Faithful readers of the blog since 2010 (!) may remember that we’ve talked about the Breizh Café before – their original location in the Marais.

Now, they’ve opened a branch at Odéon, super close to our hotels, the perfect excuse to go back for some more inventive crepes and see whether the level is still as high.

Here’s our review.

With establishments in both France (Brittany, of course) and Tokyo, and using influences from both, the Breizh Café offers really different crepes, and their new venue just a few minutes’ walk from our hotels is probably the most chic of their four restaurants (and the only on on the Left Bank).

Here, you will be greeted by a young man in a suit, and the cider is served in a glass, not the usual bowl.

The interior design however is still wood, brown and beige, and the open kitchen allows anyone sat at the bar (like us) to watch the kitchen staff (two standard cooks and one Japanese chef who seemed to handle complicate dishes). Watching them endlessly juggle the preparation of numerous dishes at the same time was fascinating.

The restaurant’s other attraction (that they do not have at the marais venue) is the large terrace the goes around two sides of the building. Heated during the winter, it’s great for people-watching in perfect comfort.
Thanks to our seat at the bar opposite the kitchen we learn one of the secrets of cooking the perfect crepe – a cover they place over the crepe to thoroughly cook all the ingredients.

Perhaps founder Bertrand Larcher mentions this in his book? It’s available (only in English, bizarrely) here for less than 19€ inc. p&p, or for 25€… at the restaurant!
After some buckwheat crisps to accompany our glass of wine and glass of cider, we decided to start with a camembert-fig-walnut crepe whose tastes mixed perfectly with the buckwheat.

It came prettily displayed in slices on a slate.
Next, as a main course, we chose one crepe with assorted vegetables, and another with smoked herring and potatoes.

The vegetable crepe was excellent, with the filling finely sliced, some red pepper for colour and a very tastes egg that we mixed in. Very good indeed.

The herring crepe is a classic combination but with a twist – herring eggs instead of fish, a generous dose of crème fraîche that soften the smoked taste, and potatoes with just the right amount of softness to them. Perfection!
Although a crepe may seem a bit small to constitute a meal, it’s surprising how much they actually fill you up. We didn’t really have room for dessert, but being placed facing the kitchen brought back our appetite. ?

All through the evening, we had watched one of the cooks prepare bananas for a dessert (caramelising them with a blowtorch) and it really made our mouth water.

So, we just had to order the organic banana crepe with whipped cream, Madagascar vanilla ice cream and salted caramel. It’s probably one of the more copious desserts, but we have no regrets.

Our other dessert was deceptively simple – a crepe with sugar and butter, but here the butter comes infused with yuzu and that changes everything. A touch of orange flower completed this wonder – so good!
As the website says, you can easily forget how a crepe can also be something subtle.

At the Breizh Café, the best ingredients and the chef’s creativity produce dishes that will agreeably surprise you.

Don’t forget to book your table – the place is already a big success (and rightly so).

Le Breizh Café Odéon (here) is open every day from 11.30am-11pm

Tel. +33 (0)1 42 49 34 73

Online booking here

Website / Facebook

To check out all our photos of the Breizh Café Odéon, click here.

A post shared by Rob Baris (@robbaris) on Sep 28, 2017 at 5:08am PDT