Last Updated on August 5, 2022
Food with soul at 25hours Hotel, Paris
NENI is an in-house restaurant chain located in the heart of the 25hours hotels in Paris, Cologne, Hamburg, Munich, Vienna and Zurich. Much like the hotels themselves which are fun and funky, NENI is a laid-back space in which to enjoy lunch or dinner. The culinary message is ‘contemporary soul food’ with Persian, Arabic, German and French influences. It is the sort of relaxed food that one would find in restaurants in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
I was delighted to be invited to review NENI as I have previously stayed at the 25hours hotel which I enjoyed enormously. Breakfast is served in the restaurant and is catered by NENI. I had eaten so well there in the mornings that I was expecting a good dinner. As the25hours Hotel Paris overlooks the impressive façade of Gare du Nord, the restaurant has a great view. Ushered to a window table I relaxed into my low, pink velvet chair and reacquainted myself with the ambience. The restaurant is decorated to celebrate women from across a range of cultures. This is reflected in the artwork on the wall to the boudoir-like feel of the furnishings which are pink and green. The music is vibrant, celebrating African music from the 1960s to 1980s and the sounds of musicians like Papa Wemba. The restaurant filled up to capacity with diners all enjoying the summer evening out.
The menu at NENI is accessed via a QR code. I realise that I age myself in mentioning this, but I do prefer to have a printed menu as I like to refer to it while eating and find scrolling on my phone pernickety. No doubt this is a generational thing. While we waited for our meal to be served we were presented with a basket of bread with a dish of labneh and olives dressed with olive oil and sumac.
For starters, we tried two dishes from a range of mezze. They were served with a basket of excellent, fluffy pitta. Baked sweet potato with crème fraîche, spinach, rocket, sesame vinaigrette and pumpkin seed oil was colourful and laden with fresh greens. The sweet flavour of the baked potato was offset by citrussy flavours and had good colour contrast too.
Tabouleh of Levantine freekeh was served with Greek yoghurt, date syrup, nuts, sumac and fresh herbs. It was a generous portion of large grains on a yoghurt bed and was laden with pomegranate seeds, walnuts, fresh herbs and finely chopped red onion. This was a very filling mezze dish but so tasty that we managed to eat the lot.
From a good selection of main courses – meat, fish and vegetarian – we ordered Hamshuka which was a generous helping of houmous topped with minced lamb and beef and tahini. I found it to be a bit under-seasoned. It is the sort of dish that would go well with a sharply dressed green salad.
The second dish was delicious – pleurotes shawarma brought two skewers with meaty king oyster mushrooms on laffa bread with red onion, parsley and a piquant miso harissa glaze, tahina as well as amba sauce. This made for a most interesting mélange of flavours and was visually appealing too.
The desserts were the high point of the meal. There is a short dessert menu, four items, of which we chose knafe and a dish called sesam. 
Sesam is a dish that was new to me and I am so pleased to have tried this aromatic dessert. It is a sesame and raw tahini dish that came topped with a scoop of homemade muscovado ice cream and topped with shaved halva, caramelised pecans, and toasted sesame seeds and date syrup. I have never thought about shaving halva and will certainly be trying this out at home. Delighted with our desserts we needed nothing more than an espresso and a pot of fresh mint tea.
While the restaurant is part of the hotel and provides meals for guests, it is also open to the public. My only regret about the evening at NENI was that we were not staying in one of the fabulous rooms in the hotel for the night.
NENI Paris
25Hours Hotel Paris Terminus Nord
12 Boulevard de Denain 75010
Paris
France
