Introduction to Septime

Septime is a lovely restaurant in a relaxing space in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. Here produce is king and the chef, Bertrand Grebaut, has the confidence not to contort the food to be what it isn’t.

Rather he adds touches and twists that help the produce to reveal more of itself to the diner. Deft choices of sauces or inspired combinations of flavours enhance the food rather than masking it here. Chef Bertrand Grebaut is certainly a chef of the moment!

The space at Septime is interesting, almost rustic. The wine list is a careful compilation of the most interesting natural wines from France and Italy (and beyond) with even rare and obscure wines such as the Belluard Le Feu being available.

And finally, the waiting staff are efficient, friendly, knowledgeable and very welcoming.

And we should also add a note about the accolades it has been receiving. When we first visited Septime it was very young. We found out about it through the Le Fooding Web site. Since then it has received many awards including reaching number 15 in the Best Fifty Restaurants of the World awards of 2019.

We tend to shy away from restaurants that have Michelin stars, however the awarding of a star by Michelin hasn’t seemed to make any difference to this restaurant. It just keeps on doing what it does well!

Septime: The Food

There are lunchtime menus for an incredible bargain for day time eating. And for dinner the price goes up but is still very reasonable considering the quality of the food.

We started one meal with scallops which had been sliced and served with pumpkin, sea urchin roe, mandarin and fresh herbs all sprinkled with a very lovely powder that was similar to the texture of bottarga. This was a very good start to the meal.

The next dish was trout with leeks, lemon slices and spinach this time the texture came from pistachio crumbs. Then on to lamb and potato with cabbage and herbs along with tiny Brussel sprouts.

We have revisited Septime on a number of occasions since that first meal and have always enjoyed every dish we were served.

Our most recent meal was a lunch in the depths of winter with snow carpeting the streets, roofs, cars, motorbikes and awnings of the city. We were therefore glad to sit through a long lunch as a refuge from the cold outside.

The food we were served was even more interesting than on our previous visits. It just keeps on evolving in a good way. It was more pared back to enable diners to concentrate of the essence of the main ingredients. We got the feeling that the entire kitchen team is at the the top of their game turning out food that is both visually appealing and totally delicious.

This was certainly the case with a dish of oysters swimming in an intense vegetable broth enhanced with citrus and coffee essence.

The next dish went to an even higher level with an endive that was bursting with flavour being enhanced with small rods of Bigorre ham and a delicious mussel sauce.

But the highlight of the meal came at the end with a Basque maize porridge with candied walnuts coated with a light-as-air sabayon that was both stunning and deeply satisfying.

You can click on the link below to see more information about this important restaurant.

Septime Restaurant