Restaurant Reviews: Empreinte in Lille

Though it’s still sort of an under-the-radar destination for food lovers, Lille is coming on strong as a prosperous, innovative city that’s squarely at the heart of the London-Brussels-Paris triangle and a terrific weekend destination or stop-over for anyone driving from the UK to other European destinations.

Just ten minutes from both of the city’s train stations, the well-heeled Lillois suburb of Lambersart has become the talk of the region ever since Calais native chef Ismaël Guerre-Genton, 30, opened his restaurant Empreinte here in a 1930s-vintage villa a little over a year ago. Having heard a lot about this place, I recently broke a trip from Paris to London for lunch here, and suffice it to say that I made a very wise decision: this was one of the best meals I’ve eaten in France for some time.

Stepping inside the sunlight-flooded dining room with metal shoe-box-sized lights overhead in leather cradles, wooden tables with custom-made wrought-iron legs, and big picture windows, the welcome was warm from the young staff and Guerre-Genton’s wife, Inès. The couple met in Megève in the French Alps. Ismaël was working at the superb restaurant Les Flocons de Sel, one of those rare Michelin three-star restaurants that are actually worth the serious wound to your wallet. After a stint in Lyon, they came to the département of Nord, because they thought there would be more opportunity here for an ambitious young chef striking out on his own, and also because the area has exceptionally good produce.