent restaurants (Eunoé, Baillotte, Yoshinori and Passionné) last week, not always together. Every one of them had a Japanese chef, all of them cooking up wonderful French food with a Japanese twist. Don’t tell me this isn’t a trend. (The other three restaurants are also brilliant, but make sure you are feeling flush if you go to Passionné.)
What’s left to say? I highly recommend that you take a dip in the River Eunoe and sin no more.
See our Favorite Restaurants by Arrondissement page to find a good restaurant in the neighborhood where you want to eat.
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