Le Soufflé is a unicorn in Carmel. Amid the posh downtown, which sees an influx of visitors on weekends, the restaurant stands out for a number of reasons: Its dining room is tiny — just four tables. It focuses on a single, uncommon French dish. And it’s only open on weekdays — for lunch. 

The restaurant, which has a staff of two, does not advertise, use social media or rely on public relations. Reservations go fast thanks to word of mouth and a loyal repeat customer base. Someone loves Le Soufflé so much, in fact, that they set up an Instagram account under the restaurant’s name a few years ago.

Co-owner Lisa Foreman, who doubles as the restaurant’s lone server, calls it a mystery and suspects that a guest who no longer lives in town is behind the account. Nevertheless, the gesture is a testament to what she along with chef and fellow co-owner Ivan Samchenko have been quietly building at the corner of 5th Avenue and Dolores Street since 2020.

“It’s like you’re coming into our home,” said Foreman, a Bay Area local and hospitality veteran of 30 years. “I’m serving you. He’s cooking for you.”

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The coveted 12 seats in the 200-square-foot dining room are usually occupied by lunchgoers looking for a bit of an experience: A three-courser ($78) that includes bread, salad or soup, a savory souffle, and a sweet souffle. 

According to Foreman, diners are split evenly between Bay Area and Monterey Peninsula residents and guests from farther afield. She and her husband, Tyler, a tech entrepreneur and executive, opened Le Soufflé with Samchenko just over four years ago. For her, it was the realization of a decades-long ambition, sparked by numerous visits to soufflé-centric Cafe Jacqueline, which was founded by Jacqueline Margulis in San Francisco in 1979. 

“I would always say to my husband, ‘This restaurant is just perfect to me,’” Foreman recalled. “The intimacy, how special the cuisine is, the relaxed, long meal. I loved everything about it. It was the ideal, but it seemed so far-fetched.”

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Google “soufflé restaurant,” and not many turn up — though there is the one in Paris, also named Le Soufflé, that has been around since 1961 and whose menu is populated with a lot of non-soufflé dishes. Foreman dined there once, five years ago, when she was already well into planning her own place. 

 Since soufflés are such a niche specialty, the Carmel restaurant is indeed an improbable dream come true. “I pinch myself all the time,” Foreman said.

A soufflé with Dungeness crab sauce at Le Soufflé in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif.

With ingredients sourced from farmers markets and local meat and seafood purveyors, the menu changes seasonally, but there are typically four savory souffle offerings and three dessert ones. While the chocolate and Grand Marnier soufflés have been on the menu since day one — and are not unusual flavors — Samchenko’s creations are often distinctive. A duck á l’orange variation featured shredded housemade........

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