Get Your French Fix at Creperie Saint Germain

Patch trekked to Creperie Saint Germain in Evanston for this week's North Shore Foodie Find.

That's because diners say the buckwheat-flour crepes at this Evanston bistro have a certain “je ne sais quoi”—that is, they actually taste French. 

While most American creperies use wheat flour for sweet and savory recipes, Crêperie Saint-Germain, 1512 Sherman Ave., makes its savory crepes with the traditional French buckwheat flour, according to owner Pascal Berthoumieux. 

“Although we will prepare any of our savory recipes with a wheat flour crêpe upon request, I encourage them to at least try the buckwheat,” Berthoumieux told Patch when the restaurant opened last February. “They just hold up better to the richness of the savory fillings.” 

Berthoumieux, who also owns the upscale French restaurant Bistro Bordeaux, said he opened Creperie Saint Germain to bring a different kind of French dining experience to Evanston. 

So far, his second restaurant has been a hit with patrons, who rave on Yelp about the authenticity and the affordable prices.

“We’ve had a lot of good crepes in our lives—in Europe and North America—but unfortunately outside France and Belgium a lot more bad to mediocre ones,” wrote one reviewer. “This here is one of the good places!”

“No words are needed,” wrote another reviewer, who tried the Marquis, a chocolate desert crepe filled with mixed berries, chocolate mousse and raspberry coulis. “It tasted just as good as it looks.”

The restaurant serves a variety of sweet and savory crepes, as well as salads and hors d’ouevres including French onion soup and a mussels preparation that varies by the day.