Comice – quiet confidence on Avenue de Versailles

On a residential stretch of Avenue de Versailles, a few steps from the Pont de Grenelle, Comice has never needed to raise its voice to be heard. Opened in 2018, the restaurant was an unlikely hit among Paris's food critics from the start, and has since become a genuine destination in a part of the 16th arrondissement that rarely sees one. It is run by a Canadian husband-and-wife team, chef Noam Gedalof and sommelier Etheliya Hananova, who bring more than thirty years of combined professional experience gathered in California, New York, Montreal and Paris to a single, tightly composed set menu that shifts with the season. The result is contemporary French cooking built on precise technique and serious produce, served in a room that favours quiet confidence over spectacle. It holds one MICHELIN Star, awarded for cooking the Guide describes as refined and tailored to the produce of the moment.

01The room and the setting

The dining room was designed by Paris architect Nicolas Kelemen, who dressed it in oatmeal tweed banquettes, bittersweet accents and parquet floors. Deep blue walls carry a triptych of tree paintings by the Berlin-based Canadian artist Peter Hoffer, in tones of grey, petrol blue, almond and bittersweet that set the room's palette. Fresh flowers come from Debeaulieu, one of the more chic florists in Paris, and porcelain is by Sylvie Coquet, laid on starched white tablecloths that keep the mood closer to elegant than austere.

Reviewers consistently note the scale: a compact, intimate room rather than a grand one, with an open kitchen to the rear that lets the pace of service stay visible. The register is deliberately low-key for a starred table in Paris, residential rather than performative, in keeping with the quiet bourgeois character of this part of the 16th.

02The chef and the sommelier

Noam Gedalof, from Montreal, trained at The French Laundry in California before moving to Paris, where he worked at L'Astrance, one of the city's most exacting kitchens, ahead of opening Comice. Etheliya Hananova, from Winnipeg, built her own path through Le Sergent Recruteur and L'Astrance before taking charge of Comice's wine list and dining room. The two met professionally before becoming partners in life and in business, and the restaurant is very much the sum of both their trainings.

Insider tip

Dinner only, Tuesday to Saturday; book ahead, email for groups of five or more.

Gedalof's cooking stays rooted in French classicism, built around acidity and freshness rather than flourish. Dishes change gradually with what is in season, sometimes every couple of weeks, sometimes every two or three months, rather than being reinvented for effect.

03The cooking

Comice runs a single evening set menu, offered in four or five courses, built around the best produce available on a given day rather than a long fixed carte. Among the producers named on the website and in press are Corsican veal from Jacques Abbatucci's Vache Tigre, citrus from Maison Bachès, and oysters from Prat-Ar-Coum in Brittany, each handled with a light enough touch to let the ingredient lead.

Seasonal plates have included roasted venison with polenta, cabbage and a crème fraîche and dill sauce in winter, and a handmade shellfish tagliatelle in a buttery, citrus-sharpened sauce that has carried over from the restaurant's earlier à la carte days. The kitchen can adapt for pescatarians, lacto-ovo vegetarians and gluten-free diners with advance notice, though it works with butter throughout and cannot accommodate vegan diners or severe dairy allergies.

04What to order

The dessert that closes most meals, and the one guests travel for, is the chocolate soufflé: Gedalof uses eight different kinds of chocolate in the soufflé itself and six kinds of vanilla in the ice cream served alongside it, a level of detail he once walked through step by step with food writer David Lebovitz for a joint video and recipe. It remains the dish most reviewers single out, airy on top and dense underneath.

On the savoury side, look for the shellfish tagliatelle with roasted garlic when it appears, and whatever the Corsican veal or seasonal game plate happens to be that week, since the menu is written day to day rather than printed for the season.

05Wine and drinks

The cellar is Hananova's domain and is built around independent, grower-producer winemakers rather than big négociant names. Gault&Millau's 2026 review singled out the list for its choice of independent winegrowers and for discoveries that pair well against the kitchen's dishes, calling the table attentive and serious both in service and in wine selection.

Pairings can lean playful when the ingredients allow it; Gedalof has noted that truffle season, for instance, is when the list turns toward quirkier, funkier bottles that stand up to more intense flavours.

06When to go and booking

Comice serves dinner Tuesday to Saturday, from 7pm to 9pm, according to the restaurant's own site. There is no formal dress code: elegant or business-casual attire is welcome, and jackets are not required for men, though the restaurant asks diners to confirm group numbers in advance, since changes of two or more guests without notice can trigger a cancellation fee.

Groups of five or more should email the restaurant directly rather than book online. Comice does not run a children's menu but can accommodate young diners who want to eat from the seasonal set menu alongside adults.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.