étsi - l'ouzeri – Jules Joffrin's unpolished taste of the Aegean

étsi - l'ouzeri occupies 41 rue du Ruisseau, in the Jules Joffrin quarter of Paris's 18th arrondissement, seven hundred metres from the first restaurant that built its chef's name. It is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, a recognition for cooking that makes no attempt to dress itself up: this is Greek food reduced to pita, grilled skewers and feta glossed with olive oil and oregano, served the way a taverna on Plaka would serve it rather than the way a Parisian bistro imagines one should. Mikaela Liaroutsos, the French-Greek chef behind étsi - le bistro a short walk away, opened this second, rawer address in 2022, swapping her bistro's refinement for street food and a looser, louder room. Thirty-eight covers sit around a long concrete counter and blue banquettes, with traditional Greek songs loud enough on the stereo to tempt a sirtaki step after a glass of ouzo.

01The room and the setting

Inside, the decoration does almost nothing: blue banquettes, a long concrete counter and exposed stonework are left to do the work of transporting the room somewhere closer to an Aegean quay than a Montmartre side street. The rest is wood, stone and a scatter of deliberately mismatched plates, with the emphasis kept firmly on what arrives on the table rather than on the walls around it.

Thirty-eight covers fill the space on a busy night, close enough that neighbouring tables tend to end up sharing opinions on the saganaki, especially once the traditional Greek music reaches full volume and a glass of ouzo has gone round.

02The chef

Mikaela Liaroutsos is the French-Greek chef behind both étsi addresses, having built her own path after working her way through other kitchens before striking out on her own. Her first restaurant, étsi - le bistro at 23-25 rue Eugène-Carrière, introduced Paris to a more composed version of her Greek repertoire.

Insider tip

Only 38 covers; closed Mondays; booking advisable for weekend lunch.

Five and a half years later she opened l'ouzeri seven hundred metres from that first address, in the lively Jules Joffrin neighbourhood, choosing this time to pare the cooking back to something more street-driven and closer to the tavernas of her Greek upbringing – a deliberately blunter, more populist reading of the same repertoire she had refined at the bistro.

03The cooking

The format is mezze, dishes landing on the table in no fixed order and built for grazing rather than a formal sequence of courses. Split pea hummus, dolmades, tarama and mixed platters of marinated chicken with grilled pita, vegetables and condiments set the register – plates that look simple but are seasoned with intent.

Fried squid, oregano fries and spanakopitakia circulate alongside saganaki, the cheese fried until it turns stringy and blistered at the edges. For a main course, the gyro merida takes the traditional souvlaki and rebuilds it as a toasted pita bed for meat marinated for hours and cooked on a spit, offered in both a meat and a vegetarian version.

04What to order

Saganaki tends to open most tables here, closely followed by the fava – a split pea purée dressed with capers and confit onions, built for scooping up with grilled pita. The gyro merida is the dish to anchor a meal around, its toasted pita soaking up the juices of slow-marinated, spit-cooked meat.

Leave room for dessert: the homemade baklawa and a Greek yoghurt scented with orange blossom, finished with candied citrus and pistachio, are the two sweets regulars make a point of ordering before they leave.

05Wine and drinks

The bar runs on cocktails, ouzo, Greek wine and retsina, the resin-scented white that remains the most unmistakably Hellenic pour on the list – a fitting match for a room built around sharing and unhurried conversation rather than a formal wine pairing.

06When to go and booking

The restaurant opens Tuesday to Saturday for dinner from 7.30pm to 10.30pm, with Friday lunch service from midday to 2.30pm and weekend lunches on Saturday and Sunday from 12.30pm to 2.15pm; it is closed on Mondays. With only thirty-eight covers, booking ahead is worth doing, particularly for weekend lunch or a Saturday evening table.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.