Disclaimer: I was a guest of the property for this meal.
I’ve been noticing a lot of Italian – or Italian-inspired – fine dining spots in Paris these days. There’s Il Carpaccio at Le Royal Monceau and Le George at the George V, each of which boasts a Michelin star. There’s Mori Venice Bar, which Chef Simone Zanoni recently shared is one of his favorites in Paris; there’s Passerini and Piero TT and Tosca and Langosteria. And at L’Assaggio, Chefs Sasha Arandjelovic and Ugo Alciati are putting northern Italian specialties center-stage with a fine dining menu in the Castille hotel just steps from Grands Boulevards.
Both prix fixe and à la carte options are on offer here, but no matter which you pick, the meal begins with a trio of amuse-bouches. My first courgette flower of the season was perfectly crisp and seasoned judiciously with salt.
It was followed by a potato espuma hiding a sweet caramelized onion compote and generous segments of bright lemon, garnished with deeply charred onion and powdered oyster plant. While at first, I wondered if this would be too rich a first bite, especially given the deep-fried precursor, these notes brought welcome balance to what proved to be the most creative bite of the evening.
The last amuse broke from the French tradition of serving cheese last, featuring a wedge of what our servers warned us was a “very strong” cheese. The robiola di Roccaverano wasn’t all that strong, but it was indeed delicious, drizzled with rich, herbaceous olive oil.
One benefit of hotel restaurants is that the food seeks to cultivate mass appeal. In this day and age, this usually means you’ll find at least one vegetarian option for each course. Here, the appetizer was a “poached” egg (actually a perfect egg, which I personally like less, but such is life) paired with zucchini, Parmesan cream, and loads of black truffle (26). It was quite tasty, albeit a bit plain, despite the generous dusting with truffle, wanting a bit for texture and salt.
It did, however, provide ample sauce with which to sample the generous bread basket. I loved the focaccia, and the grissini were perfection.
I was far more enchanted by this play on a Piedmontese specialty – vitello tonnato (26). Relatively thick slices of tender, rosy veal were folded around blobs of rich tonnato sauce and garnished with edible flowers. It was a unique plating for such a traditional dish, but it totally worked, rendering it even easier to cut and enjoy.
All three of the primi featured house-made pasta, and we decided to sample two of them. The house-made tortelli were stuffed with a tender ricotta and spinach mixture and tossed with a light, bright, datterino tomato sauce (34). Spring has been slow in arriving in Paris this year, but this dish tasted like summer on a plate.
Mamma Lidia’s agnolotti (38) were stuffed with a mix of beef, veal, and pork and glazed in a rich jus. Simultaneously tender and rich, this was the epitome of what I always hope fresh pasta will be.
The chefs also serve one unsauced agnolotto in a cloth napkin, so you can taste it in its purest form, without sauce. It’s a cool idea, but in all honesty, the sauce is so light that it doesn’t reveal anything new about how incredible these agnolotti really are. But it does mean you get an extra agnolotto. So that’s something.
There were, nevertheless, a few hiccups. As is often the case with hotel restaurants, the dining room was a bit cold and austere (despite the warmth of the anglophone service). And unfortunately, the tiramisu (16) claiming to be Paris’ best missed the mark entirely, with a mugful of cream featuring just the barest layer of sponge and hardly any coffee or rum to speak of.
I was far more convinced by the mignardise, simple as it may have been: two meringues sandwiching a light, barely sweet whipped cream offered a lovely study in texture that was the perfect way to finish this meal.
If you’re looking for Italian fine dining with a touch more generosity, I find it easier to recommend Il Carpaccio. But the house-made pastas here are truly out of this world, and given the quality, the prices are far from unreasonable. All in all, it’s a good hotel option, and I can only imagine that if the weather were kinder, the interior courtyard would be a lovely place to enjoy a meal.
L’Assaggio – 37, rue Cambon, 75001