Last Updated on February 21, 2024
Japanese – Peruvian fusion cuisine at Royal Monceau – Raffles Paris
Dining at Matsuhisa Paris is akin to entering a different dimension. In the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe, just off the Champs Elysees on Avenue Hoche, the restaurant is accessed through the revolving door of Le Royal Monceau – Raffles Paris Hotel. The sumptuous lobby and welcoming staff set the scene before you even cross the threshold of Matsuhisa. Once inside, the evening progresses in a form of culinary choreography, light courses leading onto increasingly complex dishes; the food as beautiful to look at as to eat. Invited to review Matsuhisa Paris I came away filled with joy. That is the result of superbly crafted food by Executive Chef, Hideki Endo, with service to match from the staff, chicly dressed in stylish navy suits.
Matsuhisa is one of six gastronomic restaurants owned by Nobuyuki Matsuhisa whose Nobu restaurants are renowned as a global brand with their fusion of Japanese and Peruvian cuisines. At Matsuhisa, the Nobu signature dishes, like black cod in miso, are on the menu but each chef at the six Matsuhisa restaurants has the freedom to create dishes relevant to their local ingredients. The Executive Chef at Matsuhisa Paris is Hideki Endo who introduced himself to us and enquired about our food preferences. In the spirit of the phrase omakase shimasu (I trust you, chef), we confidently put ourselves entirely in Chef Endo’s hands and were treated to a meal that will live long in the memory and will not be surpassed with ease.
The restaurant is an elegant space with a wall of floor-to-ceiling glass doors that open onto a stunning courtyard with a pool and trees in enormous white pots. Wooden tables rimmed with chrome are set with stylish Nobu white crockery. Large plush rugs cover the wooden floor. The painted ceiling looks like a Miro or a late Matisse. A wide, open kitchen is backed by an illuminated glass wall with a recurring motif of green bottles which must surely reference the song from childhood about green bottles hanging on a wall. The hotel is decorated by Philippe Starck whose inimitable style is evident everywhere from the oversized bell-shaped lights to the exquisite glassware. Throughout the evening the tables keep refilling and by 11 pm the restaurant was still buzzing. From young couples to family groups, the extensive menu enables diners to choose from a platter of sushi to the seven-course tasting menu and the luxurious offerings from the à la carte selection.
Our server, Anna, was not only warm and engaging but knew the menu inside out, informed us about every item in every dish – because we were curious – and added decisively to our enjoyment of the evening. She recommended a couple of signature cocktails to try, created by Clément Emery, and I needed no encouragement when I heard about the Nikkei Sour as I have enjoyed these previously in Nikkei restaurants. This was made with a base of umeshu (plum wine), yuzu, and pisco. Served in a bright orange glass it set the tone for a creative evening. I don’t usually have glass envy in a restaurant but I did when my husband’s Hanami was served, a Japanese Spritz – umeshu, yuzu and sparkling sake. I wondered how I might manage to carry home a set of these exquisite glasses in my hand luggage. If they had been available to buy, I might just have tried.
The first three courses were like a series of flower watercolour paintings, each delicate, detailed and individually diverse. First to be served was a yellowtail jalapeño sashimi. We were warned that we might find the peppers too strong but in fact, I found them less so than wasabi. This was a lovely example of a fusion dish with the peppers replacing wasabi and served with a blend of soy sauce and yuzu, with a tangle of cilantro to soften the heat of the jalapeño. Laid out like a flower with the cross-cut peppers perched on the sliced of pink fish it was a floral portrait. The sweet fish sang harmoniously with the salty soy and the citrussy yuzu. This is the lightest of dishes, so delicate and encourages mindful eating.
The second course was seabass sashimi dry miso. Here the fish is paired with Greek olive oil and yuzu, another fusion combination that elevates this dish of delicate flavours. This time the fish was seasoned with dry miso and tiny garlic chips and served with tiny cherry tomatoes, micro herbs, thin slices of radish and yam leaf which I had not encountered before. It looked like impossibly thin slices of sponge but was in fact crispy. So much going on here with each ingredient contributing to the colour palette and textural contrasts. Anna explained to us how Nobu had come to invent dry miso – one of those happy outcomes that derived from a kitchen mistake. It is pure umami pleasure.
The third course was a sashimi salmon ‘new style’. In this dish, the sashimi is lightly seared, served on soy sauce and yuzu as well as a warm dressing of sesame and olive oil. There is also ginger and chives for extra flavour. The seared salmon has a wonderful flavour of moments spent on the grill, with the olive oil and sesame dressing adding depth of flavour and the herbs adding a vegetal quality. It has a deeply satisfying mouthfeel.
Before the fourth course was served the sommelier arrived with a wine pairing. Sol Lucet Koshu 2019 is similar to a Sauvignon Blanc, somewhere between wine and sake. It had a very light colour and a slight umami taste which was unexpected and refreshing. The fourth course was toro tataki which is one of my favourite Japanese dishes, the fatty tuna always feels like a treat. I ate toro tataki only a few days before but at Matsuhisa, this dish is elevated to a different level entirely. The fish was wrapped around a jalapeño salsa, topped with delicate purple edible flowers and served with eryngii (king oyster) mushrooms. It was served on a yuzu miso sauce, a rich caramel colour, a sweet and citrus sauce so heavenly we wished that Japanese cuisine was served with a hunk of bread to mop it up. Another quite beautiful dish to behold.
