Alluma – light from Tel Aviv in a former couscous kitchen

Alluma sits at the corner of rue Saint-Maur and rue de la Fontaine au Roi, in the stretch of the 11th arrondissement that runs between République, Belleville and Oberkampf. The room used to serve Moroccan food; since 2022 it has belonged to chef Liran Tal and his wife Noa Tal, who runs the dining room, and together they have turned it into one of the most closely watched new tables in eastern Paris. Tal, self-taught and raised in the bistros of Tel Aviv, cooks a free-ranging Mediterranean and Levantine repertoire built from single ingredients read with precision — celery, Jerusalem artichoke, labneh, charcoal smoke. In 2023 Condé Nast Traveller named Alluma one of the 21 best new restaurants in the world, and it is listed in the MICHELIN Guide, without a star. The cooking is personal rather than fusion for its own sake, and the room follows the same instinct.

01The room and the setting

The dining room measures a modest eighty square metres, designed by architect Nathalie Rozencwajg of Name Architecture, who gave the space a sober, poetic restraint. Its one deliberate flourish is a mural that fuses Moroccan motifs with Ashkenazi lace, a literal picture of the cultural crossbreeding that runs through the kitchen.

The address carries that history forward quite literally: before Alluma arrived, the same room served North African food as a Moroccan restaurant, and the open kitchen now runs along its back wall, in full view of the tables.

02The chef

Liran Tal is self-taught, and began cooking in the bustling bistros of Tel Aviv before moving to Paris, where he trained in the kitchens of Balagan and Dersou. That run of jobs led, eventually, to a post as official chef for the Israeli ambassador to France, before Tal set out on his own.

Insider tip

Carte Blanche tasting menu served Tuesday to Thursday evenings only; booking recommended.

He opened Alluma in 2022 with his wife, Noa Tal, who runs the dining room. The pairing is deliberate: his cooking draws openly on the couple's Israeli background, filtered through French technique and a refusal to over-explain a dish before it arrives at the table.

03The cooking

Tal's own menu, read in October 2026, moves between small plates such as muhammara, tarama and pommes dauphine, and heartier dishes built around a single raw material: beef manti ravioli in hot yoghurt and red chilli oil, a burnt kohlrabi with feta, za'atar, honey and poppy seed, or mussels cooked over charcoal with Jerusalem artichoke chips and a green herb sauce.

Two dishes keep recurring in guest feedback, according to the restaurant itself: a lamb trio of sirloin, flap and tartare with sweet potato cream and apricot, and a celery root cacio e pepe finished with Pecorino and black pepper. Octopus arrives with new potatoes, chorizo and a bang-bang tahini; duck breast is lacquered and served with confit beetroot, apricot mostarda and roasted radicchio.

Desserts lean into the kitchen's Levantine streak — a namelaka chocolate with sesame and white-chocolate ice cream and cacao nibs, and a baba soaked in boukha and fig-leaf syrup, with mascarpone cream, fresh figs and fig-leaf ice cream. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings, the à la carte gives way to Carte Blanche, a six-course menu built by the chef on the day, priced at €55 with a €39 wine pairing.

04Wine and drinks

The wine list was first built with Emmanuel Delmas, a former sommelier at Plaza Athénée, Lasserre and La Tour d'Argent, and it still runs on organic, biodynamic and natural bottles. Le Fooding's tasting notes mention a Malagousia from Domaine Tetramythos in the Peloponnese, an Armenian red Sutak from Wine Art, and a skin-contact Alsatian white from Domaine de l'Envol.

The kitchen also makes its own syrups for a short list of seasonal cocktails, among them a beetroot martini built on beetroot-infused vodka, lemon, green apple juice, date syrup and pepper syrup, alongside an arak-watermelon and a hibiscus Gin To'.

05When to go and booking

Alluma serves à la carte at both lunch and dinner, with the Carte Blanche tasting experience reserved for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings and best booked ahead; the chef builds that menu on the spot, so guests do not choose individual courses. A short lunch formula runs on weekdays, priced at €18 for a single course up to €25 for three.

The restaurant keeps a terrace open from April through the end of October, and lays on a Thursday apéro from 18:30 to 19:30 with small plates designed for an early glass of wine.

06The neighbourhood

Rue Saint-Maur sits in the eastern reach of the 11th arrondissement, equidistant from the bars of Oberkampf, the market streets of Belleville and the cafés around République — a part of Paris built on mixed, working migration rather than postcard views, which suits a kitchen that treats its own mixed heritage as the main subject rather than a decorative theme.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.