As Seen Abroad: Fromagerie Hisada in Paris
We’re on vacation! For the first time since we started this blog, we’re traveling abroad. As we journey across Asia, Europe, and America, we’ll update with some of the fun places we visit. Yay! This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please read our affiliate disclosure.
Our family has an odd relationship with cheese. I have gastrointestinal troubles, and the last couple times I’ve had pizza in Japan, I got violently ill, which led me to believe I’d developed lactose intolerance. However, when we went to Italy, I ate tons of pizza and was totally fine, so maybe it was just gross Japanese cheese that made me sick. Overall, I’m not really a cheese person.
My wife, however, is totally a cheese person. She loves cheese. But since she’s from Japan, most of the cheese she’s had has been disgusting goop. While we were in France, I wanted to introduce her to the world of moldy stank cheeses, and luckily, there was a place in Paris perfect for us: a fromagerie run by Japanese people called Hisada.
Salon du Fromage Hisada
Hisada Cheese Shop is located just off the Jardin du Palais-Royal, a short walk from the Louvre. Downstairs features a full selection of cheeses available for purchase, along with wine, another thing in which I don’t partake. We arrived for a lunchtime cheese tasting, which was arranged in advance but maybe not something you need a reservation for as we were the only ones in the upstairs dining room.
The dining area had lots of kitsch - and I mean lots. Little cow figurines and jokey signs and all that good stuff. It seems like most of their business comes from cheese sales to locals and not tastings. The proprietor was exceedingly nice and spoke Japanese to Eriko and French to my mom so I was the only one who didn’t understand what was going on.
The menu options included a regular lunch, but we went with the six-cheese tasting that also came with coffee and dessert. The tapas option comes with 20 cheeses, but as you’ll see, six was plenty, so I’m glad we didn’t opt for tapas, as it’s clearly only for total cheeseheads.
Drinks and charcuterie
I got a coffee and Eriko got a big green juice, which made us happy. First, they brought an appetizer of tofu in a sesame sauce. I don’t remember what it tasted like but Eriko says it was good. Then came a charcuterie plate, with some decent sausage and prosciutto, which we love in all its forms. There were also pickles and olives if that’s your thing. But if you’re coming to Hisada (or Paris in general), you’re probably there for cheese, so let’s get to the main attraction.
The cheese plate
When they say they give you six cheeses, they mean six BIG OL’ HUNKS OF CHEESE, along with a dried strawberry and piece of cake and more pickles and olives. I know nothing about cheese, so I can only describe these based on my memory and not what they actually are. Sorry about that. Maybe should have written this closer to when we did it and not five months later. Live and learn.
Top left was Raclette or some other liquidy cheese with a bunch of stuff in it. You should eat this one right away, not save it for last like we did, because it absolutely hardened while we were sitting there and wasn’t as good by the end. It was okay, but not my favorite.
The next one (counterclockwise) was soft, not overpowering in flavor. Is that brie? It looks like it. I’m not a huge fan of brie. I don’t remember having strong feelings about this one either way. Eriko thought the taste and smell were a bit much for her. Not a novice choice.
That fruit covered bad boy at 7:00? That was my jam. Absolute best of the bunch. Tart and sweet together. Beautiful. Eriko said it tasted “like dessert” and was good for her as a beginner. After trying the stronger cheeses, she went back to this one.
The next one had the tartness but not the sweetness of the previous one. Eriko says, “it feels like Japanese taste because this leaf is sakura leaf. There is sakura-mochi in Japan. This leaf has the taste of sakura-mochi. so I felt the traditional Japanese taste of marriage cheese.”
5:00 was harder and smokier. Too strong for Eriko, a bit hard for Gregg, but my mom is more of a seasoned cheese-eater so she liked everything.
The last guy was a stank blue, and went really well with the dried strawberry and cake. Eriko loved this one. She sez: “Blue cheese had a strong taste but a magic marriage with dried strawberry and cake. I bite little by little like a mouse because it was delicious and I wanted to keep eating it as long as possible.” If you don’t enjoy the image of her taking tiny little mouse bites of this cheese, then I don’t know what to do with you.
Overall, it was a great mix and a nice intro, though I wish it had come with a piece of paper explaining the cheeses like you sometimes get with beer or wine flights, because I didn’t really understand what we were eating. The important thing to know is that none of the cheeses were overpowering, so it wasn’t scary for novices like us, and you do get a whole mess of cheese.
We couldn’t finish our plates, leaving a few bites (specifically the now-hardened Raclette). We were worried they would be offended that we didn’t eat everything, so Eriko tried to explain that we liked it, but it was a lot of cheese for us.
“The owner said to me maybe this is so much for me, French people eat more than Japanese people so this is French size,” said Eriko. “I was so full. But I thought this cheese tasting was good because we can try many kinds of cheese.”
Dessert at Hisada
They don’t have to provide you with dessert, but they do. That cookie is filled with… goat cheese or something? I don’t know, but I ate everybody’s cookies and I’m not sorry. The other desserts were probably good but all I remember was that cookie. The French are sneaky contenders for the Best Cookie Country prize.
The Verdict: should you go to Hisada?
Yes, you should, especially if you’re Japanese. The hostess put us at ease and the cheeses weren’t scary. The portions were also outstanding for the price we paid. I honestly cannot imagine how massive the 20-cheese tasting must be. We felt like we really got our money’s worth and had a unique experience that we wouldn’t have had if we’d just wandered into some random cheese shop. Hisada is assuredly worth your while.
Hisada is located at: 47 Rue de Richelieu, 75001 Paris, France. We recommend blocking out a lunch time slot for cheese tasting followed by an extended stay at the nearby park where you can rest and work off that cheese. And maybe then spend the rest of the evening farting in your hotel room followed by intense cheese dreams, or perhaps in a crowded nightclub where no one can hear your loud cheese farts. I don’t know. I don’t want to tell you how to live your life.
Going to Paris?
Paris is one of a few places where I’d recommend finding a chain hotel, particularly if you’re traveling with someone older or disabled. Apartments can often be walk-ups with no air conditioning, and some boutique hotels are in old buildings that aren’t equipped to handle those who have trouble walking.
I’ve been a member of the Radisson Hotels rewards program for a long time, as they have good redemption rates, and though their hotels usually aren’t super fancy, they’re reliable and offer decent breakfasts, laundry service, and mini-fridges among other things. In Paris, the best location is the Radisson Blu Hotel Champs Elysées, which is close to the Arc de Triomphe and some of the other notable sites nearby. If you want a comfortable stay where you know what you’re getting, Radisson has a lot of solid properties across Europe that can offer you a comfortable bed to sleep in while you suffer from terrifying cheese nightmares.
