Restaurant 1146 in Paris: an incredible steakhouse like in Japan

Many carnivores consider this meat to be the Holy Grail! With its tenderness and fatty flesh, wagyu beef is often unanimously appreciated. If it is not rare to be able to taste this specialty in Japan, several Parisian addresses also propose to savor this exceptional meat, like the restaurant Yakiniku 1129. Opened in the 1st arrondissement of Paris in January 2022, this place proposes to taste wagyu in a Japanese BBQ style. This spring, from May 4, 2023 to be exact, the Yakiniku 1129 restaurant innovates by unveiling a new experience. To discover it, it is in the basement of the restaurant 1129 that you must go down. It is here, under exposed stones, that the intimate Steakhouse 1146 restaurant awaits us.

So beware, forget everything you know about the classic steakhouse restaurant, with steak and fries on the plate. Steakhouse 1146 is a steakhouse restaurant in the purest Japanese tradition. In the land of the Rising Sun, steakhouse refers to those specialized restaurants where you grill " delicious " steak. The steakhouse is often considered as one of the " pleasures of chic adults ".

What's on the menu? Simple suggestions, featuring beef steak as the main course, but also appetizers based on seasonal ingredients, a soup, rice and a dessert. Today, there are only about 20 steakhouses in Japan.

A " Japanese chic gastronomy " that it is now possible to savor thanks to the opening of Steakhouse 1146 in Paris. And it is in an intimate setting that we are welcomed. Settled behind the bar, which can accommodate up to 8 guests, we discover the tasting menu concocted by the talented chef Masahiro Ishida. If there is one thing this chef - who has been working for 22 years - knows, it is cooking. Whether it's frying, grilling, or preparing " kushi-yaki " (grilled skewers), Masahiro Ishida has mastered these techniques to perfection. And this is exactly what we discover while tasting his tasty menu, mixing exceptional meats and Umami flavors.

The experience, because coming to Steakhouse 1146 is a real experience you will remember, starts with a delicious wagyu short rib tartar topped with caviar, offering very pleasant salty notes. While our taste buds are on fire with this first course, the chef prepares the next course by carefully and delicately cutting a piece of wagyu corresponding to the particular"chuck flap" part of the beef. They then offer us a sashimi of low rib of wagyu, well marbled and at the same time tender and fatty for a guaranteed explosion in mouth.

The plates follow each other, but are not the same, with on one side a French beef tongue grilled under our eyes and slightly lemony, and on the other a foie gras with saikyo miso (sweet white miso) also burned with a blowtorch.

Before attacking the main course, featuring wagyu filet and ribeye, we had two plates as light as they were delicious: a corn soup and a seasonal salad with a homemade fresh cream vinaigrette.

• To be read
• 1129 iiniku: the Japanese BBQ-style Wagyu Yakiniku restaurant in Paris
• An Japonaise in Paris: closed
• Where to eat Wagyu beef in Paris? Our best addresses

Here we are with the main course, composed of a piece of fillet steak and katsu of ribeye (breaded), the whole decorated with ponzu sauce, onion sauce, red wine and apple sauce, salt with shiitake and kombu. How not to succumb to these two incredible pieces of wagyu beef, which are perfectly cooked. I love this plate whereUmami takes all its meaning.

After the main course, two other plates are proposed to us before the dessert. We continue with a roasted pot ato cooked in the oven for 3 hours, then with rice sautéed with garlic and white turnip tsukemono.

We finish with the caramel cream, as light as it is tasty, ideal to end this fabulous meal that we won't soon forget. On the other hand, this intimate gastronomic moment has a (high) cost; count 330 euros for the tasting menu. But Steakhouse 1146 is a totally unique restaurant in Paris, and the tasting menu is not just a simple menu, it is a real experience that awakens all our senses.

And like any experience that has to be deserved, plan to spend some time to fully enjoy this meal, offered only in the evening. Count on a minimum of 2 hours at the table. Especially since this experience can be accompanied - for those who wish - by a food-drink pairing (including sake, Pouilly-Fuissé, homemade shōchū with coffee... ).