© Jérôme Galland
Naples and New York are the pizza capitals of the world. But the same is true of Buenos Aires in Argentina, where a special kind of pizza exists: the fugazzeta, a pizza generously topped with string cheese (muzza, made there). As well as the flagship speciality of this place, opened by a Frenchman who fell in love with the country's pizzas, the eNapoe is also well worth a visit (made with slices of fresh tomato and parsley).
The end of 2022 saw the opening of a type of coffee shop that can be found everywhere in Hong Kong: the cha cha teng. When the territory was still under the British flag, the Chinese also wanted to sample the delights of Western cuisine, which was too expensive for their wallets, hence the creation of these "tea restaurants " where you traditionally order French toast drizzled with sugar syrup or meat broth with noodles and pieces of ham. Bing Sutt is a modern version, but the spirit is still there!
The Française des Jeux (FDJ) is behind this unusual address, which opened in April 2024 and updated the local bistro to bring it up to date with the times. So it's all fun on the plate, with home-cooked dishes (meat and chips, frogs' legs and buckwheat, lemon meringue pie) but fun off the plate too, with the whole collection of games of chance available at the counter and even at the table. The place welcomes customers from 9am.
How do you differentiate yourself with burgers in 2023? That was the challenge taken up by the Disco Burgers team, and they've succeeded, because here there are no burgers with a classic look: they have a bun that encompasses the entire contents, and you have to imagine a flying saucer look. Classic flavours or more original like the burger of the moment (shredded beef, wasabi mayonnaise, grated carrots, red chilli pepper...). Perfect for young children who won't get dirty.
It's a unique concept in the world in a restaurant open all year round: they start by serving you a chocolate ice cream (which is in fact a beef cheek), a floating island (poached cod) and rice pudding (butternut risotto) and end with spaghetti (strawberry tart), eggs mayo (white chocolate-coconut panna cotta, mango-passion cream, lemon chantilly). The kingdom of trompe-l'oeil!
A few years ago, the owners of the Michelin-starred restaurant Le Rigmarole opened an ice cream parlour that doubles as a wine bar**, or the other way round. And the ice creams are phenomenal, very creamy, with Anglo-Saxon flavours (birthday cake for example) reminiscent of the founders' origins. The cones, made on the premises, are just as addictive. A clientele of models and film actors when the sun goes down.
This is the restaurant of the Refugee Food association, which helps refugees integrate into France through gastronomy. Once you're in this canteen-style setting - you queue to be served your dish and clear off your tray and cutlery at the end - you can try the boulettes de chinchard, a fish that's not very noble but which nevertheless works wonders, topped with tomato sauce and Creole rice (€10.40 per dish). For dessert, try the banoffee with banana crumble and milk jam. And more!
It's a real laundromat but also a real café** - open from 8.30am to 6.30pm - a real restaurant, a real exhibition space and, more generally, a real place that wants to speak to everyone but especially to the locals (we're near Porte d'Aubervilliers, a working-class neighbourhood).
An "anomaly": this neighbourhood café is located just behind the Meurice, one of the most luxurious - and oldest - palaces in Paris. You'll see workers in blue overalls** coming in to choose the sandwich to eat at the counter but also other clever people who have realised that this is a nugget, a nugget that has existed since the 1960s with the same family at the helm, the Dalle family. Mum, who is almost 90, still prepares the same dishes every day - macaroni and roast veal on Tuesdays, roast beef and chips on Wednesdays... - and it's pure bliss.
Who would have thought that a lively street in the 20th arrondissement** - rue de Bagnolet - is just a few minutes' walk away from one of the most fashionable restaurants in Paris? Modern Spanish cuisine with Iberian ham croquettes, delicate barbecued gambas carabinero, lamb chops with a white onion purée in which you have to dip the lamb chops and a vanilla Catalan flan that leaves you speechless...
The strength of Faubourg Daimant is that it has put a vegetable restaurant in its evening dress: the cuisine, which is very sophisticated (bouillabaisse made with seaweed broth, "croquettes cochonnes" without pigs but served with a sauce ravigote), borrows from the codes of bourgeois gastronomy, but this is also the case for the extra-assiette decoration with bronze candlesticks, sauce boats and small copper saucepans for sauces...
One of the best crêperies in the capital but don't shout it too loud, there are always Bretons around the corner in Paris. Tim, the magnetic and lanky owner, is mainly in the kitchen, but don't hesitate to go up to him at the end of the meal, he always has a few minutes for his customers. Le Normand, that's him. He's the one who was keen to introduce people to the region with his crepes and ciders. He's also the one who wants the restaurant to act as a social link (maybe that's why Rond doesn't have an Instagram account), hence the anti-blues atmosphere here.
