Disclosure: I was a guest of the property for this meal.
There’s a fear among certain omnivores that plant-based fare is going to taste like rabbit food and leave you far from full or satiated. And while in Paris, this is often the case, at Mesa, the approach is decadent, flavorsome, and filled with clever international winks.
The restaurant is located in the HOY hotel, a wellness-driven space just south of picturesque Montmartre. And while occasionally, hotel restaurants can feel sterile or veer so far into crowd-pleasing territory as to be a bit… meh, here, there’s some serious vegan cooking going on, none of which feels like health food.
Guests have the option of ordering à la carte, with a range of appetizers that may include hummus with house-made sourdough focaccia (12) or corn espuma with a chorizo-style condiment (15) followed by mains like oyster mushroom tacos (24) and Thai curry with spring veg (23). But the five-course tasting menu (69) is the jewel of the menu, a parade of international flavors that will leave you more than satisfied.
That said, I’ll admit that the tasting on our visit did not begin with its best foot forward: This admittedly pretty plate of dish of beets with a dill cream and a berry glaze (15 à la carte) was disappointing in more ways than one. The beets were ostensibly cooked in coffee, but I detected none of its richness. Instead, the dominant flavor came from the intensely puckery berry glaze, a daringly acid-forward opening that was not adequately tempered by the admittedly delicious dill cream. The bread provided (only when we asked) was obviously well-made sourdough but was shamefully stale. (I wish we’d been offered the house focaccia instead!)
Luckily, the baby was more than saved by the second course, an imposing arancino (12 à la carte) filled with an exquisite vegan pesto and topped with cashew parmesan.
I often find arancini stodgy and too dense, but this one was light and fluffy, with perfectly cooked rice seasoned judiciously but generously with saffron. The pesto itself was excellent, studded with large chunks of cashews. The result was unanimously our favorite dish of the night.
The competition was strong, however, when this chilled pea soup (12) arrived. The copious bowl of rich velouté had a pleasantly sweet-starchy flavor showcasing spring peas at their best. Its rich texture, we learned, came from coconut milk, though the flavor of the exotic fruit was pleasantly absent, allowing the peas to shine. A condiment of preserved lemon and a few pea shoots added some vibrancy. My only complaint? This portion was a bit too large, given the richness of the dish and its position as second in a parade of five. (That said, it’s not like I sent any back…)
Next, we dug into the most divisive dish of the night: mushroom and leek dumplings with a coriander emulsion. The flavors here were the perfect combination of bright and earthy with a touch of underlying chile heat, and the steamed bok choy was a nice touch. The filling was intensely gingery in a way that I, as a ginger lover (like I literally snack on it) adored, but my dining companion said was just on the limit for her. I’ll admit that for most, it was probably too much, but I personally adored it.
For dessert, the à la carte menu offers two vegan pastries from Giardino Paris, a vegan pastry shopknown for both reproducing classic French pastries like flan parisien in plant-based form as well as for its novel creations like the Caracahuète, an entremets with a brownie base, an almond milk chocolate crémeux, a rich, runny caramel, and a generous peanut topping. But on the tasting menu, you instead get to enjoy a house-made pavlova with coconut cream and seasonal berries.
This was absolutely delicious, thanks to the balance between a sweet meringue you’d never guess was vegan and a barely-sweetened whipped coconut cream base. I believe that the promised citrus was replaced with rhubarb, but either way, it provided a nice note of acidity, and the beautiful pink color stained the white dessert in an incredibly moreish way.
That said, this dessert had the same issue as the pea soup: It was served in a very deep bowl, translating to a copious quantity of coconut cream. I ultimately left half of mine behind after enjoying the relatively paltry amount of fruit. This, for me, was a question of balance: A shallower plate and a heavier hand with fruit might have made the dish more successful.
We finished with an exquisite coffee (the filter on offer comes from Ten Belles and is also sublime – as is the rest of the breakfast offering).
While this meal did indeed hit a few snag points, from a culinary perspective, they were mainly linked to over-generosity, which frankly isn’t something I can fault too heavily, particularly in a plant-based restaurant. That said, I do have to say that the service here was fairly forgetful, overly casual, and bordering on neglectful – something I found to be a real shame given the caliber of the food. But ultimately, this place is showing omnivorous diners that you can leave a plant-based tasting satisfied… so much so that you may need to roll yourself home after.
Mesa – 68, rue des Martyrs, 75009