Septime

There is one restaurant that has been on our Paris must try list for over 4 years -- Septime.  TimeOut Paris calls it "the hottest table in the world" and also says that "getting a table is like being a contestant on the Hunger Games."  So Maxine has been on a quest since we arrived in Paris.  Seats are released at 10am, 3 weeks and a day in advance.  After several unsuccessful attempts, we got a lunch reservation (easier than dinner) for yesterday.  Yes, there was a lot of anticipation!

Lunch service started slowly and we were afraid we'd been forgotten.  We were feeling disenchanted until Tom spoke to someone -- major apologies and complimentary glasses of champagne to make amends.  And then we had a great lunch!

With our champagne, we enjoyed a melted gouda dip with homemade breadsticks

Raw scallops with squash and squash broth infused with black cardamom served with a Sicilian orange wine


Tom doesn't eat fish/shellfish so his first course was beets with pickled currants served with a rose from the Champagne region




Braised radicchio with mushroom butter and truffles served with a savagnin/chardonnay white blend from the Jura region




For Maxine, pollock fish (appropriate!) with citrus and cabbage served with a chenin blanc from the Loire Valley



For Tom, guinea hen from Perche wih truffles and smoked mashed potatoes served with an Austrian Cabernet Franc.  Tom really loved the smoked potatoes.



Dessert was apple mousse with ice cream, smoked walnuts, quince jelly and fig leaf oil served with sparkling pear cider from Switzerland.  This photo really doesn't do justice to the unique and delicious flavor combination.




When possible, we like to order the wine pairing to accompany a multi-course meal like this one.  In this case, the pairing was amazing!  Every wine perfectly complemented the dish.  We were techically splitting a pairing but the sommelier gave us specific wines for each of our dishes.  It was fabulous!

At the end of the meal, we were talking to one of the servers about the possibility of coming back for another meal before we leave Paris.  She told us that we only needed to go through the 3 weeks + 1 day trial once.  After that, we could ask directly for a future reservation.  While it's certainly possible the staff was trying to make up for their bad start, we still jumped at the chance for another reservation.  This time we're having dinner right before we leave Paris in December.  It will be a wonderful way to celebrate our Paris stay!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nuit Blanche -- White Night

Image
An excuse to stay up all night sponsored by the City of Paris. We don't actually understand French modern art.  Or maybe we don't understand anyone's modern art... One night a year the city of Paris runs the event called Nuit Blanche,  which I (Tom) attended 12 years ago and we've been looking forward to since before we arrived.   We accept that we don't "get it".  But,  that's ok.  It's fun.  And one of the areas where they were concentrating this year was less than a mile away. But, first,  lunch.  We picked up sandwiches and macarons at what had been one of our favorite bakeries in 2006 when we lived down the street.   With the weather remaining great,  we had a picnic in Luxembourg Gardens. Now, Nuit Blanche... Nothing says French Art like outdoor roller ball Or tall women posing next to statues of DeGaulle Or soccer under black light in glow-in-the-dark, neon rain jackets. But, Paris at night is hard to beat
Read more
Image
These posts are little out of order.  This one talks about September 25th, my (Maxine's) birthday.  While I'll admit that I'm starting to hate getting older, it's pretty big consolation to celebrate in Paris! I had a lovely day starting with a trip to the local outdoor food market on Blvd Raspail.  After lunch, I stopped by an open house for WICE, an organization that offers courses and cultural programs for the English speaking community in Paris, followed by a walk in beautiful weather, and then dinner at a favorite restaurant, Verjus.  This is when I have to confess that I'm a terrible food blogger since I forgot to take photos of all the courses, especially the main course.  But here is what we ate.  Each course had a wine pairing too. First course was 5 canapes, all great flavor combinations in small bites. Grilled peppers with a tarragon and parsley sauce What an American restaurant might describe of chickpeas 2 ways, in a socca (looks li
Read more

Arriving in Paris

Image
Long flight day to get here.  3:30am wake-up.  First flight to Chicago.  5 hours there, then an 8 hour flight to Paris. Four hours into the Paris flight, Maxine was awakened by a tap on her leg.  She thought it was me until she looked...and realized that Emmy had escaped the Sherpa bag (like a gym bag with mesh sides and more zippers).  We're lucky Emmy just wanted a more comfortable way to fly and hadn't decided to wander the plane! Having left early Thursday morning, we finally got to the apartment we're renting just before noon Friday.  The manager greeted us but suggested we take a walk for a few hours.  Since this place is in a great location, we were across the Seine and at the Louve in under 15 minutes.
Read more