A table Paris ! Fall(ing) in love in French capital

The cold is coming, the sun sets (much) earlier, morale can be a little low... The perfect time to seek a little comfort in restaurants that will warm up your hibernation carcasses. Here are 5 anti-blues addresses, overflowing with sunshine and comforting plates.

PILGRIM

Pilgrim, Act II. Same décor (still as soothing, a bit zen), but everything else has changed. New team, new energy. At the helm: Masaki Nagao in the kitchen, Keiichi Auguste Matsumoto in the dining room.

Masaki learned his trade in a few pretty houses (Le Clown Bar, Vantre, Le Clarence, Duende...) before putting down his knives here. His cuisine? French, meticulous, infused with a Japanese calm. It breathes, it flows, it seduces without forcing.

Keiichi, on the other hand, has rolled his cellar near Ogata, as head sommelier. Today, it makes glasses and smiles dance with the same precision as a dash of well-poured sake.

The menu unfolds in 5 courses, accompanied by a selection of wines and sakes just right. We fell in love with the scallops in carpaccio – fine, silky, iodized as we like them. Special mention for the caramelized onions with black garlic, a little sweet and savory bomb, all in depth.

Pollack and duck? Perfect cooking, gourmet sauces, clean gestures. Nothing demonstrative, just the beautiful evidence of a job well done.

To finish in goodness: a rose vacherin, floral, airy, which buys us all in softness and total zenitude. A rebooted Pilgrim, but still a traveler

📍 8 Rue Nicolas Charlet, 75015 Paris

✔️ From Tuesday to Saturday: 12AM - 1.30PM and 7.30PM - 9PM

💶 120 – 250 €

YPSELI

A Greek tavern in Paris, but XXL format. The menu? The great Hellenic classics (reassuring, once), but in a short version (reassuring, twice).

The plates arrive with Olympic generosity. Mezzes do exactly what we expected: gently whet the appetite by lighting the flame - Olympic, therefore. Then come the monuments: souvlaki, moussaka, gemista, spanakopita... names that slam like promises of travel, words that shine like a morning sun on the Ionian Sea.

We would like to talk to you about the desserts, but the starters and main courses got the better of our appetites. Our eyes remained glued to the sweet plates that we saw assembling in the kitchen.

The service? Charming, really. And this, despite a huge room that could make you fear the "we have forgotten you" effect. Not at all: Greek heat to the end.

Final bonus or final boss: at the exit, a detour to the delicatessen area is mandatory. We leave with our arms full of food from there, or a takeaway to get our foot (Greek, always) at home.

📍 88 Rue Réaumur, 75002 Paris

✔️ Sunday and Monday: 11AM - 4PM // Tuesday to Saturday: 11AM - 10PM

💶 20 – 40 €

MASLOW TEMPLE

We discovered Maslow v1 at the time — and already loved this way of slipping plants without ever waving the "healthy warrior" flag. Just good, just fluid.

And here comes Maslow v2: bigger, more hype, but still the same vegetal flow... which looks like nothing (and that's the charm).

Here, we go into brasserie mode: prices are still reasonable (a rare commodity), plates to share, an atmosphere that exudes simple pleasure. Autumn, of course, invites itself on the plates with its procession of mushrooms — in tempura, pithiviers, parsley or hidden in ravioli that melt like a well-kept secret. In short, the season puts on a show, for an autumn that is anything but monotonous.

The kind of place where dishes arrive to the rhythm of laughter, where glasses clink and where debates follow one another like in a Sautet 2.0 film.

We eat, we drink, we laugh, we put the world to rights — and somehow, we completely forget that it's all plant-based. And frankly? We don't really care. Because it's good. Simply.

📍 32 Rue de Picardie, 75003 Paris

✔️ Monday tu Saturday : 12AM - 11PM // Sunday: 11.15AM - 4PM and 6.30PM - 11PM

💶 20 – 30 € for a meal without drink

LE CAFE DE L’USINE

Here is a comforting table in autumn: the Café de l'Usine, imagined by chef Alice Arnoux who had us glued to Mermoz.

First, the location: located in the former Spring Court factory. It's a place that is good to discover in Paris: hidden, full of history, hyper industrial. Before even putting on your sneakers in the restaurant you say to yourself "damn, it's great": appetizer effect...

We then cross the courtyard to access the restaurant, located in the old factory canteen, we even sit on the original chairs! (Honestly, in terms of storytelling, we're not bad, aren't we?!)

And finally we move on to the plates! Welcome to the realm of simplicity. But be careful, not the simplicity that rhymes with ease, because to really make it simple, you have to work, rack your brains: what is the best cooking, the best accompaniment, the best temperature, the best seasoning to make the trout perfect?! Because perfect, that's how this trout was. This is Alice Arnoux's secret-power, from the plates to the smiling and soft service, everything is perfectly simple, but simply perfect. And that, in winter time, feels so good!

📍 5 Passage Piver, 75011 Paris

✔️ Tuesday: 7.30PM - 11PM // Wednesday to Saturday: 12AM - 2PM and 7.30PM - 11PM

💶 50 € for a complete meal

BRU

Recently arrived in the 9th arrdt of Paris, Bru is THE "tropico-franchouillard" neo-bistro that we would like to see grow more often. Behind the stove, chef Julia de Laguarigue unfurls a cuisine full of smiles and good vibes, perfumed with West Indian scents that gently make the plates sparkle.

We start cool with mayonnaise eggs capable of playing the leading roles at the ASOM world championship, we continue with an ultra generous chicken colombo nestled in its seasonal vegetables, or a spelt risotto accompanied by sexy asparagus under a cuddly pecorino cream. And to finish on a high note (or extreme sweetness), the sweet star of the casa: a coconut cake as cloudy as it is irresistible.

In a neighborhood full of good addresses that are sometimes a little too copied and pasted, Bru clearly plays the outsider and deserves to be quickly put on the elbows (and the taste buds). So pretend you're from the area and come and slip your feet under Bru's tables!

📍 28 Rue Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, 75009 Paris

✔️ Monday and Tuesday: 12AM - 2PM // Wednesday to Friday: 12AM - 2PM and 7PM - 10PM

💶 30€ - 50€