Double Dragon – Manila flavours on rue Saint-Maur

Double Dragon sits at 52 rue Saint-Maur in Paris's 11th arrondissement, a short walk from the Filipino-French sisters' first address, Le Servan. Tatiana and Katia Levha opened it in 2018 as a looser, noisier counterpart to their neo-bistro: an Asian canteen built around the flavours of their mother's Manila and the techniques Tatiana picked up in grand Parisian kitchens. It holds a Bib Gourmand in the MICHELIN Guide France 2026, the distinction reserved for cooking of real quality at a fair price. The menu moves between bao buns, barbecue and rice bowls, built from organic and sustainably sourced produce cooked entirely on site. It is not a restaurant that performs restraint – the spicing is direct, the portions made for sharing, the mood closer to a late supper among friends than to formal dining.

01The room and the setting

The dining room keeps its identity unfussy: an open kitchen puts the cooks on view, and the pace of service is quick rather than ceremonious. The restaurant occupies the former home of an Italian neighbour, L'Altra, taken over by the Levha sisters when they expanded beyond Le Servan.

02The sisters

Tatiana and Katia Levha are half Filipino, half French, and split the work between them: Tatiana trained at Alain Passard's L'Arpège and at Pascal Barbot's L'Astrance before developing her own cooking; Katia studied hotel management in Glion in Switzerland, then worked at the Mandarin Oriental before learning the natural-wine trade in Parisian bistros. The pair opened their first restaurant, Le Servan, on the same street in 2014, and followed it with Double Dragon in 2018 – a second act built specifically around the Filipino side of their heritage.

Insider tip

Dinner Monday to Saturday, lunch Friday and Saturday; book via the restaurant's own website.

03The cooking

The menu reads in short, punchy sections rather than courses: Pica Pica for snacks, Platitos for small plates, Plats et Riz for rice-based mains, and Off the Grill for anything that passes over charcoal. A bao filled with Comté and XO sauce opens proceedings; a kinilaw of line-caught white tuna sharpened with Filipino Tabasco follows. Lechon kawali – crackling pork belly lacquered with honey – and a Korean-style fried chicken labelled simply KFC are among the dishes built to be eaten with the fingers and a cold glass of something unfussy.

Elsewhere the kitchen plays with contrast and smoke: a cauliflower kare-kare is dressed in a peanut sauce sharpened with pric pao chilli, and tortang talong, the Filipino smoked-aubergine omelette, arrives off the grill with lardo and fresh herbs. Quail from the Dombes comes with a tamarind sauce, achara pickle and kalamansi, a dish that sums up the kitchen's balance of French ingredient and Filipino seasoning.

04What to order

Start with the bao au Comté et XO or the crispy coque skewers off the grill, move into the lechon kawali or the KFC with red rice and condiments, and finish with bicho-bicho – a cinnamon-sugar doughnut served with coconut ice cream – or the brownie made with cashew nuts and kawa-infused cream.

05Wine and drinks

The list leans entirely natural, chosen to stand up to chilli and smoke rather than fight them: light reds from the Loire and Beaujolais, pét-nats and skin-contact whites, poured by Katia Levha herself, who built her palate for natural wine working Parisian bistro floors before this project began.

06The neighbourhood

Rue Saint-Maur runs through Popincourt in the 11th arrondissement, a stretch of the eastern Marais fringe thick with small kitchens and natural-wine bars. Le Servan, the sisters' first restaurant, sits further along the same street at number 32, and the nearest Métro stop, naturally, is called Saint-Maur.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.