[ON TOUR] Kitchen Galerie Bis - 75006, Paris
…you just don’t get the same Parisian service that you did five to ten years ago, but they’ve really got it right here
Being a former Englishman domiciled in Paris, I always savour a return to a city that in my experience has been equally enchanting and exasperating. The unfortunate consideration during my student run in Paris was that I couldn’t really explore the celebrated side of the local cuisine owing to the obvious financial restrictions. That was back in the early noughties, so now when I do return, I always like to find out where to go thanks to a network of old friends.
I’m no longer a fan of doing the de rigeur Bistro/Bourguignon combo when I do visit; I’ve long since had my fill, and in my opinion, Paris’ once untouchable standards seem to be slipping in the flawless dining department. Maybe it’s the Euro. I don’t know. But time, and mealtimes, is short on these fleeting visits, so mealtimes must not be wasted.
Kitchen Galerie Bis is a very new, very hip, very shiny offshoot of Ze Kitchen Galerie. ZKG is the home of William Ledeuil, who I now know to be the papa of new wave Parisian fusion cuisine. Asian mystique and umami combined that somehow manages to stay unmistakably French and avoids any unpleasant 80s-ness.
It was to a friend of a sibling, known only as ‘French David’ that our KGB visit can be accredited. It’s not been open long, and is the mini-er, slightly cheaper edition of Ledeuil’s Ze Kitchen Galerie.
The room is well-lit, airy and dotted with various horrendous works of vomity art. That’s the galerie part.
The menu is short and punchy, with two extra specials for the mains. We had six of the zors d’oeuvres, because we’d been told to. They’re the highlight, and the up-sell for the more expensive tasting menu located just down the road (which worked too, we’ll be booking a table there next time, budget be damned). Here’s what we got:
Having only managed to capture about 30% of the accompanying description from the staff, we dived in. Each of the six was a work of art itself. Very intense, well conceptualised and executed little dishes that were bursting with flavour, each obviously being a bit of a surprise. Lots of foam and lots of flavour.
Umami central
The mains are all served in bowls, and we had the barbu fish special and the suckling lamb. The former was meaty, delicate and incredibly complex at the same time - lemongrass and star anise were definitely in there as well as Japanese Mandarin, but there’s so much going on it’s almost too much for the palate.
Foamy subtlety that gets right into your head and stays there. Extraordinary and unexpected.
The lamb was beautifully soft and pink, but not in the same other-worldly league as the fish:
The apricot and curry spices worked marvellously, but it didn’t have that same wow factor that an amazing piece of fish can give you.
The winelist was flawless as expected (we had a 2008 Freesia that complimented the intensity of the food brilliantly), but what I must single out KGB for is their service. As briefly mentioned earlier, you just don’t get the same Parisian service that you did five to ten years ago, but they’ve really got it right here. The staff were genuinely friendly, courteous and always there when you needed them, an increasing rarity in this price range at both ends of the Eurostar line. They were all clearly fans of what the kitchen was churning out too, and how often does that happen?
If you’re after something a little bit different, and love fish and fusion, then KGB is definitely worth a visit. Really interesting concept, flawlessly executed on all fronts. Apart from the galerie itself.
Go and have a look at the rest of the pictures, including all the individual zors d’oeuvres, over on flickr
