Expectations were high for our dinner at 19 Saint Roch. The restaurant had received great reviews, and the first few times I tried to reserve a table, it was all booked up. Its youthful (30-year-old) chef, Pierre Touitou, formerly of Vivant and Deviant, has been called “one of the most passionate and promising chefs of his generation.”
The handsome interior, all white walls and dark-wood paneling, tables and chairs, looked impressively fresh and new. The open kitchen is right in the middle for all to see the white-aproned staff hard at work. We were surprised at the large number of (also white-garbed) servers wandering around, an unusual sight in a mid-range Paris restaurant.
The first courses came promptly, accompanied by a bottle of natural red wine from Languedoc-Roussillon whose nose I described as “animalistic,” while the charming sommelier preferred “sauvage.” My two friends went crazy over it, but I was slightly less enthusiastic. Dubbed Riptide, it was a 2022 vintage from the Domaine Cotzé.
We all enjoyed our starters, with caveats. The deep-green cavolo nero (Tuscan kale) soup was rich and flavourful, but the julienned line-caught squid arranged on top added little more than texture. The bonito tataki with grape vinaigrette, shiso and peanuts was pleasing but the sauce rather overwhelmed the fish, while the tasty deep-fried pork-and-caper terrine, which looked more like a croquette, was filling but not exceptional.
We had expected something more exciting and surprising, but we still had hopes for the main courses, which took a strangely long time to arrive, considering how many people were at work in the dining room.
Two of my companions had the maigre (stone bass) and thought it was very good, but they were not thrilled with the sauce of lobster jus and the tasty but somewhat overcooked pile of mixed vegetables it sat upon.
I was happy with my main course of venison filets with mloukhya sauce (a strong-flavoured Middle Eastern sauce made with a plant of the same name). The venison was tender and fat-free but lacking in the stronger flavor one might expect from game, even venison. It was served with a delightful salad of puntarelle alla Romana, a sort of classy coleslaw of chicory shoots with garlic and anchovy sauce. On the side was another delightful and even more original “cabbage cake” made with bone marrow and a touch of quince compote on the side.
Again, we all thought our the food was very good and well-made with quality ingredients, but we didn’t find them as outstanding as the chef’s reputation would have led us to expect. There was no oohing and aahing, just lots of “it’s fine…”
The magic finally happened, however, when we got our desserts. The “faux Black Forest cake” was a perfect, light version of a cake that is often over-the-top sweet. All the pleasure was still there in the light and luscious cream frosting and the chocolatey cake with a touch of alcohol (the classic kirsch?). The many cherries normally found inside the cake were replaced by a single – and singularly delicious – one on top, which we somehow managed to share.
The other dessert was an atypical île flottante. The square of meringue floated in the usual pond of creme anglaise, but in this case it was powdered with smoked Béarn pepper and sesame praline, startling the taste buds with its zing.
It was overall a fine meal, but for the price, we had hoped for more of those “wow” moments when unexpected confrontations of ingredients deliver a kick of wonderment.
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