Épopée – Yurika Kitano's Japanese-French epic in Charonne

Épopée opened on 7 October 2025 in the cavernous premises on rue Léon-Frot that once housed the bistro La Boissonnière, in the Charonne corner of Paris's 11th arrondissement. Behind it are sommelier Thomas Legrand and his partner Megumi Terao, who had already built a following with Narro, the address they opened together in 2020, before bringing their instinct for hospitality to this far larger room. For the kitchen they recruited Yurika Kitano, a Japanese chef trained in Japan who went on to work the stoves of the Michelin-starred Passage 53, of Clamato and of Pilgrim. The gamble paid off fast: within weeks, Épopée had collected a MICHELIN Bib Gourmand for 2026 — the Guide's mark for honest, well-priced cooking — alongside warm notices in Le Figaro, Télérama and Time Out. It holds one Bib Gourmand.

01The room and the setting

Where the previous tenant, La Boissonnière, played the convivial card with shared tapas and painted walls, Épopée has turned the same vast footprint into something chic and almost hushed, after taking over the address in October 2025. Guests find a discreet black-lettered façade giving no hint of what waits inside: we enter through a door on the right and discover the imposing dining room, and from the outside we could never have imagined the beautiful size of this dimly lit space.

Towards the back, beneath a glass roof, the light softens the atmosphere and sets the tone — this is somewhere to eat well, certainly, but also to linger. The decor runs to exposed stone, white and burgundy tones, tall mirrors and a bay window, with wooden tables and chairs that keep the mood closer to a village bistro than a design statement. A long bar anchors one side of the room, backed by bottles from a cellar that locals already rate as one of the more impressive in the neighbourhood.

02The chef

Yurika Kitano is a very able cook of thirty-four who runs the stoves, formed in Japan before passing through the Michelin-starred Passage 53, then Clamato and Pilgrim, and she signs cooking that sits at the crossing of her Japanese roots and her love of French gastronomy. At Épopée she asserts a style that is precise, sincere and ever-changing, placing the ingredient itself at the heart of every dish.

Insider tip

Closed Sundays and Mondays; booking recommended since its 2026 MICHELIN Bib Gourmand.

On the page the cooking reads French — cauliflower, veal, pigeon — yet keeps turning toward Japan in texture and seasoning: a scallop carpaccio lifted with turnip pickles and a shiso sauce, or a kabocha-squash pudding offered as a nod to her native Japan.

03The cooking

The MICHELIN Guide notes the freshness of the sauces and seasonings, along with vegetables from a small Perche farm and fish from small-scale catches — the same restraint that runs through the whole menu. On their own carte, Kitano and her team name their suppliers as plainly as their dishes: organic bread from baker Thierry Breton, vegetables from Une ferme du Perche, fish from the Jego house, coffee from Fyra.

A roasted guinea fowl with crisp skin, escorted by a vin jaune sabayon, seduces through its mastery of cooking and the precision of its seasoning — exactly the register Épopée plays in: short, seasonal, and tightly controlled rather than showy.

04What to order

At lunch the short menu runs to a corn soup with ricotta and a coffee emulsion, a grilled octopus with satsuma mandarin and chimichurri, or seasonal vegetables with a hummus sauce, before Perche pork with carrot and apricot condiment or a daily fish with pak choi and beurre blanc. In the evening the card lengthens: veal tartare with anchovy sauce, hazelnut and mushroom; sautéed seasonal mushrooms with scallops, pear and a vin jaune sabayon; whole pigeon with celeriac purée, red-fruit condiments and offal crisped in kadaif pastry; veal sweetbreads with salsify, plum and a peanut sauce.

To finish, a baba soaked in IPA beer with mirabelle plum and a white-chocolate ganache, or a sorbet of peach, cherry tomato and red shiso with crème crue. Before or alongside, the charcuterie board draws on Ibérico ham, chorizo and saucisson, plus a smoked ox-tongue and a beef cecina.

05Wine and drinks

The cellar is Thomas Legrand's own territory: in the dining room, Megumi Terao runs a warm service while Thomas Legrand, a known figure of natural wine in Paris, composes a list of around a hundred organic and biodynamic cuvées. It runs deep into Alsace and the Jura, with entry bottles from as little as €32.

Among the names on it: an Alsace from Mélanie Pfister, a Sancerre from Fouassier, a Verdesse from the Domaine des Rutissons in the Isère, a Languedoc from Ribiera and a Fronton from La Colombière. The bar opens at six for anyone who would rather drop by for a glass with a plate of Ibérico charcuterie or cheese than sit down to the full menu.

06When to go and booking

Épopée serves lunch and dinner Tuesday to Saturday, from midday to three and from seven in the evening to midnight, and is closed on Sundays and Mondays. At lunch, two courses cost €26 and three cost €32; in the evening, starters run from €17 to €21, mains from €24 to €47 and desserts from €12 to €14, prices read on the restaurant's own menu in October 2026.

Booking has become genuinely advisable since the Bib Gourmand arrived. The restaurant sits in the Charonne area of the eleventh arrondissement, not far from Père Lachaise cemetery, reached on foot from Charonne on line 9 or Philippe Auguste on line 2.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.