After trying out crêpes last month, we opted for another French classic this month: the much revered soufflé ! The restaurant also happens to be named after Juliette Récamier, and is situated just near the site of her last place of residence in Paris…

At the end of her life, Juliette lived in Paris at the Abbaye-aux-Bois (more details here and some photos here). The building is long gone, but in its place is a tiny pedestrian street called… rue Récamier! We’d also heard about a great restaurant down there, called… le Récamier! We just knew we had to try it out. So there we were one evening, eating on the site of Juliette Récamier’s apartments, at the Récamier, rue Récamier.For a restaurant with a certain reputation, the interior is nothing exceptional. It’s clean, modern, with lots of wood, but not over fussy. Let’s call it understated.We immediately appreciated the welcome, very Parisian, very down to earth, not at all stiff as you often find in some restaurants that try to give themselves a certain air. It’s obvious that you can be at ease here, and many regular diners are warmly welcomed by the staff (including one vaguely amusing waiter who talked to himself all evening).

Don’t think you’ll be reading any of the books on the bookshelves though; they seem to have been bought by the metre just for decoration purposes, and include some very strange titles. There are also a few magazines, but many are almost a decade out of date.But of course we weren’t here to read, we were here to eat! The specialty of the restaurant is soufflés – although more standard fare is also on offer – and as they are notoriously tricky to get right at home, we were quite looking forward to seeing how the professionals do it. Some of the soufflés take a little time to prepare, the menu warns, but once a soufflé is ready it waits for no-one!

The menu changes regularly with the seasons, and we decided to opt for an autumnal buckwheat soufflé with mushrooms and a cheese soufflé that we had heard was pretty epic despite its simple description. They both arrived very smartly, and impressive they were. Although the cheese soufflé had a subtler taste than we were expecting, it was light, crispy, soft, visually spectacular… everything you could ask from a soufflé. The buckwheat/mushroom soufflé was all of the above, with an extra gooey interior and wonderfully pronounced taste that made our definite favourite. Although they look small and are full of air, they were actually quite filling, and we were amused to see that Juliette makes an appearance on every plate and saucer…Choosing dessert wasn’t very difficult. After enjoying our savoury soufflés, we were very keen to try out the sugary ones. Melty chocolate for one of us, slightly salted caramel for the other. Gosh they were good! Light, melt-in-the-mouth, with dreamy interior textures… and to think that I didn’t even know that you could have soufflé for dessert!Surprisingly, the Récamier is actually not too expensive, which – combine with the cuisine – probably explains why it is always full. The night we were there, the mayor of Paris was a few tables away and anyone without a reservation was being turned away. Book at least a few days in advance.

We very much enjoyed our meal there, and will definitely be going back soon; November promises three special soufflés, one with pumpkin and Emmental cheese, another with snails and fine herbs, and another with lime. Wow! And in the summer the restaurant doubles in size thanks to its huge terrace. Definitely a great way to spend a balmy evening. With such conviviality and tasty food, Juliette would surely have approved.

The Cigale Récamier is at 4 rue Récamier (here). Bookings: +33 (0)1 45 48 86 58

To check out the full photo gallery, click the play button on the slideshow below, followed by the four little arrows bottom right to go into fullscreen mode (much more comfortable).