Namak - Restaurant Perse — Restaurant in Paris

I’ve eaten here twice in 2 years. Food presentation is nice. The staff are super lovely and it’s a cute little restaurant, but the food should really be advertised as Persian FUSION. It is FAR from authentic Iranian food. For a Persian restaurant I give it a 2/5 - if it were advertised as fusion I’d have given it a 4/5.

More than half of the guests appeared to not be Iranian and our French partners liked the food so that explains the high ratings.

I saw that negative reviews aren’t taken constructively by the restaurant but here we go: Only 2 appetizers (mirza and koukou) are actually Iranian (some others like hummus and halloumi are what non-middle easterns think Iranians eat… others like the beet dish take Iranian ingredients like beets but aren’t Iranian at all. Even zaatar bread isn’t Iranian as zaatar is not an Iranian spice at all - it’s levant). I wish instead of all the non-Iranian appetizers they had mast mousir, mast chekide, kashke bademjoon, proper zeytoun parvardeh with proper technique and ingredients, and maybe ash in the winter. I’ve never been to an Iranian restaurant without kashke bademjoon :( they don’t do actual kebab with rice (the fusion Thai satay chicken looking kebab appetizer doesn’t count) so I’d expect them to really master stews or have good stew options. But they repeat mirza, which leaves you with 3 main options (and one is already a vegetarian version of a traditional stew, ghormesabzi). To limit options further, out of fesenjoon, gheime and vegetarian ghorme sabzi, they DONT DO GHEIME ANYMORE despite it being on the menu… it’s been replaced by a normal ghorme sabzi… so if you don’t want that, you’re only left with one choice: fesenjoon!! I’ve basically said this already but OPTIONS are LIMITED! I genuinely only wanted to eat mirza appetizer and fesenjoon main. Nothing else was Persian (other than ghorme sabzi and koukou). Same with desserts: the only Persian dessert was sholezard. The ingredients and manner of cooking of 3 of 4 actually Persian dishes were again not Persian (I didn’t try koukou). They take Persian ingredients and make it their own - don’t call it Persian food, call it fusion. Mirza wasn’t garlicy and thick enough and was too sour. Fesenjoon was good but didn’t have ground walnuts or enough walnuts in it and was made sour by dried lime or lime more than pomegranate molasses. The ghorme sabzi was way too watery and had not been cooked and thickened long enough (“ja nayoftade bood”). The sholezard was shocking! They put a sour brown lime sauce on top but sholezard is supposed to be sweet and only sweet! The sour sauce completely ruined it. It also didn’t have any/enough almond slivers inside and was certainly not topped with pistachio slivers and any/enough almond slivers. It had cinnamon though so that was good. the pistachio flan is far from Persian, but it is very good. I was devastated to find out they’d run out!! They opened at 7 and we came in with a reservation at 7:30 and they were out by the time we ordered dessert… on a Saturday… the table beside us got the last slice and they came in just after us but they apparently ordered it right away. I wish I’d been asked to order dessert when ordering food. Sad. They don’t do the fondant chocolate cake in the summer, which wasn’t even Persian to start with (other than the ingredient cardamom), but again, you’re left with NO CHOICE. It would’ve been nice to see baklava, faloodeh, cardamom rice pudding, etc for dessert. On a positive note I am very happy they got rid of their sauce on the side options as that was a crime - stews don’t need sauce and it was the least Persian thing. They also got rid of the beef and green beans stew that was really random and reminded me of a pollo dish but done as a stew which is very inauthentic.

In summary, would I eat here again, why not. Would I crave or choose to come here again, no. Would I bring people here to try Iranian food, no. Is this Iranian food, no. Is it Iranian fusion, yes. Apparently real Iranian food is in the 15eme...

I’m still shocked at how many 5 stars this restaurant has. I’m Iranian and my husband is French. We visit Paris every year and we decided to try Nanak. We ordered zeytoon. Mirza. Chicken kebab.lamb with tahchin. Rose and gin. Shiraz mule. The restaurant is very disappointing to the eyes as your enter. It’s more like a very casual diner with an open kitchen all the way in the dining area that was very messy and ugly to eye. I entered and it was a piece of tahchin looking at me on the counter. Not on a plate. Ready to be microwaved perhaps to be served. The server was kind. We Walked to the small room in a back. A piece of fabric on a wall was their Iranian decoration. I was offended and embarrassed. The room was tiny and hot. My husband asked 3 times if they can turn on fan or Ac. Everyone said yes and it wasn’t done. The rose and gin was filled with rose syrup not rose water. Impossible to drink. Moscow mule was tooooo sour. Just because we use Pom. Molasses in our food. We don’t need to kill every dish and drink with this. We received our drinks 10 minutes after our 3 first dishes by the way. Zeytoon was chopped ,bad quality olives so sour with Pom. Molasses again. No flavor. We didn’t touch that dish. Mirza was more tomatoes dip that eggplant. We tried a small piece of bread with that. It was nothing I would go to a restaurant for. We had the chicken kebab with bread. It was ok. But at this point we were so disappointed that we decided not to wait for our lamb dish and don’t waste a night in this beautiful city at Namak. The staff were nice and kind but the ambience, the food. The decoration , the drinks very...

Namak isn’t just a restaurant — it’s a heartfelt return to the flavors of my Persian childhood. From the first bite to the last sip, it felt like being wrapped in a warm memory.

We ordered the gormeh sabzi, fragrant and perfectly sour from dried limes, with tender beef and herbs that had been simmered with love. The fesanjan was rich and elegant — that perfect balance of sweet, tart, and nutty from the pomegranate and walnut sauce. The chicken kebabs were tender, saffron-kissed, and perfectly grilled, served with fluffy basmati rice. Even the hummus was creamy and vibrant, a lovely starter alongside two refreshing dooghs that hit just the right fizzy, minty note.

And then came dessert — a true celebration of Persian flavors. The sholezard, a saffron and lemon rice pudding, was bright, aromatic, and delicately sweet, while the saffron-infused ice cream was just magic — floral, creamy, and deeply nostalgic, like summer in Tehran in a single spoonful.

Namak is more than a meal — it’s a beautifully executed homage to Iranian home cooking. For anyone craving authenticity, heart, and flavor, this...