Le Boréal – Montmartre's bistro of two minds

Le Boréal sits at the corner of rue Montcalm and rue du Pôle Nord in the 18th arrondissement, in a quiet stretch of Paris behind the Butte Montmartre. Behind the stoves, Philippine Jaillet and Charles Neyers, a couple in life and in the kitchen, took over an old neighbourhood café-bar in October 2023 and gave it their own identity. It is Selected in the MICHELIN Guide for its modern cuisine, built on contrasts: her training sharpened in pastry at Pierre Hermé, his learned largely on instinct without a culinary diploma. Behind the zinc counter and open kitchen, the dining room is deliberately simple, so that attention falls on the plate. In spring 2025 the pair became, by their own account, the first couple to compete together on Top Chef, carrying Le Boréal's name onto French television and, briefly, into a very public debate about how they share the stoves.

01The room and the setting

The address was an old neighbourhood café-bar before Jaillet and Neyers took it over, and they kept its atmosphere and original counter while giving the rest of the room a contemporary edge. Officially, the brief is simplicity: a zinc counter, an open kitchen and an intimate room, deliberately plain, so that every bit of attention lands on the plate. Burgundy leather banquettes, cream zellige tiles, chocolate-toned tomette flooring and solid oak tables complete a warm, lived-in decor, the sort of room where guests feel at ease the moment they sit down.

At the back, the open kitchen extends into a small counter with three privileged seats for watching the plates come together. Thonet chairs and a brass-topped bar add to the nostalgic, slightly worn charm, while tables by the street-corner windows catch what light reaches this quiet stretch of the 18th.

02The chefs

Philippine Jaillet and Charles Neyers run Le Boréal as partners in both senses of the word. Jaillet trained at École Ferrandi and worked with Pierre Hermé, then sharpened her pastry work further at Taillevent before the two met. She found Neyers at La Traversée, and the attraction was immediate; they never parted company after that, professionally or otherwise. Neyers came to cooking a different way. He describes himself as a self-taught cook, fiery and driven by instinct, and he is co-founder of the Grand Nord group, which also runs La Traversée and Petite Fleur, built around seasonal produce and cutting food waste.

Insider tip

Dinner Wed–Sat, lunch Fri–Sat only; book ahead, demand has grown since Top Chef 2025.

In spring 2025 the couple carried that double act onto national television: both took part in Top Chef 2025 as Le Boréal's founder-chefs, entering the competition together in what was reported as a first for the show. The exposure cut both ways — some viewers accused Neyers of a paternalistic, sexist manner toward his partner on screen, a row the pair later addressed publicly. Neyers was eliminated from the competition on 4 June 2025, and returned to the pass on rue Montcalm not as a television chef but simply as one half of Le Boréal's kitchen.

03The cooking

Behind the pass, the two chefs run on deliberately different frequencies. Philippine looks for precision, balance and delicacy; Charles prefers something more instinctive, built on fire, sauces and direct flavour. It is this friction between two styles, worked around the same produce and the same season, that gives Le Boréal its identity. Dishes draw on the pair's travels and encounters: French produce, treated with techniques and ideas picked up elsewhere, assembled into a free, personal cooking without borders that shifts with the season, the market and what the chefs feel like cooking that week.

That restlessness shows on the plate: the table moves between traditional bistro dishes and touches borrowed from Italian, Greek and Japanese kitchens, rather than settling into a single register.

04What to order

There's no fixed printed menu to study in advance — Le Boréal builds its tasting menus around what has arrived that morning. Diners choose a four, six or eight-course menu, either omnivore or entirely plant-based, reworked according to the chefs' inspiration and the most seasonal deliveries rather than a fixed script. The shortest sitting is the easiest introduction to both chefs' styles in one go; the eight-course version gives the fullest view of how Philippine's precision and Charles's instinct trade places across a meal.

05Wine and drinks

Le Boréal keeps a dedicated wine list alongside the food, with a pairing option built for each length of tasting menu — order the eight-course menu with wine matches and the meal becomes a considered, bottle-by-bottle progression rather than an afterthought. For those skipping alcohol, the kitchen also puts together a dedicated non-alcoholic pairing to run alongside the four-course menu.

06The neighbourhood

Le Boréal sits at a genuinely obscure corner of Paris: rue du Pôle Nord, a small, quiet street close to the 18th arrondissement's town hall, right at the northern edge of the capital, where it meets rue Montcalm. It's a calm, almost secret pocket of the 18th, tucked behind the Butte Montmartre, well away from the funicular queues and souvenir shops around the Sacré-Cœur. The nearest metro is Jules Joffrin.

Dinner service runs Wednesday to Saturday, with lunch added only on Fridays and Saturdays — a short working week that keeps demand high and booking ahead advisable, especially since the Top Chef exposure of 2025.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.