Baieta Paris

Oftentimes when we travel together, I'm the one tasked with choosing and booking restaurants. Bryan is often busy with work stuff, while I have a bit more flexibility. Though I care a lot about good food, I also am not naturally good at administrative tasks, and thus all the logistics of researching restaurants and trip planning tend to stress me out.

This time, Bryan took that load off my shoulders completely and booked ALL the dinners of our 2 days in Paris.

After a long 2-Michelin star tasting menu the first night, we went "a bit" more casual with Baieta, a 1 Michelin star restaurant in Paris's 5th arrondissement.

This was our last dinner together in Paris before I would take the train to London to attend a bunch of meetings. After a whole day of walking around the city (visiting Notre Dame, walking along the Seine, and visiting the Tuileries) it felt nice to sit down and relax, enjoy a nice meal with some wine.

A bit of background . . .

Baieta is helmed by Chef Julia Sedefdjian, who at 21 years old became the youngest chef in France to earn a Michelin star at Les Fables de La Fontaine. After completely revitalizing the menu there, she left to open her own restaurant, Baieta. In 2019, she earned a Michelin star for Baieta, making her the youngest French chef to receive a star at her own establishment.

The restaurant's name, "Baieta," translates to "little kiss" in the regional dialect of Nice. Sedefdjian wanted to create a warm and welcoming environment that celebrates her Niçois heritage and the Mediterranean influence. The restaurant offers a more relaxed (yet still gourmet) dining experience that highlights the terroir of the French Riviera.

Tasting Menus at Baieta Paris

The restaurant offers a few different tasting menu options. The Menu Pichoun is a 3-course menu available only at lunchtime starting at €60. For dinner, guests can choose the Menu Maïoun, which is a 4-course priced around €100, or the Menu Bella Nissa, a longer 7-course priced around €155.

We asked if the longer tasting menus had a significantly larger amount of total food, and the server confirmed "yes". Because I didn't want to eat so much, we chose to go with the 4-course Menu Maïoun.

Our 4-Course Menu Experience

Like many higher-end restaurants, a "4-course" menu usually ends up including a lot more mini-courses if you count the many "free" amuses bouches and mignardises at the end. It was no different here, and we did start with a lovely tasting of 3 small bites.

And a starter.

Bryan and I each chose a different main dish. I went with the monkfish, which was cooked in a deep, rich prawn head seafood "bouillabaisse" sauce.

It came with a crisp shredded daikon ribbon salad and a couple "toasts".

Bryan got the seared wagyu beef, which was cooked a perfect medium rare.

Dessert

We finished the meal with a number of beautiful, refreshing strawberry-themed desserts.

And of course, some petit fours to round out the evening.

Baieta

All in all, we enjoyed our dinner at Baieta. The food well prepared and reasonably priced. The overall ambiance was pleasant. I don't think any particular dish blew me away, but overall everything was nicely executed. My favorites (surprisingly) may have been the strawberry themed desserts (I love strawberries!), which were light and really showcased the fruit.

Perhaps I need to come back and try the Menu Bella Nissa, the 7-course meal. Even though I don't like feeling overly full, I have found that chefs usually showcase their best dishes in these longer tasting menus. Thus, it's still best to order the longest tasting menu if you really want to see the chef's most ambitious and best dishes.

For our purposes, a shorter tasting menu on our last night worked out just great.