The restaurant issue
Comptoir De Vie, best bistros, Mandoobar, Brass, Pochana, Le Saint Sébastien, Inver, best in Nice & Cannes, MORE
ABOUT FOUND • Restaurants
Where should you eat right now
At FOUND, we capture the restaurant scene via three primary lenses — short narrative pieces relaying our experiences dining in the field (First Person, First Word & FOUND Table), distilled lists of recommendations (The Nines), and interviews with the city’s movers, shakers, and industry insiders of taste (Routines).
FOUND is fascinated with what’s new, reporting regularly on just-opened spots before the rush. Just as interesting to us: those places that haven’t received their just acclaim, and old favorites that reward return visits. And while we will spend 350 € per person for an extraordinary experience, we are equally at home at an exemplary neighborhood bistro.
Across the breadth of our coverage, we’re as focused on the room and the vibe — the way the restaurant makes you feel — as we are the food. We’re also obsessed with the movements and trends shaping the dining scene, from the evolving reservations game (and challenges of getting a table) to the shifting parameters of what constitutes a power lunch. And finally, our coverage reaches beyond the city, into the suburbs and weekend getaway markets (i.e., “surrounds”).
Here now, a sampler of FOUND pieces from the year in restaurants for your late-August enjoyment.
RESTAURANTS • First Word
Counter service
The Skinny: Following a series of pop-ups, Barney O’Kane and Alex Francis — two alumni of world-renowned mixology den Little Red Door — finally debuted their highly anticipated restaurant last month: Comptoir De Vie, which pairs a cocktail tasting with a fine dining menu, and is already one of the most talked about openings of the year.
The Vibe: Four distinct spaces represent each of the four seasons: spring (at forthcoming companion space Bar De Vie), autumn and winter in the two caves downstairs, and summer at Comptoir De Vie, as shown through the fresh green walls and ocean blue bar. The look is pared back but layered with texture, from repurposed oak tables and wall decorations made from recycled corn, to countertops crafted from volcanic rock and coasters made from naturally dyed Pyrenees wool.
Comptoir is a small space with a sociable team and an open kitchen, and most guests will sit around the bar to take it all in. Ask the team, and they’ll take you backstage to the R&D room where prepping and fermenting happens. In the blur of cocktails, it might help to know that the bathroom is hidden behind a huge mirrored wall downstairs.
The Food: Chef Adam Purcell already made something of a name for himself at Early June, but it feels like at De Vie he’s really coming into his own. Dishes carry the refinement of fine dining, without the pomp and pretension usually served alongside them. Witness the cod head beignet, a beer-battered mix of the (usually discarded) cheeks and collar, served with a fermented asparagus tartar sauce. There’s also a whole course dedicated to soda bread and butter.
An ethos of sustainability runs throughout, from Purcell’s sourcing to his clever and complete use of ingredients. Take a recent (and sadly departed) apple dessert: the puff pastry was soaked in syrup made from the apple cores, the apple flesh was cooked into a compote, and the ice cream came from winter’s preserved "blackened apples" to give a tarte-tatin-like caramel edge.
The Drink: Like the food, cocktails are inventive, highlighting the flavors of the season, from the obvious to the obscure. The winter twist on an Italian Sgroppino shows off classic seasonal French flavors with a Chantecler apple and sorrel sorbet topped up tableside with Normandy cider and Calvados fizz. More unexpected ingredients include radicchio, chicory, and hay, used to make the soda in the Hay cocktail. Cocktails are low ABV to help carry you through the five-drink tasting (there’s also an N/A option). And while wine clearly isn’t the focus here, there are some French natural wines stashed away in the fridge if you prefer.
The Verdict: There's no shortage of tasting menus in Paris, but right now, none feel as fresh, fun, or friendly as this one. –Nicola Leigh Stewart
→ Comptoir De Vie (2nd arr) • 22-24 Rue Saint-Sauveur • Wed-Sun 18h30-01h • 5 course tasting 90 € per • Book.
–25/04/25
RESTAURANTS • The Nines
Bistros
The Nines are FOUND's distilled lists of the best in Paris and surrounds. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or email found@foundparis.com.
