Komatsubaki -- Restaurant Review

3 rue d'Artois, 75008
tel: 01 42 25 26 78
Take Away: 01 45 20 70 37
Metro 9: Saint Philippe du Roule
Hours: Every day except Saturday/Sunday lunch
Open for dinner Sundays
Closed on Mondays
Website: http://www.komatsubaki-paris.com/en/

Rating Standards: 5-Stars = Extraordinary; 4-Stars = Excellent; 3-Stars = Average; 2-Stars = Fair; 1-Star = Poor

€ = Inexpensive: 30€ and under; €€ = Moderate: 31€-49€; €€€ = Expensive: €50 -75; €€€€ = Very Expensive: more than €76 (prices based on minimum 2-courses)

1-Bell = Pleasantly quiet (less than 65 decibels); 2-Bells = Can talk easily (65-70); 3-Bells = Talking normally gets difficult (70-80); 4-Bells = Can talk only in raised voices (75-90); BOMB = Too noisy for normal conversation (90+)

3.75 - Star......................................................€€......................................................... 2 - Bell

For our weekly Wednesday lunch out, a good friend recommended this restaurant. I thought, great, it's a nice change to go to a Japanese restaurant. She actually took a sushi making class with master Chef Kino, whose goal is to make best sushi not only in Paris, but in the world. He is also a master of "Omakase",  a tasting menu of the chef's own composition. 

The restaurant is located on a side street of the "Champs Elysees".  The interior is very sleek, very clean lines and their the main dining room is located upstairs. There were 2-tables and the majority of the patrons set around the sushi bar. In total, there were 14 seats available. They did have some 3-tables downstairs, but it looked like it was rarely used. And, they also have one big tatami room for private parties.

Unlike most sushi bars that you have in e.g., San Francisco, you don't order piece-by-piece, you select a plate of sushi and sashimi that the chef put together. We opted for the lunch special at 28€.

So, for our first course we had miso soup, which is typical and accompanied with a salad of various fish morsels that were breaded but covered with a sweet soy based sauce. They added some fresh julienne carrots, onions and green onions. It was a great little fish salad.  The miso soup was very rich, but I did find it a tad salty, and I happen to like salt.

The lunch special had nori maki sushi of salmon, and the sushi was I believe yellowtail. I was surprised that it did not come with wasabi. So, I asked the chef, where's the wasabi? he said it was already incorporated in the dishes. True, but I wanted more, so I asked for more. I'm guessing the sushi was customized for the French palate, hence, no added wasabi. Interesting to note, I was told that the chef makes his own soy sauce. I do have to say it was delicious.  The pickled ginger was sweeter than most, but delicious. The fish were all very fresh. Overall excellent plate of sushi.

The wines at this restaurant are fairly expensive. I don't believe in getting really expensive wines. The cheapest bottle was a "Etienne Sauzet chardonnay Bourgogne blanc" at 38€.  Wine connoisseurs sometime refer to this as “White Burgundy is the crack cocaine of Chardonnay”, go figure. Claiming once you try this wine, you'll never go back. In other words you can get addicted to this wine. It was good. "It's a light bodied, fruity with fresh peach and nectarines and firm acidity. Fresh, vibrant and balanced."


SUMMARY

What a nice change. So, if you're visiting Paris and just hankering for something different, then I say come to this restaurant. There is nothing pretentious about. It's a simple restaurant with Japanese aesthetics of clean lines and simplicity that will definitely make you feel you're in Japan. The food is simple, clean and fresh. They did have some hot dishes like donburi, but their specialty is the sushi. Would we go back, absolutely. Note: they also have a brisk take-out business.

For 3-lunch specials and one bottle of wine, our meal came to 123€