If you are longing for a few runs down the glistening slopes of the Alps, followed by a warming fondue, but are stuck in Paris, not to worry, you can at least have a good cheesy fondue or one of its variants, raclette, at Les Marmottes.
Not being an expert on these Swiss cheesefests, I was lucky to go to Les Marmottes with some experienced friends, who served as my guides. Well aware of the aftereffects of loading up on melted cheese along with cubes of bread (with the fondue) or potatoes and charcuterie (with the raclette), we eschewed the starters on offer: onion soup (with melted cheese, of course), smoked salmon, charcuterie, cheese platter (!) and a whole baked Camembert (!!). A few salads, including one with one goat cheese, are also on offer.
Both the fondue and the raclette must be ordered for two people. Since we were four, we ordered one of each.
The all-you-can-eat raclette comes in five versions with different cheeses. We chose the raw-milk raclette, a type of cheese produced especially for this dish, from Savoie.
It was served on a contraption that holds half a wheel of raclette angled so that the cheese melts at the required speed, depending on how close you slide it to the electric heating element. Diners scrape the cheese off as it melts. This can get messy: we had trouble controlling the flow of melted cheese, which was consumed along with the boiled jacket potatoes and tasty charcuterie.
On the other side of the table, our two friends were happily dipping their bread cubes into the classic Swiss fondue they had ordered, made with half Gruyère and half Appenzeller cheeses, with wine and kirsch added for flavor and to improve the consistency of the fondue. At the bottom of the casserole, a bonus awaits: a tasty crust of cheese ready to be scraped up, called the religieuse (nun) by the French. Why? C’est un mystère. One of the many hypotheses: when scraped up from the bottom of the pot, the crusty cheese resembles a nun’s wimple.
Both dishes are usually accompanied by white wine.
Not surprisingly, no dessert was ordered, but two of my friends had a shot of the house génépi (a plant-based liqueur similar to Chartreuse) to aid digestion.
The restaurant’s name pays homage to the beloved marmottes (groundhogs) often seen popping up from their holes in the ground on Alpine prairies and heard calling a shrill warning to their comrades when an eagle is spotted trolling for a meal overhead. No such danger at Les Marmottes.
See our Favorite Restaurants by Arrondissement page to find a good restaurant in the neighborhood where you want to eat.
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