People often ask me where to get great seafood in Paris, and until this year, I haven’t had a ton of places to recommend. Paris is landlocked, and while there is fantastic seafood on the coast – and French cuisine does have a handful of seafood classics like sole meunière – Paris has never struck me as the ideal place to eat fish.
Grive has proven me wrong.
Grive is a small restaurant tucked into a quiet street not far from Bastille. As is the current (very pleasing) trend, the ingredients come first here, with many of the items on the seafood-heavy menu coming directly from the Normandy coast.
Presentation is no-nonsense, allowing the great seafood to speak for itself. Bulots are served blissfully simply: stacked high in a bowl, with a ramekin of mayonnaise for dipping on the side.
A whole lobster claw is plated in similar fashion, and small details show that this is an extremely purposeful choice. The claw, while presented whole in-shell, has already been cracked perfectly in the kitchen, so that all one needs to do to extract the sweet meat is barely nudge it.
The cockles were only slightly more involved, but that added work made them my favorite appetizer: the whole cockles were served in an aromatic broth and topped with fresh sorrel.
This eye for simplicity carries through to the mains: Normandy salt meadow lamb was served atop a two-bean sauté with just a few fresh herbs.
My favorite dish of the night was perhaps the most involved of them all: a line-caught white tuna tartare with raspberries, served atop seasonal sliced tomatoes. I never expect to like tomatoes when combined with other fruits, but sometimes, a chef surprises me, and here, the discovery was nothing short of irresistible.
Grive’s dining room is quite small, but the choice to use light woods throughout makes it feel far brighter than some others in Paris.
As the night goes on, the dining room fills up, mainly with regulars and locals. This does make service a bit more relaxed than most Americans would be used to, so don’t be afraid to flag down a waiter or one of the owners if you need assistance or a suggestion: if eons from imposing, the folks working here are both friendly and knowledgeable.
I’ll be back to Grive: for the famous oysters that hadn’t yet come into season yet during my visit, for the eclectic list of natural wines (including a fantastic natural Champagne), and for the ambiance that makes Grive seem like the kind of spot you could really be at home.
Grive -18 Rue Breguet, 75011