Posted Sep 30, 2022, 6:06 AM
If you search for “Towa” on Google, it immediately appears with the mention “French restaurant”. It’s so true. All the external signs are however Japanese: the chef Shin Okusa himself, his wife Ayako in the dining room, but also the name he gave to his establishment: “towa” means “eternal”, but pronounced in French, it close to “you”. Precisely, Shin Okusa, like a few other Japanese cooks based in France, is approaching us. He has assimilated the codes of French gastronomy, its ingredients, its flavors, which he combines with ease and just the right amount of exoticism. Our last meal lacked neither.
A pie worthy of Escoffier
To accompany the aperitif – a glass of arbois (white) from Jérôme Arnoux – we ordered panisses, Provençal wonders, melting inside, golden and crispy on the outside, to be dipped in a yuzu-miso aioli . As a starter, with its condiments and mashed banana, the Obsiblue prawn carpaccio overwhelmed us with its inventiveness and accuracy. These iridescent blue crustaceans come from afar, they are caught in a lagoon off New Caledonia, but we will be reassured by saying that their delicate taste justifies the trip. We continued with a dish worthy of Escoffier, a duck breast and foie gras pie, technical perfection, orgasmic pleasure. And since it was the end of the white peach season, we enjoyed them for dessert, where they were served raw with a drizzle of almond milk and rosemary honey ice cream. Mustard yellow banquettes and curtains, beautiful tubular suspensions from the ceiling, large mirrors on the walls and attentive service add to the crazy charm of “Towa”.
Towa: 75, rue Crozatier, Paris (XIIe). Such. : 01 53 17 02 44. Three-course dinner at €68 (some dishes require a supplement), five-course carte blanche menu at €85.
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