« l'Atelier de Joel Robuchon - Paris (Rating: 12/20) | Main | Alla Testiere - Venice (Rating: 16/20) »
April 23, 2005
Isami - Paris (Rating: 15/20)
For people who wish to have a quick and light and high quality lunch, however, there is a better and cheaper (but not cheap) alternative than L’Atelier in Paris. This is however not an international style contemporary brasserie but Japanese fast food, a sushi place. Located in the touristic Ile Saint Louis, ISAMI is a tiny mom and pop and daughter type of place that only prepares sushi and sashimi. Thanks to Mikael who recommended this place I was able to secure a reservation and then watch scores of people, mostly Japanese and some French, get turned down since they did not have reservations. The clientele is in fact is mostly Japanese and the overall quality of sushi is very high with pristine quality fish and shellfish. They set standards high with the amuses: excellent bulots which taste as they do in Brittany and also a silky and rich and delicate foie de lotte or monkfish liver which will elicit oohs and aahs if it is ever served in a modern three star, such as Gagnaire.
We have tried 4 different sushis (ormeaux, sea urchinor uni, eel and oyster). We had more sea urchin with sepia or seiche or cuttlefish and also in a cornet (cone). The sea urchin in fact was of exceptional quality, and I am surprised that they acquired uni at all, because I had inquired about the availability of raw sea urchins in Paris that week by calling all seafood temples including Marius et Jeanette, Le Dome, etc. The answer was a definitive no. Unfortunately we did not have a common language with the family to understand their sources of supply of excellent sea urchin and cuttlefish, whose combination worked wonders by contrasting the sweet/salty tastes and creamy/slightly chewy and crunch textures.
The sashimi plate which featured prawns, calamari, octopus, daurade, mackerel, tuna, salmon and a fish which I could not identify but had the texture of lotte or monkfish was also beyond reproach in freshness. I had had better quality belly of tuna in a Japanese restaurant in Seattle at the States but, in return, the mackerel is superior in Europe and the daurade (which is meaninglessly translated as sea bream to English) can only be tasted in Europe. In return, I have never had in Europe a salmon as good as the Copper River salmon from Alaska that I had in Seattle at the Dahlia Lounge, and my friends from Seattle assure me that the Yukon River salmon is even better in May. So perhaps, if one can not go to Japan, then we can have a sashimi plate at Nishino in Seattle and then take the plane to Paris and compare it with sashimi at Isami. I would call it a tie!
Gastroville rating: 15/20
/VM