By this stage we were ready to stay until morning, such was the enjoyment of the evening. The next pairing was served, YK35 sake was decanted tableside into a small ceramic bottle from where it was poured into sake cups in shades of purple. Nobu produces his own sake and this one was smooth and smoky. It was a perfect pairing for the fifth course which was Chilean seabass umami. Served on a thin, long white platter, two thick slices of perfectly cooked, buttery seabass were served on butter lettuce leaves. The fish was topped with a smoked eggplant purée and accompanied by lime wedges which we were instructed to squeeze onto the fish before picking up the parcel with our hands and eating it. A tiny bowl of pickled fennel was then to be eaten as a palate cleanser. This had me in raptures as I am a great fennel fan but have never encountered it in pickled form.
The revelation of the entire dinner took place on eating the sixth course. As we did not know what we would be served for each course, there was no way for Chef Endo to know that while I enjoy most fish, the one I never eat is mackerel. I simply dislike the flavour. So my heart sank a little when Chef Endo himself brought a large fillet of mackerel to the table. It looked very attractive on a green herb sauce and Chef Endo artfully poured a pink sauce around the fish so that the sauces formed pink and green circles. The green sauce contained coriander, cilantro and olive oil while the pink sauce was shallot based. The fish itself was decorated with petals of baby onion, slices of black olive and edible flowers. As soon as I tasted the dish I sent a message to chef Endo to let him know that he had converted me. This fish, the skin crisped on a salamander, was full flavoured as mackerel should be, had an excellent firm texture and none of that unpleasant oily flavour that mackerel lovers enjoy and others of us do not. The sweet onions and salty olives added extra pops of flavour. The sauces were in turn herby and sweet and sour and, as I savoured the combination of fish and sauce, I realised that it was akin to eating a sophisticated lightly pickled fish.
Chef Endo’s philosophy is to not over egg his dishes but to let his ingredients shine without manipulating them. All the fish dishes we ate on this journey were great examples of this cooking style. I enjoy this style of presenting fish with no competition from side dishes of carbs or vegetables, simply pure protein cooked to perfection and served with creative garnishes and outstanding sauces.
By the time the seventh course arrived I was very grateful that I had skipped lunch in anticipation of this dinner. Chef Endo brought to the table an A5 Mizayaki wagyu beef sirloin tobanyaki. With this method of preparation, the best quality Wagyu beef is served on a hot ceramic plate that emits heat after it is removed from the heat source and the dish can be brought to the table. Chef Endo poured over sake and the flames leapt dramatically into the air. What tableside theatre. When the flames subsided, I noticed that there were tiny asparagus and baby corn nestled alongside the meat. Two sauced were served – a teriyaki and one of yuzu, sesame and truffle. The mouthfeel and flavour on a seared fillet of wagyu is quite indescribable and the mouthfeel is enough to prevent this pescatarian from ever quite turning her back on red meat. Wagyu is the king of beef and in Chef Endo’s hands, was exquisite, tender and pink. A superb dish.
The eighth course was a platter of sushi. Toro with French Imperial caviar, seabass shiso, salmon tataki aburi with salmon caviar, Japanese scallop with a creamy spicy sauce and jalapeño salsa. Aside from looking gorgeous on their white platter, these were quite the best I have eaten. The salmon tataki had been seared with a blowtorch before serving and presented in the mouth with a marvellous grilled flavour along with the pops of salty caviar. The toro was luxurious, the seabass had shiso leaves between the rice and the fish which imparted a refreshing minty taste while the delicate scallop was tenderly yielding and spicy with the salsa.
I would have had a lie down if the dessert course hadn’t arrived at this point! While this was officially course nine, we were in fact presented with three desserts. Matsuhisa has a talented pastry chef, Quentin Lechat, winner of the Grand Prix de la Pâtisserie 2019. The sommelier presented us with a dessert offering, chilled umashi (plum wine) which had an amber hue and was sweet, fruity and redolent with almonds. The first dessert was a Hojicha tea and coffee cappuccino. Served in a small cup this layered dessert was composed of a bottom layer of Japanese tea crumble, then coffee cream, milk ice cream ad finally a coffee foam with sprinkles of tea. The second dessert was a red lacquered bento box with three items. A warm chocolate fondant topped with popping sugar, a chocolate and chocolate mousse disc and a quenelle of matcha ice cream on a black sesame sable. The oozing, brown molten chocolate pudding paired with the cold, green intense matcha flavoured ice cream with its brittle black sesame sable was an excellent contrast of colour, texture, temperature and flavour.
The final dessert was a triumph. A frozen cheesecake with green tea and strawberries was presented as a very thin white chocolate and matcha green ball dotted with toasted rice. Once one broke through the brittle surface, there was a cheesecake ice cream layer below which itself contained a layer of strawberries in a matcha jelly. It was served with a strawberry water sauce. This was such a sophisticated and fun dessert for the summer months. Not too sweet, it was multi-layered, colourful, and full of textural contrasts – an ingenious creation that brought an artistic end to a most memorable meal.
This exquisite and enormous feast took three hours. It was pure pleasure from beginning to end. It was an extravaganza, a privilege to savour food of this quality in the hands of such talented chefs in surroundings that support and enhance the culinary experience. Matsuhisa is a special occasion restaurant or, if you are fortunate to be a guest at Le Royal Monceau – Raffles Paris will be one of your in-house options. The restaurant was full of people having a good evening, the happy buzz of conversation, all enjoying the exquisite food and superb service. This is Paris as far from steak-frites and brasserie food as you could be. It was a joy to have experienced. I spend my days in Paris visiting museums being nourished, surprised and moved by some of the greatest art in the world. How wonderful to find such art on a plate at Matsuhisa Paris.
Matsuhisa Paris
Le Royal Monceau – Raffles Paris
37 Ave Hoche
75008 Paris
France
