We were already planning on spending the morning at the Maison de Guerlain, so when I noticed there was a fine dining restaurant within it, I was intrigued.
The website detailed famous french chef Guy Martin opened ‘le 68’ at the flagship Guerlain, Champs-Elysees flagship store (the address as well as the name) and had created a special menu which combined ingredients traditionally used in perfume creation within his dishes, as well as as a selection of desserts dedicated to famous Guerlain scents.
It all sounded a bit gimmicky to me and the menu was limited BUT as we were having another perfume inspired morning I figured it might be nice to try, the few reviews I found seemed to think it would be good.
So I took a gamble and emailed ahead to book a table.
After looking around the maison, we went to the lower-ground floor where the restaurant was. It wasn’t publicised much, no ostentatious signs outside and in the store there was only a simple A4 poster by the rolling staircase stating that le 68 was below.
We waited by the doors for the waitress, who approached us quickly. She didn’t have my email reservation however the restaurant was near enough completly empty so this wasn’t a problem for getting a table, but worried me slightly with regards to how good it was.
The interior decor was simple, stylish, 100% Guerlain from the elegant cutlery and glassware to the Baccarat chandeliers. The few people that were there were french, no tourists, and the waitress who served us originally didn’t speak much English.
We both ordered two dishes that we both liked the sound of so we could go halves and try them both. I got the Gambas dans son écume and Mo chose the Monkfish as Habit Rouge (his signature Guerlain scent) in Indian spices, fennel, poivrades and virgin sauce flavoured with lovage.
The food at Le 68 was OUTSTANDING.
The smells, the flavours, the presentation, the unusual combinations, it was out of this world. Every bite was delicious. Every bite felt interesting enough that we both continuously analysed every mouthful. We’d either made extremely good menu choices or Monsieur Guy Martin is a real master chef genius.
We had originally not intended to get dessert but after such a wonderful main course, we couldn’t not try one of the tantalising options set out on the list.
Now we had some seriously beautiful sweet dishes when we were in the South of France last year, but Guy kept us on our toes, introducing a mixture of textures and injections of sauce.
We tried some of the aromatic teas, which were stunning and indulged in some complimentary petit fours. Again, all six of the mini bites were perfume inspired so we had a real treat for the senses.
As we ate the restaurant had started to fill up more, again, with locals rather than tourists and the dishes we were seeing on other peoples tables looked just as mouth watering as the ones we had ordered.
All in all Guy Martin’s Le 68 is a real wild card restaurant for anyone visiting Paris. It’s not the cheapest of places but honestly, its money well worth spending!!
