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The Epi Dupin restaurant in Paris

It’s quite odd to have lived in a city for twenty years, thinking you know almost everything that’s great about it, only to realise that something everyone else is talking about has, somehow, passed under your radar. L’Epi Dupin, for example, has been in the same spot, quietly doing its thing and getting pretty rave reviews from both tourists and foodies, since 1995. How did that happen?

Anyway, please find below our admittedly very late review (i.e. a decade-and-a-half late) of a small restaurant on the Left Bank with a global following and severely yummy food.
photos: JasonW

And so it was, not particularly proud of ourselves, that we finally went down rue Dupin, not far from La Belle Juliette, to visit l’Epi Dupin. It’s a nondescript street running between the Bon Marché department store and rue du Cherche-Midi, whose only distinguishing feature for us, up until now, was the Moby Dick fish shop on the corner, now owned by local resident French actor and frequently inebriated man-mountain Gérard Depardieu.

Just next to “hair by Gisèle”, slightly set back from the other buildings, as an almost physical manifestation of its humility, stands l’Epi Dupin. We’re guessing the décor has been renewed since the early days, as the interior is a pretty modern, tasteful mix of exposed beams and muted greys. The restaurant – one main room – is not huge, but wow is it busy, with tourists from around the globe arriving in endless streams, speaking sometimes in broken French, sometimes in faltering English, and occasionally in Japanese (because – yes – the French head waiter actually speaks Japanese, raising admiring glances from all around us).

Anyway, it’s an understated interior that should appeal to all, without being bland. The menu changes daily depending on what’s fresh at the market, and the lunchtime menu is especially interesting as a cheap way of experiencing the cuisine (in the evening, prices are rather higher). For lunch, 26€/36€ gets you two or three courses (starter + main dish, or main dish + dessert), and although we thought 10€ difference for an added first course or dessert was rather steep, it’s still a pretty good deal.

Sat on the minuscule terrace, we ordered a glass or red wine each (vin de pays d’Oc rouge La Syrah de Charlotte, names after the producers’ daughter and perused the choices on offer.
Once you’ve decided, the slightly over-enthusiastic head waiter gets the order sent straight to the kitchens electronically, and the dishes start arriving pretty quickly, indeed some reviews on the web complain that there’s sometimes, especially in the evening, the feeling that they’d like you to eat as quickly as possible and leave your table free for other diners. At lunchtime, and outside, we were perfectly at ease.

We opted for 2 two-course menus, one with a first course and main dish, the other with a main dish and dessert (meaning that we would share the first course and dessert). As a surprise, the first we were served was a sort of mise en bouche, a Crème Parmentière which looked like greenish soup but actually had a great, strong taste of potato. Thick, with lashings of cream and well salted, it was a great success.
A second pre-first course then arrived. We suspect that this was because we told the waiter that we were taking photos for an article, so don’t expect your meal to come with two introductory dishes like us.

What a shame that this second gift was a rabbit spring roll (we don’t eat rabbit), because it looked lovely – well presented and obviously super fresh. Alas, we had to send it back.
Not to be deterred in buttering us up (!), a replacement arrived in the form of a soupe chaude de rascasse du nord (lionfish hot soup). Well-presented, this also turned out to be creamy, and lacking the strong fishy smell than often puts us off fish soups such as bouillabaisse. Coupled with the home-made, oven-hot bread, and epic as it was salty, and possibly made with a touch of potato to add thickness, it was a great success.
Finally it was time for our first ‘real’ starter to arrive, a plate of seasonal vegetables served both hot and cold. This single starter had kindly been split between two plates with melt-in-the-mouth fennel, super-crunchy beetroot, a warm pumpkin soup with a touch of lemon and amazing deep-fried Jerusalem artichoke fritters. Very, very nice!
By the time we got to the main course, finding room for food was already a problem. Luckily, we always rise to a challenge 😉

First up, the mackerel in a crispy herb coutain, served with courgette and tomato chutney. The fish was surprising tender (our image of mackerel was of a rather smelly, ordinary affair) and the chutney was a great accompaniment that didn’t drown any of its flavour. Expertly done.
The other main dish was lionfish à la plancha, served in a delicious, non-overpowering red wine sauce, and delicious deep-fried aubergine fritters. Just a touch heavy on the salt once again, but very cleverly done.
After eating our main courses, we also managed to spy on our neighbour – eating by herself, as were a few other diners – who had chosen one of the day’s specials not marked on the blackboard (perhaps to encourage diners to feel like they’ve ordered something even more super-special?).

Personally, piglet isn’t at the top of my list of things to eat, but she enjoyed hers, which she thought smelled delicious, although she actually preferred the vegetables hidden underneath, and found the whole thing rather large!
And so, it was time for dessert. They all sounded lovely, but we opted to share the cream cheese tart (touted as similar to cheesecake, but really not much like it), which was hot and straight from the oven, extremely light and tasty. The mango sorbet was also very fine, not over-tangy as some fruit sorbets can tend to be. For once, every dish from starter to dessert had impressed us.
The restaurant is pretty tech-savvy, with an (over)animated website and the possibility of booking by e-mail, a boon for those who don’t want to risk calling from abroad in puny French.

The restaurant also has its own iPhone app. It’s pretty ugly, but tells you what’s on the menu that day, and allows you to book without calling or e-mailing. Now that’s the 21st century for you. Scan the code below to download.
And if you have an iPhone, perhaps this is the moment to remind you that our very own iPhone app is also available! You can use it to check out photos of our hotels, book directly from your phone, get special low rates and find us on a map (handy when you’re heading our way.

It’s useful, simple to use and free (of course) here!!!

The Epi Dupin (here) is open for lunch and dinner weekdays only (no lunch Mondays)

Tel. +33 (0)1 42 22 64 56 or send an e-mail to contact@epidupin.com

And with Google Street View you can even explore the interior of the restaurant in 360°! Check it out below, and try clicking the four arrows in the top right-hand corner of the image to go fullscreen. With a bit of zooming you’ll see that the prices have gone up slightly, and also that the cold/warm vegetable starter is one of their classics!

Official site: www.epidupin.com

Facebook page (not much going on, apart from three posts last November for new waiting staff): here

To check out all our photos of the restaurant, click the play button on the slideshow below, then click the four little arrows bottom right to go into fullscreen mode..

BONUS! French-speakers can watch this interesting 10-minute report about the restaurant and its chef, François Pasteau.