Les Arlots (10th arr), tiny bistro, friendly atmosphere, serving some of the best sausage and mashed potatoes in town, intel
Parcelles (3rd arr, above), old-world charm, contemporary touches, perfectly roasted meats, natural wines
Le Bistro des Tournelles (4th arr), for steak frites and stellar tarte Tatin
Le Maquis (18th arr), tucked away in Montmartre, wide-ranging prix-fixe is one of Paris’s best deals
Chez Georges (2nd arr), chalkboard menu, iconic steak frites, profiteroles
Le Cadoret (19th arr), family-run, neighborhood favorite w/ Belle Époque interior and warm service
Le Cyrano (9th arr), unassuming, vintage charm, impressive selection of wines by the glass
La Bourse et La Vie (2nd arr), Daniel Rose’s elevated takes on classics, like pot-au-feu and duck confit
Café du Coin (11th arr), laid-back bistro with focus on seasonal ingredients and simple, delicious cooking
–25/04/25
RESTAURANTS • FOUND Table
Rare balance
The Backstory: Chef Kim Kwang-Loc’s intimate Mandoobar offers a thoughtfully crafted lunch inspired by Kwang-Loc’s early experiences in Korea. The space is relatively small, and each table’s limited to one hour at lunchtime, but that turns out to be just enough for an efficient staff to guide you through the concise menu.
The Experience: With its open kitchen and deep wooden counter, the space is perfectly suited for a relaxing lunch, where conversation blends seamlessly with working chefs’ hypnotic preparations and friendly staff attending to tables. While seating at the counter often means sacrificing both knee and plate room, large wooden high chairs let you enjoy the comfort of a table with the theatrics of dining at the counter.
Mandoobar boasts a short, impactful menu. To start, towers of bamboo steaming baskets arrive filled with luscious silky dumplings. The recipes are fairly classic, but I’d go to great lengths for the flawlessly executed kimchi mandu. Mains are limited to a choice of tartares — beef, sea bream, tuna, or mackerel —- all herb-laced, vibrant, and elegant. Two sides are on offer: a seasonal vegetable salad brightened by passion fruit and yuzu, and a beautifully cooked bowl of rice. For dessert, a selection of homemade ice cream scoops made from seasonal fruits, each offering refreshing, unexpected twists on otherwise familiar flavors.
To drink, there’s a selection of Korean wines and fermented teas, with unique pairings to complement each dish. The tea is served in multiple infusions throughout the meal, gradually mellowing to match the flavors of each course.
Why it’s FOUND: Having recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, Mandoobar is the rare gem that continues to offer the perfect trifecta of a lunch: comfort, sophistication, and a quick turnaround. –Candice Chemel
→ Mandoobar (8th arr) • 7 Rue d'Edimbourg • Tue-Sat 12h-15h & 17h30-23h • Book.
–18/04/25
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Une fête familière
Over the last 25 years, the rents luxury brands are willing to pay for space in Saint-Germain-des-Prés have transformed much of the storied bohemian neighborhood into a predictable place for Platinum Card holders. Wonderful late-night dive bars like the Old Navy, open 24 hours originally and until 2am just before it closed, were bullied out of business by co-op boards who didn’t like the crowd they pulled, while most of the bookstores are gone, and the rue du Buci street market is no more.
I watched all of this happen, because I lived on the Left Bank for 15 years. My first flat was on the rue de la Sorbonne, then I moved to the tony rue Monsieur, and finally to a small but charming and very quiet apartment on rue du Bac where the working fireplace and a view over a pretty courtyard garden next door to a convent made it possible to put up with Madame Rosa, the evil Portuguese concierge.
So it was with huge curiosity that I headed for dinner the other night to Brass, a new brasserie in the neighborhood. The space at 131 boulevard Saint Germain was most recently an outlet of Leon de Bruxelles, the mediocre chain peddling mussels and frites, but when I arrived in Paris in 1986, it was a funky café with a cracked tile floor and a great crowd of local regulars. Alas, the café vanished, and recently, it’s been much easier to find sushi or a pizza in Saint-Germain-des-Pres than good Gallic grub, because French cooking is expensively time-consuming. News that Brass had opened was such a happy surprise that I had almost memorized the menu from the restaurant’s website by the time I arrived.
It was a great sign that the place was packed at 22h, and also that the bartender mixes a mean Negroni. The dark-red lacquer décor and stamped art-deco metal ceiling also had a louche, decidedly ’80s charm, too. Were the oeufs mayonnaise the best in the world? No, but they were good, as was the onion soup under a cap of melted Emmenthal on a raft of toast. A beef filet in black pepper sauce came with a small boat of golden frites, and the organic sausage with potato puree was excellent, both washed down with a fairly priced bottle of Fleurie (which reminded me that my instinctive fear of the Gamay grape as a hangover menace is not always well-placed).
