JIA YAN -- Restaurant Review

5 Rue Humboldt

75015 Paris

Metro: Line 6 (Dupleix)

Phone 06 70 26 29 77

Website: http://jia-yan.lafourchette.rest/en_GB/

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

I don't normally review ethnic restaurants, but since I'm from San Francisco it seems like a never-ending search for a good, even passable Chinese much less Sichuan restaurant. And, this restaurant comes closest to what you can find in SF, NY or LA. 

Pre-Covid lockdown, we came here often since it's also in our arrondissement (15eme). The Maitre'd is a gruff old Chinese man who likes you to order his way. If you're from SF you'll know this chef (click for more info) Edsel Ford Fong, the maitre'd must be related to him. 

It's a small restaurant and seating towards the back wall can be very tight, with chairs butting up against each other. But the restaurant is pleasant enough. 

Entree:  We had shrimp dumplings and Seaweed (wakame) salad.

Shrimp dumplings. The filling for the dumplings were good, but the dough was a bit thick and doughy, but good. The accompanying sauce had a kick, which livened the dish.

Seaweed salad:  it was really good, fresh, clean and spicy. I can't imagine the french eating this because it really was spicy. 

MAIN COURSE

Plats we had (from left to right) Sauteed eggplant, pork belly, and beef. Surprisingly, none of the main dishes we ordered were spicy hot, but nonetheless they were good. I think it depends on what dish you ordered, because some of them were pictured with lots of chilies. And, I've had other dishes in the past where it was spicy hot. I think they must've added some "Cantonese" style dishes to accommodate the French palate.  

Eggplant: The eggplant was very tasty, a bit on the sweet side for me. More like a Cantonese dish rather than a Sichuan dish, but good.

Pork Belly: It was braised in soy and I tasted 5-spice. I liked it, but this is not a dish for everyone since it contains a lot of fat and is oily. I liked it because it reminded me of a Filipino dish called "Paksiw na Baboy" (stewed pork belly or pork knuckles in soy and vinegar).

Beef: The beef was coated with rice flour then steamed, and it had an underlay of sweet potatoes. It was an OK dish, but JJ had an aversion to the dish.  Steaming anything with any kind of flour has a peculiar texture, imagine coating chicken with flour then steaming it. It had that kind of texture. It wasn't my favorite dish, but it was OK. 

Dessert: The maitre'd comped us with the dessert, go figure. It was just fruit and a little cookie that looked like a "chouquette" 

SUMMARY 

We've be to this restaurant several times pre-Covid and came back today to see if any changes have been made. And, from what I can gather there have been changes made. There's a lot more Cantonese style dishes offered on the menu. But for some reason we didn't order any of the Sichuan main dishes with the exception of the seaweed salad.

I recall once,  pre-covid when 2-French women came and sat next to us. They asked the Maitre'd if they could make their dishes not too spicy. He said, "No, madame, we make our food the way it's supposed to be made, if you don't like spicy, then you should go find somewhere else to eat." Needless to say, I was both shocked and delighted he said that.

Not to sound like a total food snob, but one thing I learned long ago after moving to Paris, never compare Chinese food that you can get in SF, NYC, or LA because you'll be disappointed every time. It is what it is. However, you can find EXCELLENT delicious southeast asian cuisine like Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian. But most of the Chinese food that you'll find in Chinatown are Vietnamese whose ancestry is Chinese, so the food has already been bastardized. 

But I have to say that this restaurant comes closest to what I could get in SF. I asked the maitre'd if he was from Sichuan, he said no, but our chef is. So, that was a good sign.

With 2-entrées, 3-main dishes, One-37cl of wine, 1-tea, our total for 3-people came to 86€.

Would I go back, absolutely.