Hémicycle, 5 rue de Bourgogne, Paris 7
Hémicycle is the latest restaurant under the wing of Stéphane Manigold. It was only 2018 that he began with his first, Substance in the 16th arrondissement near the Palais de Tokyo. Since then, his group Eclore has opened Granite, Braise, Contraste, and Liquide (all of which, including Substance, have Michelin stars), and Bistrot Flaubert, and has purchased Maison Rostang (which has two Michelin stars). So eight stars in less than five years, and based on the meal that I had at Hémicycle, there’ll be another star coming at the first opportunity next year. Hémicycle’s chef is Flavio Lucarini, who previously had been at Manigold’s Bistrot Flaubert.
In addition to Hémicycle, I’ve been to four of these restaurants, and to a certain extent, they have common characteristics: an extensive and very strong wine list, especially Champagne, very good food that seems to be left to the chef at each establishment and that appeals to to a very upmarket clientèle. There can also be a certain slickness or lack of soul and warmth in some of them.
Hémicycle is located just off the Place du Palais Bourbon, the square facing the National Assembly on the side opposite the Seine. The restaurant is in the space that had been occupied by Loiseau Rive Gauche, which Manigold’s group had purchased a year or two ago.
The restaurant’s name is an obvious reference to the semi-circular shape of the seats in the nearby National Assembly. The restaurant opened on 29 August.
The interior is modern and somewhat cold, with hard surfaces, and the noise level is at that of restaurants in San Francisco and New York. The noise level is a significant negative for me.
There is evidently a second floor that is not yet ready for opening.
The crowd: we were there on a weekday lunch, and I saw more suits and ties than I am used to at lunch in Paris. I assume these were members of the National Assembly and government ministries, their staff, and perhaps people lobbying or otherwise interacting with them. At one table, at the end of the lunch, I saw three of the four diners taking out cellphones or pens and doing calculations, and I’m sure they were not figuring out how to divide up the bill. These people avoided any wine or just had a single glass. Notwithstanding the diners there in their work clothes, there were a few tables of men probably in their fifties and sixties who I assume were retirees, and they were quite casually dressed, including a man in sweats. Those tables were ordering plenty of wine, and not the inexpensive bottles (indeed, two gentlemen behind us were sharing a bottle of 2012 La Grange des Pères, listed on the carte des vins at 412€ per bottle). I believe that we were the only two non-French customers in the room. It will be fascinating to see how the crowds differ at lunch on Saturday and in the evening.
The menus and carte at lunch:
This being a first visit, among other reasons, we took the three-course menu at 49€. Note that it can be served entirely within an hour, if requested. This tells you a lot about the location/clientèle.
The wine list looks quite thick, and although the number of wines is large, the “book” is exaggerated because each page is quite thick — a trick I’ve seen before. The wines by the glass seemed expensive and not very interesting. Most of the bottles on the list seemed to require a commitment well into three figures to get something interesting (I didn’t take a serious look at Champagne, but one strategy that frequently works with expensive wine lists is to order Champagne throughout the meal). There is a small number of wines by half-bottle, and given that our first courses would want a white wine and our second courses could take a red wine, we chose two half bottles:
Menetou-Salon is near Sancerre, and both make whites from the Sauvignon Blanc grape. The wine was pure and lovely, far exceeding my expectations from this producer that I previously did not know.
The Faiveley Mercurey “vieilles vignes”, a red Burgundy from the Cote Chalonnaise, was good, but mildly disappointing as I thought it could have used a bit more grip and depth.
On to the dishes. Because of the high background noise, the mumbling of the server, and the fact that the dishes were announced on the other side of the table, I could not get all of the details.
Our amuses bouches, the creamy plate being whipped marscapone with a smoked hay sauce:
Next, our first course
This was trout (left) and marinated cucumber (right) in an avocado sauce. The flavors here are strong and marked, but pure. They both had a bit of spice, and the trout was lightly cured and served on a warm plate that made the flavors more unctuous. This delicious dish melded perfectly with the Menetou-Salon.
The main course of lotte (monkfish) was superb, in a rich herb sauce and with a potato(?) mousse on top:
Dessert was a frozen yogurt cake with a thin layer of chocolate and seeds on top, served with a berry sorbet and a hazelnut cream:
It was not very sweet (fine by me) and of very good quality. (I believe that the pastry chef has been recruited from Le Clarence).
Mignardises:
And the tab, very reasonable for the quality of meal that we had:
Based on our meal, there is brilliant cooking going on at Hémicycle, and if you can stand the noise, I strongly urge you to make the trip.
Hémicycle
5, rue de Bourgogne, 75007 Paris
Tél: 01 40 62 98 04
Tuesday-Saturday lunch and dinner
Métro: Assemblée Nationale, Invalides