By around 23h30, the soundtrack had gone disco with Sylvester’s ballad “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” causing the elegant woman with a steel-gray bob and Alice band at the table to my right to politely sway, maybe with memories of nights on the town from when Parisian nightlife sizzled. A minute later, ‘High Energy’ prompted a silver-haired man in an azure cashmere cardigan at the table to my left to grin at me and ask, ‘Vous vous souvenez de la Palace, Monsieur? Putain, mais Paris etait vraiment une fete dans le temps.’ (Do you remember Le Palace [a nightclub beloved of Grace Jones, Jean Paul Gaulthier, Thierry Mugler, et al], sir? Fuck, Paris was such party in those days!)
It wasn’t just these vintage bourgeois types who were getting lit up by the music and the energy here, however, but a whole busy dining room packed with twenty- or thirtysomething Parisians in little black dresses, or black turtlenecks and jeans, or white shirts and jeans, the night-on-the-town looks of Western silk-stocking arrondissement (6th, 7th, 8th, 16th, 17th) jeunesse dorée.
This is because Brass is the restaurant the Left Bank seems to have been waiting for. The uncomplicated food’s good, the late serving hours appeal — but the best thing about this restaurant is that it’s a very good time. –Alexander Lobrano
→ Brass (Saint-Germain-des-Pres) • 131 Blvd Saint-Germain • Daily 12h-2h • Book.
–01/08/25
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Réservations via dm
“Have you been here yet?” I DM’ed my friend Jon Bonné, sending the Instagram profile for Pochana. The 10-seater debuted in December in the natural wine-heavy stretch of the 11th arrondissement straddling the Marais and Oberkampf, an easy bar hop from Folderol and Delicatessen Place. The restaurant’s Instagram grid showcased a mere trio of photos — no details on the menu or chef, no website or telephone number — just a simple bio: “Thai bites et vins sympas.”
“Ha, no… I tried to go Wed and Thurs but they were fully booked,” texted back Jon, a fellow food and wine writer who owns an apartment in the neighborhood. “Dying to go.”
I DM’ed for a reservation. Nothing. Followed up the next day. Still nothing. As loyal as my friends and I are to our neighborhood haunts like Bistrot Paul Bert and Martin, we’re always craving something new — a guest chef, a pop-up. I asked around and couldn’t find a single person in my friend circle who’d dined at Pochana. But everyone had the same response: “Dying to go.”
When husband-wife proprietors Rémi and May responded about an open table for the first seating that Wednesday night, I jumped. A wooden cocktail table and sole silver stool were the only indicators marking the restaurant’s entrance in an otherwise deserted alleyway near République. A counter faced the expansive windows looking out at the cobbled street. Three tables lined one side of the wall across an open kitchen, where May infuses Chinese touches into her family's Thai recipes, which are paired alongside Suntory Toki whisky highball cocktails or Rémi’s selection of natural wines.
We started with a bottle of gently macerated Sons of Wine pét-nat from Alsace and picked four of the five dishes on the modest menu. Jazz hummed softly in the background in rhythm with May, who was grilling chicken for the gai yang and pork neck for the namtok moo yang salad in the terracotta-tiled kitchen. Along with two designer friends, the couple dreamt up the intimate space themselves, inspired by an izakaya they used to frequent in Japan.
Plates of triangular pork and Chinese chive dumplings drizzled with chili oil and a Thai pork omelette laced with fermented pork sausage crowded our tiny table in the back. I wished there was a lazy Susan, since we kept passing dishes back and forth, sampling bites of each with chopsticks. The symphony of spice hit at the right moments, none overpowering or competing.
The handful of 30-something couples and duos of friends slowly started clearing out as the finale of first seating approached. A stream of stylish Japanese influencers (it was fashion week, after all) slowly filled their place. We finished dinner but weren’t being rushed out — the energy felt more like an after party, everyone gathering once the runway shows wrapped up. The music escalated with the new crowd, and we slowly made our exit, back out to the calm alley you’d never randomly stumble down — unless you knew what was shielded behind Pochana’s buzzy glass vitrine. –Lane Nieset
→ Pochana (Oberkampf/Marais) • 1 Passage du Jeu de Boules • 19h and 21h15 seatings • Book via DM.
