After setting sail for Noma and Alexandre Couillon’s place, then for Japan’s seafood stalls, Alice Arnoux has cast anchor at Le Perchoir, where she peacefully watches over the tides of people in Ménilmontant. From the industrial white brick and bare concrete deck of Le Perchoir, Adrien Cachot and Manon Fleury’s success story, she delivered a heady set menu the night we went: a Dirty Martini acting out the key scene from Titanic with a raw scallop and a caper; scored raw squid with clams and dog cockles, plus raw cream, horseradish, rose oil and pickled blackberries; utterly simple whelks with mayonnaise; three n°3 oysters with fresh herbs and Fortune mandarin that left us without words; sea lettuce hiding crackling cuttlefish tempura like a spring roll; cheeky chawanmushi (steamed egg flan) with tourteau crab, dotted with trout roe and citron; marvelous dry-aged whiting draped in kombu, with pomelo brown butter and a luxurious pink endive salad in a kombucha reduction vinaigrette; roasted whiting head and fermented turnips splashing around in a mouthwatering fish broth…. Then to finish, two high tide desserts: sunchoke and almond milk ice cream wrapped in candied kombu, followed by a stunning iced lemon filled with lime and wintergreen granita, topped with a seaweed and citrus bavarois. // Renaud Fuego
FEELING THIRSTY? Natural wines are catching a few waves here: L’Angelou, a sparkling Gaillac wine from Jérôme Galaup (€10 a glass), Chantemerle, a Jura Chardonnay from Jérôme Arnoux (€47 a bottle), Fleurs, an Alsatian skin-contact wine from Brand & Fils (€56)… Along with homemade kombucha (€8 a glass).
PRICE: Set menus €65 (Saturday lunch) and €85 (dinner).
