Bonnotte – the potato that named a Boulogne table

On a quiet corner a few minutes from the Musée Albert Kahn, Bonnotte opened in November 2022, built by two chefs who had already circled some of Paris's grandest addresses before deciding to open something of their own in the suburb where they lived. Manon Negretti-Guichard commands the kitchen while her husband Antoine Guichard runs the dining room, a partnership he once sharpened by competing over whose hare à la royale was finer with a fellow chef. The name honours the bonnotte, the early potato of Noirmoutier, the island where Antoine grew up in his family's hotel. It is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, and in November 2023 Guide Lebey named it Best Bistro around Paris for 2024, one of only three such awards handed out that year.

01The room and the setting

Inside, the house plays it straight: pale wood, soft lighting and dried bouquets, a dining room the owners describe as built like a family house rather than a showroom. The room seats fifty-five, spacious enough for its modern bistro furniture to breathe, with a small pavement terrace that turns lunch into a daytime event in fine weather while the evening sitting grows more intimate.

02The chefs

Manon, leading the kitchen, draws from her Corsican and Provençal roots, crafting plates that are instinctive, vegetable-forward, and deeply personal, after a path through the George V, Semilla and Lasserre. She trained under Meilleur Ouvrier de France Éric Trochon, and still defends a reworked bourgeois register, lightening her blanquette sauce and pairing her terrines with her own pickles. In 2026 she reached the finals of the Meilleur Ouvrier de France competition in cooking.

Insider tip

Open weekdays only, closed Saturday and Sunday; near Boulogne–Jean-Jaurès métro, line 10.

Antoine Guichard was raised in a family-run hotel on Noirmoutier and trained at Ledoyen and Taillevent before working under David Bizet at the Peninsula Paris. He likes to talk about his years alongside Éric Briffard at the Plaza Athénée and David Bizet at L'Oiseau Blanc, where the two once competed for the title of best hare à la royale.

03The cooking

Manon plays with the seasons for a lunch menu that changes almost daily, leaning into more technical preparations for dinner, with staples such as veal sweetbread. Antoine's hare à la royale remains the flagship, a dish of grand gastronomy that he still prepares with the greatest respect, kept strictly to game season. The kitchen's sourcing has earned the restaurant three Ecotable macarons, the label that tracks sustainably run tables in France. Gault&Millau's 2026 guide places it in its Gourmet Restaurant category, scoring it 11/20, for a card that has run from beetroot cream with sesame to line-caught hake with fennel, samphire and beurre blanc.

04What to order

On the à la carte list: pressed multicoloured radish with virgin pear and praline to start, or marinated line-caught pikeperch with pomelo, dill and fennel; to follow, scallops with n'duja, sweet potato, broccoli and blood orange, or veal sweetbread roasted with leeks, sorrel, caramelised onion and an herbaceous blanquette sauce. The dinner card has also run a scallop carpaccio with fennel and pomelo, line-caught hake with roasted celery and a lemon-white wine sauce, and a chocolate soufflé to close. The soufflé is classically poured alongside a glass of Domaine Richeaume's Tradition 2019, a blend of syrah, grenache and cabernet sauvignon.

05When to go and booking

Bonnotte is reservable Monday to Friday, from noon to 2pm and 7pm to 10pm, with the room closed over the weekend, so booking matters most towards the end of the week. For a gift, the house sells its own voucher built around a five-course tasting menu at 85€.

06The neighbourhood

The restaurant sits only a few minutes from the Musée Albert Kahn, and close to the Boulogne–Jean-Jaurès métro station on line 10, near enough to Paris to draw a loyal weekday lunch crowd, far enough into the suburb to still feel like a neighbourhood table rather than a destination stop.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.