–28/03/25
WORK • Friday Routine
Queen of the castle
DANIELA LAVADENZ • restaurant owner • Le Saint Sébastien
Neighborhood you live and work in: 11th arr
It’s Friday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
Le Saint Sébastien is a neo-bistrot in the 11th, which is where I live too, within walking distance of the restaurant. We’re only open for dinner, so we start our work day at 14h. I’m very involved in the daily operational life of the restaurant, all day, every day, which is normal when you work for yourself. My husband is a business owner, too; he runs a great craft brewery near Paris, Deck & Donohue, and his schedule is dynamic like mine, so we’ve created our own balance. Fridays are often a very busy service for us; it requires organization of the main room (where we welcome the guests), the wine selection, and coordination between kitchen and front of house. A few hours before service, things feel lively — great vibes, and a little bit of adrenaline before the evening starts.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
This weekend, we’re heading to Alsace, where my husband is from. He’s booked us a table at La Nouvelle Auberge in the village of Wihr-au-Val. We’re going for its amazing wine program, so I’m really excited to discover the menu. Another restaurant I loved for the wine is La Table de Chaintré in Mâcon in Burgundy. It has one of the best wine lists in the region, so I’m keen to go back. Otherwise, in Paris, I often go to Clamato, Café du Coin for their pizzetas, Ten Belles for a quick lunch (they have the best egg mayo focaccia) and Le Mary Celeste for a small bite to eat with a nice glass of wine.
Any weekend getaways?
We own a cottage in the north of Burgundy, in a region called Yonne, and for the last two years, we go there as much as our schedules let us. Since we bought it, every second of my free time has been spent looking around for interior inspiration, then scouring secondhand websites like Le Bon Coin, Proantic, Interencheres, and the auction house Drouot for furniture, china, chandeliers, and so on. My other main activity since we bought the cottage is planting raspberries and blackberries out in the garden, and removing the weeds. During the summers we’ve been going to Les Estivales de Puisaye, which puts on an amazing show of classical music in castles and chapels around Yonne.
I also love visiting castles, the villages around them, and during the summertime, the village flea markets. Among my favorites are Château de Fontainebleau and Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, both around a one-and-a-half-hour drive from Paris, and Château d'Azay-le-Rideau, which is around a four-and-a-half-hour drive.
What was your last great vacation?
It was the Scottish Highlands in April last year, a destination that I’d had in mind for a really long time. We stayed at The Whitebridge Hotel, a beautiful old hunting lodge turned hotel and pub in Inverness before driving up to the Isle of Skye where we stayed at Viewfield House, a gorgeous Victorian manor house in Portree. Whilst there we visited Stirling Castle and Urquhart Castle (like I said, I love castles), Rosslyn Chapel and Roslin Glen, and Scone Palace, a former royal Scottish palace, nothing to do with pastry! The restaurant we loved the most was Inver in Strathlachlan in Argyll & Bute.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
A patchwork platter from Astier de Villatte & Saquai. I think it was a limited edition, but I love what Astier de Villatte do in general. I'm a big fan of the coupelles, which are like small dishes or saucers, and the coupe and the gobelet in the Lion Collection.
–21/03/25
GETAWAYS • The Nines
Restaurants, Nice & Cannes
La Merenda (Nice), no phone, no card, no frills: just Dominique Le Stanc’s takes on barbajuans, pasta w/ pistou, tourte de blettes in tiny, packed dining room
Le Pompon (Cannes), local favorite, ever-changing menu serving delicate, seasonal plates, natural wines in laid-back setting far from tourist trail
Le Bistrot des Serruriers & Hôtel du Couvent (Nice), sister spots celebrating produce from own biodynamic farm
Le Canon (Nice), bistronomy hot spot w/ chalkboard menus that change daily, natural wine list
Sens (Cannes, above), revolving-door concept where guest chefs from all over take over for a month at a time, a few blocks from the Croisette
Jeanne (Antibes), sisters Marine and Elsa serve produce-driven plates, natural wines in stripped-back space
UVA (Cannes), easygoing spot centered on wine and small plates: arancini, padrón peppers, risotto, more
Chez Davia (Nice), family-owned since forever, where Pierre Altobelli updates grandma’s Riviera classics in nostalgic dining room w/ checkered cloths
BABA (Cap d’Antibes), where Assaf Granit bridges the Riviera and Jerusalem w/ vibrant mezze and charcoal-grilled fish served steps from sea
–01/08/25