Embers, spices and condiments: three pillars that perfectly characterize Leven, a new restaurant in the Sentier district that draws its inspiration from Kurdistan. In fact, it's from Kurdish that the shop takes its name (meaning"lips"), and lovers of flavors from elsewhere could well have this name on theirs, without delay.
Behind the address is Victor Yasar, himself a native of Kurdistan, who previously cut his teeth with the Experimental Group and then the Dalia Group, which produced Dalia and Jolia. Drawing on his childhood memories, Victor has surrounded himself with Léon Désarmégnin in the dining room (ex-Hôtel Amour, Grand Hôtel Amour, PNY, Dalia) and chef Or Bitan (ex-Miznon, Dalia) to make this first restaurant a place in his own image, full of tributes.
All share a love of the Middle East and Levantine cuisine - especially Kurdish. Like a journey to these distant lands, Leven draws its decorative and ornamental inspiration from Middle Eastern covered markets.
Entirely imagined by Victor and created in collaboration with French craftsmen, the restaurant with its long open kitchen mixes wood, raw materials and light colors, patterned banquettes and sheers on the ceiling, ceramic wall lamps by Chiara Colombini and an exotic playlist.
At Leven, the Middle East is revealed for what it is - warm, generous, tasty - through the fiery cooking of chef Or Bitan. Here, no hotplates, not even a traditional oven, just coals to cook absolutely everything, from freshly baked bread to meat, fish and vegetables. A risky choice, but one that saves lives.
And the chef doesn't make life easy for herself when it comes to sourcing, either, seriously respecting the seasonality of products and their provenance from a handful of small, hand-picked producers - flour is made by a local miller, spices come from Nomie, fish from the Finistère or the Mediterranean, and meats are entirely French.
Leven is a multifaceted place. At lunchtime, gourmets can enjoy street food(15€ for a dürüm/drink/side or dessertmenu; 20€ for a full take-away menu). A choice of 5 dürüm recipes awaits, and we can't recommend enough the particularly sapid dürüm kefta (beef and lamb, fresh herbs, tahini, grilled onions, zhoug, gherkins, pine nuts ; 10€) and the fish dürüm (grilled mackerel, Urfa chili aioli, fresh herbs, sumac red onions, pomegranate molasses, arugula, zhoug, gherkins; 9€).
To accompany them, you'll love the charcoal-grilled corn ribs with their chili and sweet paprika aioli (7€), the 'Al-torchi' pickles of seasonal vegetables with Amba spices from Iran (4€), and a cocktail to clear the air before the desserts.
These are must-tries, and both are particularly successful. On the one hand, the malabi (5€), a blancmange-style oriental flan with orange blossom-infused milk and cream, accompanied by a kiwi coulis, crushed roasted peanuts, grated coconut and pomegranate. On the other hand, the purple carrot cake (5€), soft as can be, topped with cream cheese, Espelette pepper, purple carrots, cinnamon and walnuts.
And in the evening, our lunchtime offerings are available as plates to be shared with other diners, alongside new proposals.
