Where to eat in Paris now

Not so long ago, Paris had a reputation as being a city in gastronomic decline, one whose hallowed culinary traditions have been overshadowed by new ones created by inventive upstarts in Barcelona and Denmark. But that’s not the case anymore. For every stodgy Paris restaurant that is coasting on past glory, you’ll find a fantastic one run by a talented young chef. Rejecting the formality of classic French restaurants, this new wave of chefproprietors is waking up the once hide-bound Parisian food scene. Many of its exponents trained under the masters, and often eschew luxury ingredients and fancy interiors. On the whole, they offer incredibly good value for exciting, sophisticated food that might best be described as multicultural–not ‘fusion’ but a happy marriage of French flavors and global influences. Here are some of the most interesting of the new wave restos. Some are recently opened and others have quickly become modern classics. All are worth a visit.

Le Servan. The recipient of a Le Fooding Guide ‘Best Bistro’ award, Le Servan is an expression of chef Tatiana Levha’s Franco-Philipinne origins. Levha, who trained under Pascal Barbot and Alain Passard, cooks like a dream. Her signature dishes include fried duck hearts and black pudding wontons. leservan.com Jones. Lively small plates restaurant in the Bastille district with a market driven menu and excellent natural wines. jonescaferestaurant.com

Mokonuts Café and Bakery. This tiny rustic storefront on a non-descript street in the Bastille district is run by Omar Koreitem (behind the stove) and Moko Hirayama (an ex-pastry chef at Yam’Tcha), and its daily changing menu is a reflection of the couple’s shared sensibilities. Recent lunchtime offerings featured roast pumpkin and kale with tahini sauce and roast sea bass on a purée of brussels sprouts. Mokonuts only serves breakfast and lunch, but the shop operates as a take-out place and café all day. Be sure to try Hirayama’s superb Middle Eastern and Japanese-inflected patisserie. The tahini cookies and the chiffon cake with chai cream are winners. Advance
booking essential.

Restaurant Frenchie. When Gregory Marchand opened this small gastro-bistro on rue de Nils, in the Sentiers district, critics were dazzled by the Nantesborn chef ’s beautifully simple cooking. Think fennelscented gazpacho with yellow fin tuna or a perfect roast beet and herb salad in a warm hibiscus ‘soup’ or squid ink gnocchi. Marchand, who cooked at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen in London and Gramercy Tavern in New York before he opened Frenchie, has since taken over the block. There’s a wine bar and a take-out shop, Frenchie to Go, which the French food site Omnivore calls ‘a masterpiece of Parisian street food,’ all on the same street. If you plan to dine at the former, you’ll want to book far in advance as it remains one of the hottest tables in town.
frenchie-restaurant.com; frenchietogo.com

Yam’Tcha. Chef Adeline Grattard, an alum of Pascal Barbot’s L’Astrance, turns out carefully considered, elegant renderings of Franco-Chinese cuisine in its new location on the Rue Saint-Honoré in the Les Halles quartier. (Watercress velouté, foie gras, and oysters is one such rendering; pollack, potatoes, and housemade XO sauce is another.) Grattard’s husband, the tea master Chi Wa Chan, will pair each course with fine tea or a wine from the restaurant’s staggering list. And if by chance you can’t score a table at Yam’Tcha, visit the nearby Boutique Yam’Tcha. Housed in Yam‘Tcha’s original stone-walled space, the owners have converted it into a tea room and takeout shop selling Vietnamese steamed buns or baos filled with—what else?— Comté with caramelized onions or other Gallic-Asian options. Booking well in advance is imperative. yamtcha.com

Breizh Café. This small restaurant in the Marais sets the standard for crêpes and galettes (galetes are buckwheat crepes with savory fillings.) The kitchen sources impeccable ingredients from Brittany from fresh-milled organic buckwheat flour to cultured butter and it handles them with care. For a perfect meal, you might start with a crisp galette filled with raw milk Camembert and ham, garnished with a scatter of salad leaves tossed in a cider vinaigrette, and and finish with a salted caramel crêpe. Whatever you order, make sure to accompany your meal with a bowl of hard cider or fermented milk (the second tastes like the best kefir you’ve ever had). Sublime. Booking a day in advance or before twelve noon is recommended. Lunchtime walk-ins are welcome after three o’clock. breizhcafe.com

Ze Kitchen Gallery. Chef Willam Ledeuil, a disciple of Guy Savoy, puts to rest the myth that all chefs use prodigious amounts of butter. His Franco-Asian inflected dishes have clean bright herbaceous flavors that have won him no end of acclaim. Signature dishes include fresh marinated sardines with tomato-ginger jam and slow-cooked wild salmon with lemon grass drizzled with a tomato-cumin vinaigrette, and lamb shoulder with tamarind-miso sauce. For a somewhat more intimate experience, try its nearby sibling, Ze Kitchen Bis (KGB). Booking one to two weeks at both establishments in advance is recommended. zekitchengalerie.fr