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Seafood restaurant Goumard in Paris

We heard about Goumard thanks to a book about beautiful Paris restaurants. Their site says that it’s “one of the most famous seafood restaurants in Paris” and has been “beautifully renovated”. Sceptic – as ever – we decided to go down and check them out…

photos: JasonW

If Goumard really is one of the most famous seafood restaurants in Paris, I’m not sure how we have managed not to hear of it during twenty years of living here. Perhaps we don’t go to the right parties or have the right friends?

Anyway, after buying and reading the lovely book “Restaurant of Paris: Luxury, charm and tradition”, we were inspired by the beautiful photos of the places and decided to book, especially as the site thefork.com can get you 50% off the à la carte prices (not fixed menus and not drinks) if you book through them. Sounded like a great deal all round!

The restaurant is situated not far from the Tuileries gardens, Madeleine and Place Vendome. A smart area if ever there was one. The exterieur turned out to be fairly plain, although expansive. Lucky we didn’t notice the mop hanging around at the door. Perhaps it’s a famous, beautifully renovated mop?
It turns out that the restaurant was renovated two years ago. The kitchen from upstairs were brought downstairs, the dining room downstairs was (mostly) moved upstairs. A new bistro setting on the ground floor does indeed look quite new, although no-one actually ate there during the evening we were there. Perhaps they didn’t like the décor.
The first hint we had that this may not be an art nouveau splendour were the stairs and the landing on the first floor. Here, le chic, c’est Lalique, and there’s a sea of browns, dark purples and rather nasty statues (a temporary exhibition apparently) that extends to the two generously-sized dining rooms. It’s designed no doubt to be cosy, but for a midsummer dinner soem may find it a little too dark. Perhaps this is a restaurant best suited to autumnal meals, as the colour scheme would suggest?
Thankfully, things improved once we were seated. Arriving early meant having the team’s full attention (not the case later on), and some lovely bread and interesting butter arrived shortly. I was pretty sure that it had a seafood taste to it…
Starters and wine were ordered, and although I wasn’t particularly comfortably seated, it was time to relax. The menu is quite varied actually – a pleasant surprise – with some meat dishes for those who fancy it, as well as the more classical selections of seafood platters (including a giant-sized platter with lobster for those with a huge appetite and 95€ to spare).

Before too long, the starters arrived, and very nice they looked too. My friend had chosen the roast king prawns in a minted pea gaspacho that turned to out to also have hints of fresh herbs and saffron. The creaminess brought out the taste of the herbs, and the king prawns were tender and well seasoned. A success!
I had chosen a saumon tartar in a cucumber and vodka smoothie, a refreshingly different dish, as the vodka gave an very bitter – but not unpleasant – taste that combined well with the almost sugary cucumber. Plus, the salmon was obviously very fresh. Both dishes were impeccable presented.

The couple at the table next to ours also seemed to be enjoying their oysters (indeed they asked me to take a photo of one of the plates!)
So far, so good. The wine was kicking in, the place was filling up, and before too long the main courses arrived. My friend had chosen pan-friend John Dory filet with white and green asparagus, served on what seemed to be a bed of freshly grated fennel (it was a little hard to tell) which turned out to be refreshing and satisfyingly heavy on pepper. A good choice.
My chosen dish was pan-fried striped red mullet and squid (just a tiny bit) with grilled aubergines and tomatoes. The menu said that it was served in a little pot, but could also be presented on a plate if requested (which although I didn’t, was the way it arrived). The aubergine was quite oily, but melt-in-the-mouth, the tomatoes given some extra zing with balsamic vinegar, and the fish – far from being off-puttingly strong as rouget can sometimes be – was delicious. Presentation was, once again, strong, with the colours of the food being set off by the sobre crockery.
After all that it was time for a break. After having a sommelier pour our first and second glasses of wine, we barely dared do it ourselves, but the poor man was nowhere to be found (indeed, we didn’t manage to catch hold of him for the rest of the evening) so we served ourselves another glass and decided it was time to visit… the toilets!

Don’t be shocked. This is the secret charm of Goumard. Walking from the recently redecorated restaurant into the toilets is like stepping back in time. They are pure Art Nouveau, designed by Louis Majorelle, and date from the 1900s. In fact, most reviews of the restaurant rave about them so much that you’d be forgiven for thinking that they are half the attraction for going.

And you’d be right. They are absolutely stunning, perfectly preserved, and make you wonder what the rest of the restaurant must have looked like before. The dim lighting makes taking photos difficultn but hopefully you’ll understand why they are worth seeing…
More photos in the Flickr gallery

It was time for dessert. By this time the restaurant had filled up and the waiters were starting to run around, almost literally. The gentleman who took our dessert order was in such a rush that he finished our sentences, as if we weren’t talking fast enough for him. My companion said “I’ll have the pistachio…” and the waiter cut him off with “…tartlet with pan-fried cherries and sorbet” and I tried to say that I’d like the chocolate… “and passion fruit ravioli with licorice foam and passion fruit sorbet,” completed our waiter before running off with the menus. Very odd.

Anyway, they arrived not to long afterwards. My friend’s choice turned out to be rather bland, saved only by the refreshing sorbet. Mine was the opposite; intriguing and really like chocolate in chocolate-flavoured pasta! The licorice sauce also helped add tang, whereas the passion fruit sorbet seemed like an extraneous addition.

The expresso coffees that we ordered to finish off the dinner were Nespresso, served with a Nespresso chocolates (perhaps not the height if chic nowadays) and indicative of the impression that the restaurant left us: somewhere that’s trying to be slightly more chic than it is. The service was efficient early on, slack or stressed later on. Whilst the main dishes seem a success, dessert is a little hit and miss, and prices are slightly too high whereas portions are slightly too small (you’d need to have three courses to not be hungry upon leaving).

Perhaps the glory days of the restaurant – as shown by its beautiful toilets – are behind it? Even by booking our table via thefork.com the bill was quite high. Luckily, this slightly bitter lingering feeling was tempered by the lovely walk we had near the Louvre just afterwards (it’s nearby). You can read all about that magical, nocturnal exploration of Paris here.

Goumard is at 9 rue Duphot (here).

Open non-stop every day of the week from 11.30 – 0.30am. Tel. +33 (0)1 42 60 36 07

Official site: www.goumard.com

To see our full Flickr gallery, click the play button below, followed by the four little arrows bottom right to go into fullscreen mode.