It's no secret that to eat true Japanese in Paris, you have to pay the price. And the Blueberry Maki Bar restaurant, a stone's throw from Saint-Germain-des-Prés, is no exception to the rule; a la carte prices are probably higher here than in your local Japanese restaurant.
But the real question is this: isn't it better to have lunch once in a while in an excellent Japanese restaurant, like Blueberry, and thus rediscover true Japanese gastronomy; rather than eating sushi every week, certainly a little cheaper, but of lesser quality, even dubious for some?
Opened in 2013 by sisters Marie-Lorna and Florence Vaconsin, who also run the Steam Bar with its surprising dim sum and the nearby Italian restaurant Marcello, Blueberry Maki Bar is, in fact, one of the capital's top Japanese restaurants, the crème de la crème of Parisian tables where you can enjoy maki and sushi, the finest izakaya in Paris.
In a Tokyo atmosphere worthy of the finest Wong Kar-wai films - references to My Blueberry Nights range from the bluish neon lights to the reddish hanging lights - Blueberry Maki Bar is the place for all the experiments of chef Alberto Fulong, who recently took over the helm of the kitchens.
For at Blueberry, don't expect to find classic maki. Here, they're real gems, crafted both in terms of flavor combinations and meticulous presentation. The Japanese restaurant's now iconic maki include the Rackham Le Rouge (marinated tuna, truffle, prawn tempura; €23 for 6 pieces) and the Trans-Siberian (snow crab, prawns, salmon roe, apple, grapefruit, dill; €27 for 6 pieces).
For our part, we made a fine discovery with the Aki maki (15€ for 6 pieces), featuring salmon, Japanese mandarin orange, beet shoots, cabbage, coriander, Timur berry and a mikan ponzu sauce - yes, all in one and the same maki! -But also the chef's maki, on this day a Toro tuna maki as fatty as its reputation would suggest; a true delicacy of choice.
One of the new additions to the menu this autumn is the lunchtime bento (€35), a generous, unadorned dish that allows you to enjoy several traditional preparations on the same plate: sashimi, maki, vegetable tempura, egg marinated in soy sauce and tobiko, accompanied by fresh vegetables, meslun, vinegared rice and a citrus vinaigrette.
The vegetable tempura is so appealing, moreover, that we fall for an assortment (21€) of the latter: sweet potato, broccoli, shiso leaf, as well as beautiful shrimp in a light panko frying; before moving on to a mixed chirashi (29€), which brings together the finest fish - salmon, tuna and sea bream - in their simplest form, with no room for faux pas: sashimi.
Before driving away from the restaurant, let yourself be tempted by pastry chef Marianne Quijada's mochi, a black sesame mochi and a mango-passion-coriander glazed mochi (8€ each), both quite classic but carefully crafted, and for the seasonal mochi (10€ each), the aptly named Poire en Kimono, a poached pear that melts all the way through, dressed in mochi dough like a suit of light.
There's no doubt about it, quality comes at a price, and it's certainly omnipresent on the Blueberry Maki Bar menu. We can't recommend enough that you experience a true Japanese meal.
Location
Blueberry Maki Bar
6 Rue du Sabot
75006 Paris 6
Official website
www.blueberrymakibar.com
