Restaurant L'Oyat — Restaurant in Paris

According to the Michelin guide to earn two Michelin stars a restaurant must be “excellent cooking, worth a detour”. If those standards are true, then L’Oyat is worthy of at least 2 stars. The cooking is better than “excellent.” It is technically perfect, yet executed with passion and creativity. Presentation is so beautiful that you might hesitate to take a bite lest you ruin a work of art. And, all of this is executed in a relaxed atmosphere for unbelievably good prices. I have had the privilege of eating in many of the best restaurants around the word and L’Oyat ranks in my top 5.

We stumbled upon L’Oyat because it happened to be a short walk from our hotel. Tucked away on Rue Notre Dame de Nazareth, L’Oyat is small—we counted 12 tables. The waitstaff and kitchen staff seem to be made up of only 3 people. What it lacks in size and staff it makes up for in service and food (and hospitality towards Americans whose French is poor). Impressively, the restaurant is very affordable. A meal of equal quality in Paris will cost you 3 to 5 times as much and you won’t get the care and attention you get here.

Jet-lagged, we ordered only one appetizer, ceviche, that was delicate and bright with a subtle foam. Despite not having much of an appetite, the appetizer was so good that we dove in to the rest of the menu with gusto.

We had entrees of turbot and a rabbit roulade. Both were perfectly cooked with vegetables and sauces that complimented the proteins so as to highlight the delicate textures of both.

For dessert we had a berry parfait with dark chocolate cookie crumbles and cherries. The ice cream was a bright delight. The cookie crumbles reminded us of an Oreo except, like the ice cream, the crumbles were not overly sweet and allowed the highlight of the dish, fresh-sliced cherries, to shine. The entire dish was, as the name says, perfect! We also had a soufflé with vanilla ice cream and apricots. Each component in the soufflé was outstanding on its own and, in combination, made for a breath-taking dish.

After the meal we had two different espressos. Here was where L’Oyat set itself apart from every restaurant I’ve ever been to in service. The Chef came to our table and described the different types of coffee he had. His passion for the beans shined and that led to a much larger conversation about food in general. The Chef is a warm guy who treats his guests with the same care and respect he treats his food.

L’Oyat was so good, in fact, that we made a special detour back to L’Oyat on our last day—just to test our initial love of the place. Thankfully, L’Oyat was even better on our last visit.

For our final meal we decided to have almost the entire menu. The menu consisted of 3 appetizers, 4 entrees, 2 desserts, and a cheese plate. The small menu is a brilliant strategy because it means the Chef can keep the freshest produce and proteins on hand without having to worry about food waste cutting into profits. It also allows him to create a theme across the menu that makes a meal feel balanced and composed from beginning to end.

Each of our 3 appetizers were outstanding and each time we took a bite of one appetizer it instantly became our favorite appetizer. Our veal entrée came with potato gnocchi and an exquisite wild mushroom sauce. The playful take on steak and potatoes was as delicious as it was fun. We finished the meal with a cheese plate—the best we’ve ever had—and another soufflé, this time with strawberry compote and vanilla ice cream. The strawberries were even better than the apricots we had on our first visit.

Make a special detour to L’Oyat for the best meal you’ll have in Paris. The restaurant isn’t big enough and hasn’t been around long enough to have Michelin stars, but that doesn’t mean the food and the experience aren’t worth Michelin stars. And, best of all, you’ll get that Michelin-star quality in a relaxed ambience for a price you won’t believe. It is quite simply an experience you must have...

Wish I could give five stars because of how much our server (who I assume is also a chef) cares about the food, as well as the quality and plating of the ingredients, but in a lot of the lunch dishes something felt missing.

Entrees: The soup had a good flavor and the croutons were crunchy, but it would’ve been more exciting if they had another garnish with it - maybe nuts, sprouts or crispy fried mushrooms for more variations in texture. For the salad with poached egg, the dressing did not add much to the egg which itself didn’t taste like much. I think marinating it onsen-tamago style and adding some fine breadcrumbs would be nice. Personally the greens were a little too bitter for me and didn’t go great with the egg. Overall, entrees were not bad, but felt a bit plain.

Plats: The fish was very moist, tender, and well done. Also enjoyed the polenta which was buttery and filling :) I liked the touch of passionfruit sauce - a creative and more complex alternative to lemon, but not sure how well it paired with the fish. I wasn’t sure if I wanted more fishy, buttery, or sweet flavors in the passionfruit sauce. The steak was also nice, I really liked the brown dipping sauce which added a lot of flavor to the meat. I don’t remember what they plated underneath the steak, but tasted like puréed beans - I think they seasoned it well enough but the texture was okay - it was a bit odd and waxy. My friend said it tasted like crayon so I don’t think the flavors really come through on that part of the dish.

Dessert: I forget exactly what this dish was, but it was a lot of cream with meringue chips and chocolate(?) biscuits in some sort of rhubarb or pomegranate based sauce. Personally I would’ve preferred if this dish had more contrast in temperatures and flavors. The little chewy balls on it were creative - like little pomegranate seeds, but it felt like chewing super al-dente pasta (and didn’t have much of a flavor), which didn’t go great with the dessert for me. Maybe a more tapioca pearl or mochi based texture would’ve been better. The sauce was a similar temperature as the cream - I feel like if they made this more tart and colder, like a granita or shaved ice, the dessert would’ve been 5x better. Or maybe a lighter cream and a rich, cold vanilla/pomegranate ice cream in the middle :) They were kind enough to comp the dessert even though I never asked them to.

This is all just my personal taste, and I’m no chef, so please take this with a grain of salt. Super promising restaurant whose lunch dishes can be improved substantially with very small tweaks. Amazing service and charming server who cares a lot...

Excellent food, excellent service, and a lovely ambiance in the place. A perfectly sized restaurant. We'd been a bit thrown by some of the reviews, but they were - in our opinion - completely unfounded. As with anything you see on the internet, take it with a pinch of salt, and don't put all your trust in the dodgy reviews. Everything here was brilliant.

I didn't catch their name, but the gentleman who served us was exactly that: a gentleman. I speak French so we spoke in French, but my wife doesn't, and he spoke to her in really really good English. He took care of us the entire night, and I'm pretty sure he was also on the starter's section in the kitchen.

We had the mushroom and the ceviche to start, the monk fish and the pigeon for the main course, then the Valrhona chocolate dish and cheese (couldn't resist) to finish - and an really lovely bottle of Sancerre to wash it down.

I couldn't fault any of it, honestly. In a city of really really great food, Restaurant l'Oyat really is excellent and I'd encourage anyone...