Elsass, 173 avenue Parmentier, Paris 10

I gave an enthusiastic review to this restaurant last October. A new chef started in April, so it was time for me to go back and see how things had changed. I can’t say better or worse, but this is a restaurant turning out high-quality contemporary Alsatian cuisine that is worthy of your attention.

The restaurant is in an area that has no real tourist attractions, so you’ll mostly be dining with people who live in the area. Nevertheless, it’s not a long walk from the République métro station, and so is easy to get to from virtually any part of Paris.

I went on a rainy Saturday evening that it had been hoped would provide better weather for the Nuit Blanche celebrations than the previous ones in October. Oh, well.

As I indicated in my previous write-up of Elsass, the interior is minimalist, but not at all depressing.

The carte, including wines by the glass and other apéros:

(You can find a full list of wines in bottle, exclusively from Alsace, on the website.)

To start, I took a glass of old vine Sylvaner from Domaine Scheidecker & Fils, an estate in Mittelwihr, west of Colmar, with which I have no previous experience.

The wine showed richness with peach fruit, very good for an opening round. Sylvaner has historically not been considered a grape producing wines of the highest quality in Alsace, but there has been a major improvement in quality, and indeed Sylvaner from Zotzenberg is now allowed to bear the Alsace Grand Cru appellation.

As an amuse bouche I was served this delightful glass of panna cotta base with onions on top and basil.

Next came snails with confit garlic, garlic butter, and a light potato cream.

It was light and flavorful with good precision. With the dish, I took a glass of Pinot Gris 2022 from the outstanding producer, Albert Mann. It was rich enough to stand up well to the snails, making for a more than satisfying wine.

For the main course, I took the trout “soufflé”, trout wrapped in a white cream mask, served on a bed of spinach with a beurre blanc made with Riesling.

The dish was excellent, and unusual to my experience. The trout was flavorful and moist and all the elements worked in harmony.

With the trout soufflé, I took a glass of Riesling “Granit” from Charles Frey, a producer in Dambach-la-Ville that I was not familiar with. The wine was not very expressive, and in retrospect, I should have taken the other Riesling offered by the glass.

I couldn’t help but take dessert because the offerings sounded so good. I was not disappointed by the calfoutis of apricots and raspberries. Calfoutis can sometimes be to eggy for me, but this one was more cake-like with almonds playing against the delicious apricot and raspberry flavors. And the vanilla ice cream was just an extra bonus.

My bill included a discount on the individual dishes that I ordered because I came at an early hour and because I reserved through lafourchette.fr.

Elsass under its new chef is continuing to turn out contemporary Alsatian cooking of top quality and at a quite reasonable price. It is worth your while to take the trip out to the tenth arrondissement for a meal.

Elsass

173 avenue Parmentier, 75010 Paris

Telephone: 09 55 66 77 68

https://restaurant-elsass.com/

Tuesday-Saturday dinner

Métro: République, Goncourt, Belleville