It’s strange what a small world Parisian restaurants truly exist in.
Robert has long been a show-stopper in my book, ever since I first visited the second project from Loïc Martin (godfather of boulevard du Temple, owner of my beloved Martin wine bar). Then, Peter Orr was still in the kitchen, and I was blown away by the precise, contemporary bistro cuisine at lunch. I later visited for not one but two Thai nights at the establishment, each more tongue-tingling than the last.
Now, however, there’s a new chef in the kitchen: Daniel Morgan, who I knew from his time at Salt, has pushed Robert even more into what it always was: a product-driven, veggie-heavy, contemporary bistro with an international accent.
On the night of our visit, there were two ordering options: a 48-euro vegetarian prix fixe (with the 12-euro option to add either lamb or fish) or a diverse menu of plant-forward à la carte plates. In order to try more things, my fully vaxxed dining parter and I decided to opt for the latter.
To start, we enjoyed an amuse bouche of courgette from the garden (all of the veggies grown at the farm shared by Martin and Robert in the Loire are posted on the chalkboard). The courgette slices were served atop an herb-and-garlic infused cream and a crisp naan cracker. The crispiness made it a bit difficult to eat with any semblance of decorum (a theme that would return), but I loved the cumin-scented cream and the bright, rich flavors: an indication of what was to follow.
While the à la carte menu is technically divided into shared plates, appetizers, and mains, the dishes we ordered appeared in no particular order. I know this is a thing, now, and I would like it to stop. It made it harder to enjoy each dish at its peak when dishes would come in rapid succession, only for us to be left waiting and wondering when which would come next.
But I digress.
Aside from that slight serving snafu, which may be down to my personal preference more than anything else, I have little to say aside from: wow.
We started with a “tartare” of red bell pepper, smoked watermelon, and goat cheese spiked with a hefty and actually spicy (shocker, in France!) dusting of espelette pepper. The tartare was studded with toasted hazelnuts, which added a delightful crunch, and the smokiness of the watermelon (something I truly never thought I’d write) was very welcome. The watermelon loses some of its freshness, which until trying this tartare, I had thought was the whole appeal of watermelon. I love to be wrong.
Melon featured in a different form in this combo of cantaloupe, mustard ice cream, and sichuan pepper. It really packed the heat, with a nice textural addition of actual mustard seeds.
The “ploosh” made us laugh a lot, both in its name and in its design. With an onomatopoeic name and an interactive experience, ploosh entails dipping bundles of fresh garden herbs into an herby emulsion. It’s bright and kind of fun, albeit perhaps not a first date kind of dish.
This sausage was an exemplary one, made even more savory and delightful thanks to the black garlic barbecue sauce served along with it. The charred scallion ultimately proved difficult to cut and eat, but it was delicious.
The one main dish option we chose was the lamb. And oh, man, did we choose well. Redolent with sweet baking spices and topped with a generous dose of rich herb sauce, this lamb was slow cooked for 20 hours before being piled atop a crispy potato rosti spread with eggplant purée. A final layer of bear garlic and a few clams completed this wholly unique surf-and-turf play. I was floored.
We finished things off with a tasty Brillat-Savarin cheesecake served with apricot sorbet, apricot segments, and a thick apricot purée. The Brillat was fairly muted beneath all that fruit and sugar, but this was a lovely cheesecake with a buttery, slightly funky flavor and a divinely creamy texture.
All I can say is… I’ll be returning. A lot. Hope to see you there when I do!
Robert – 32 Rue de la Fontaine au Roi, 75011