We’ve rated Semilla as GREAT with three stars * * *
- an upgrade from the two stars it has held for many years
Find all our rankings in the Restaurant Index and don’t miss our 50 Favorite Restaurants in Paris
I review a lot of new restaurants, and the hit rate isn’t what you’d hope. In a single week this spring, three buzzy new openings let me down. So when I sat down at Semilla a few days later and the meal turned out to be the best I’ve ever had there, the relief was almost physical. Here was a mature restaurant — nearly fifteen years on the rue de Seine, no longer anyone’s idea of a hot new thing — quietly firing on all cylinders.
I’ve had an on-again, off-again romance with Semilla over the years. Two things have never wavered: the welcome and the wine. The food has been variable, depending on who was in the kitchen. This time, Semilla delivered the full package.
THE WINE
The wine is the reason Semilla has always been worth a table, even during its quieter stretches. Semilla is connected with La Dernière Goutte, the cave around the corner and one of the best small wine shops in Paris — so the list here is drawn from a cellar that was built over decades.
La Dernière Goutte has spent those decades cultivating and championing growers, many of whom have since become international stars and have stayed loyal — which is why Semilla can pour allocations you simply won’t find elsewhere. The selection runs on the palate of Juan Sanchez, whose taste leans biodynamic without ever hardening into dogma. I’ll admit my bias here: after years of drinking from his shelves, his palate has gradually become mine, and his choices are the foundation of my own preferences. La Dernière Goutte is my favorite place to buy wine, and Semilla is my favorite place to drink it.
The depth shows in the grower Champagnes, listed with their disgorgement dates, including Selosse, a long run of Egly-Ouriet, Agrapart, Vouette et Sorbée. It shows again in the benchmark growers waiting in every region: Thierry Allemand and Jamet in the Rhône, Prieuré Roch in Burgundy, Overnoy in the Jura, Tempier in Bandol. And yet the by-the-glass pours start around 10,5€, and the markup across the board is modest. This is one of the rare places in Paris where you can drink something special without flinching.
Even the non-alcoholic list is considered, with named producers rather than supermarket cans: a Toussaint alcohol-free IPA, a UMA lemonade, an Archipel blackcurrant-leaf kombucha, Père Jules apple juice.
THE FOOD
It begins, on the house, with warm gougères — redolent of nutty Comté, not overstuffed and gooey, perfect for nibbling with a glass while you read the menu.
The most exciting starter was the cappelletti de langoustines: a profound langoustine bisque caught in all the tender folds of the pasta. The stuffed jumbo morel was the quieter pleasure — a single fat, dark morel set beside a spear of white asparagus des Landes, over a licorice-scented white-asparagus purée and a poultry jus mounted with butter. The plating was striking, even a little anatomical if your mind wanders that way, and the eating was pure comfort: earthy morel, the faint anise lift of the licorice, the asparagus sweet and tender.
But the dish that gave me a warm, almost involuntary sense of well-being was the maigre. A piece of fish with peas doesn’t sound exciting, and it isn’t trendy — my guest and I had to look up sauce Saint-Germain on our phones, because nobody serves it anymore. It’s an old one: a pea sauce built on a bouillon made from the pods. Not sexy, but incredibly good. The fish was cooked perfectly, and these forgotten sauces are canon for a reason. The tender gnocchi served alongside almost seemed unnecessary. But they were delicious, dabbed with bacon cream and devoured.
Our other main was pigeon. The waiter suggested the pigeon. My dining partner pleaded for the pigeon. I was so damn tired of pigeon, since it turns up on the tasting menu of nearly every young chef in Paris. But I relented, and it was one of the best I’ve ever had: gently smoked and lacquered, with bitter cime di rapa and sweet caramelized pear. When a dish you’re actively tired of stops you cold, that’s the sign of an incredible kitchen.
The fromage, as ever, is the moment to finish the bottle or order another glass, and Semilla rewards the impulse. The cheeses here are excellent, not a throwaway selection, sourced from Fromagerie Sanders in the covered Marché Saint-Germain. And there are some very cheese-friendly wines by the glass, including bubbles, Banyuls, and Macvin.
Desserts at Semilla are the work of an actual pastry chef, which feels increasingly rare: precise, multi-component, beautifully balanced. The chocolate-and-buckwheat was delicious — a buckwheat tartlet holding a milk-chocolate crémeux and a soft chocolate sponge, a Guanaja-and-Caraïbe mousse and puffed buckwheat for crackle, topped with buckwheat ice cream and a thin chocolate tuile. The citrus was the refreshing counterweight: a pale citrus-and-fennel mousse against segments of orange and pink grapefruit, a pecan-and-hazelnut génoise and a bright citrus sauce, finished with pretty purple blossoms.
THE VIBE
Semilla is bright and welcoming — not a low-lit, sexy date-night den. It feels lived-in, the way a place does in its second decade. Early in the evening the room skewed older, well-heeled and expat; it got younger and more local as the night went on. A famous choreographer breezed in and took his regular table in the corner.
Service this time was professional, bilingual and warm. It’s a bigger room than most, with more tables, and in the past the floor has occasionally gone missing — but on this night it was faultless.
THE VERDICT
Semilla is a great restaurant. It’s always been good: a rewarding solution to the Sunday / Monday night problem. A destination for wine lovers. A lovely place to bring a vegetarian. But the current kitchen has leveled up, and the cooking has finally caught up to the cellar.
Semilla is also a strong reminder that restaurants can improve over time, and that the quiet, grown-up restaurants are often the ones cooking circles around the openings everyone is posting about.
À la carte is 70€ for three courses (55€ for two); the five-course Menu Découverte is 90€, with a wine pairing chosen by sommelier Mathias at 50€. Reservations open about three weeks ahead, though you can often get in with a few days’ notice.
SEMILLA
54 rue de Seine
Open Monday-Friday for dinner only
Open Saturday & Sunday for lunch & dinner
Reservations online or at +33 1 43 54 34 50
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One of my firm favourites. Virgil the Somelier was beyond helpful and welcoming.
Nice piece!!
Is there a dish you’re usually tired of seeing everywhere (like pigeon here) but that when done right it wins you over?