Le Plongeoir d'en Face – fine cooking in a retired swimming pool

South of Paris, on rue Léo-Lagrange in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, a municipal swimming pool built in the 1970s has become one of the more unlikely good tables in Essonne. Its raw concrete and coloured neon now shelter La Piscine d'en Face, a collaborative venue of workshops and resident artisans, and inside it sits Le Plongeoir d'en Face, the bistronomic restaurant opened in 2021 by chef Enzo Scaramuzzino with three partners. Scaramuzzino trained through grand Parisian houses before becoming Mathieu Pacaud's right-hand man and earning his own MICHELIN star in 2020; he chose this odd, lively former pool over another starred address to run a looser, more open table. The restaurant is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, has been awarded 4 Papilles d'Or for 2026 and appears in the Gault & Millau regional guide, recognition built from a short, market-led lunch card and evening tasting menus served a few steps from where swimmers once dived.

01The room and the setting

Le Plongeoir d'en Face takes its name from its position inside La Piscine d'en Face, the old municipal pool reborn as a multi-activity hub where companies, associations and artists now share the building. It is the former swimming pool of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, transformed into a multi-activity nursery where businesses, associations and artists all find a place, and it is in this singular space that the restaurant was born to create a convivial, shared place of life.

Inside, the kitchen and dining room keep the bones of the original building. An unusual setting for a restaurant: what was, in the 1970s, a municipal swimming pool, with raw concrete and colourful neon lights, has been converted into a bustling collaborative space. Diners eat on a terrace when the weather allows, and the room is wheelchair accessible, with cards taken alongside cash.

02The chef

The chef's path runs through École Ferrandi, the George V and the Royal Monceau and several of Mathieu Pacaud's restaurants, culminating in his own MICHELIN star in 2020. It is here that Enzo Scaramuzzino, formerly Mathieu Pacaud's right-hand man, now runs his own kitchen after years working in MICHELIN-starred dining rooms.

Insider tip

Lunch Tue–Fri, dinner Wed, Fri and some Sat; closed Sun and Mon. Book online or by phone.

He was one of four founding partners who opened the restaurant in the early summer of 2021. Anthony Antraygues, Enzo Scaramuzzino, Julien Pieuchot and Mathieu Rosz led the new venture with one idea in mind: to make the most of the singularity of the place. Since then the business has grown enough to employ around fifteen staff on the local Essonne job market. Building on that success, the team has since opened a production kitchen in new premises in the Croix-Blanche business zone, still in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois.

03The cooking

Lunch runs on a short, moving card rather than a fixed menu. At midday the chef proposes a weekly chalkboard in step with the season. Each week he composes a slate inspired by the season, blending creativity, simplicity and genuine flavour. On Saturdays lunch shifts register to 'La Rôtisserie', with larger pieces chosen for sharing alongside the usual card.

Evenings move at a different pace: a five-course Découvertes menu and chef's suggestions replace the printed list, built around convivial, more exploratory service and occasionally timed to the concerts and exhibitions programmed next door at La Piscine d'en Face.

04What to order

There is no fixed à la carte to quote from one week to the next, which is rather the point, but the shape of a meal stays consistent: starters between 9 and 15 euros, mains between 15 and 25 euros, and desserts between 7 and 10 euros, all drawn from that week's deliveries.

On a Saturday, ask for the Rôtisserie's pieces to share rather than the card alone. In the evening, the five-course Découvertes menu is the most direct route into Scaramuzzino's cooking, built around chef's suggestions rather than a set list.

05Wine and drinks

The cellar, called La Cave, covers wine, beer and cocktails chosen to run alongside the kitchen's output rather than sit apart from it, part of a wider ambition to keep service sociable from aperitif through to dessert.

06When to go and booking

The restaurant serves lunch Tuesday and Thursday from midday to 2.30pm, with Wednesday, Friday and some Saturdays adding dinner from 7pm to 11pm; Saturday evening service depends on the programming at La Piscine d'en Face next door. The wider venue itself is closed on Sundays and Mondays. Tables can be booked online through the restaurant's own site, or by phone.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.