This is Parisians' favourite Afghan table. This status owes much to the owner's mother, who is always in the kitchen preparing delicious but little-known assiettes, in particular this dish of kofta (beef meatballs) with a choice of vegetables (spinach Persian style, potato with turmeric, turnip with ginger) and caramelised rice with candied carrots, pistachios and almonds (known as "kabuli rice").
Julien Duboué, ex-candidate of Top Chef, is one of the capital's best and he proves it with his all-you-can-eat buffet hidden behind a bakery (his own). The address is a little off the beaten track, not very close to the metro, but it's worth the visit 1,000 times over with a franchouillarde offering from starters to desserts (duck terrine, sardine rillettes, stuffed cabbage, pommes boulangères, babas à l'armagnac, crêpes Suzette, fruit salads, pistachio crème brulée, make-your-own profiteroles, chocolate mousse...).
Karim Haïdar has created the most beautiful love letter in Lebanon: a restaurant with just one table, so that customers can chat with each other, and family and regional recipes that you won't find anywhere else, if at all. Kebbé blaban, warak Enab, lamb makaneks, haytaliyé, warak enab...: the words take you on a journey, and the cherry on the hummus is that you can have lunch on the premises until 5pm.
A little stall which, as its name doesn't suggest, doesn't sell gingerbread with jam (the famous nonnette) but Vietnamese sandwiches with baguette (the banh mi) and donuts with Asian flavours (the one with kaya, a green coconut cream, is worth the diversions). This is the little brother of The Hood, the Singaporean coffee shop opposite.
Yes, it was in Paris that the cheese-filled naan was invented. It was a worldwide success, thanks to André Risser, an Alsatian who lived in London and opened the capital's first Indian restaurant in the 1960s. His son Michel took over this luxurious restaurant and the cheese naan is still served in front of the customer, in a small glass room housing the famous tandoor (Indian oven).
**With the Aligre market just around the corner, this butchery-restaurant is a lively place. At weekends, it's a hive of activity and first come first served, as reservations are not taken here. You can choose your piece in the butcher's window and it will be cooked. The rib of beef for two, pre-cut, is an excellent choice and comes with roast potatoes and Béarnaise sauce, of which you can ask for more.
There is a real coffee tradition - the place and the drink - in Singapore, starting with the famous kaya toasts, these buttered slices of bread topped with a kind of green coconut cream. The Hood continues this tradition in a more modern setting. At lunchtime, chicken rice, Singapore's national dish, is the star of the menu.
This Filipino-style restaurant is the brainchild of chef Erica Paredes, who has everyone on their side with a pavlova d'anthologie - especially as Paredes knows what she's talking about, Paredes knows what she's talking about - she used to live in Australia, which has made this dessert one of its culinary icons - where the meringue base rubs shoulders with strawberries, pomegranate and, above all, a pandan cream (a plant popular in South-East Asia) with hints of vanilla that bind all the elements together. We also love the burrata cheese at the start of the meal, presented in a very spicy blend.
It is said to have been the breakfast of the Jewish Iraqis. Here with sabich, no fried chickpea dumplings but fried eggplant, accompanied by half a marinated soft-boiled egg, confit potatoes and a mountain of fresh herbs and crudités. To take away.
We love this gluten-free bakery**. Everything is excellent, but we particularly love it when the team come up with flourless variations of Kinder or the bags of leftover toast to eat as an aperitif. The boutique in the 11th arrondissement is a particularly pleasant place to relax.
This is the pioneering restaurant for chefs' residences in France. It's the brainchild of a trio of brilliant young people who began by rolling out their Fulgurances brand through a magazine and events featuring great and future great chefs. Today, a chef with a great CV, whether French or not, is in the kitchen for several months before giving way to another.
Japanese-style chicken nuggets, homemade egg rolls, a burger with red curry mayonnaise and ginger ketchup... that's the menu at Goku Comedy Club, a menu you can eat at the same time as the comedians perform on the small stage set up in front of the tables. The new guard of comedy (Anne Boissard, Gabriel Francès, Walid Jabbari...) rub shoulders with stars of the genre (Gad Elmaleh for example). The show is free but it is highly recommended that you slip in a few large coins (or more) at the end, as the evening's jokers are not paid a fee.
