Les Petits Parisiens – Where Bistronomy Was Born, Reinvented

At 49 avenue Jean-Moulin, in a quiet stretch of the 14th arrondissement, Les Petits Parisiens sits on ground that matters to Paris: this is where Yves Camdeborde opened La Régalade almost thirty years ago and, by most accounts, invented the idea of bistronomy, later carried forward by Bruno Doucet until he handed over the keys in 2017. Since 2020 the address has belonged to Arnaud Duhem, a restaurateur formed in the kitchens and dining rooms of Alain Ducasse, the Shangri-La Paris and the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme, who chose neither to copy his predecessors nor to turn his back on them. Today the stoves are run by chef Lucas Felzine, one of the earliest champions of Nikkei cooking in the French capital, who joined in September 2025 to sharpen the seasonal menu with a more travelled accent. The house holds the distinction of being selected in the MICHELIN Guide, alongside 14/20 and two toques from Gault & Millau. It still reads, deliberately, as an unpretentious neighbourhood bistro with serious intent on the plate.

01The room and the setting

Arnaud Duhem's brief to his designers was simple: keep the charm, lose nothing of the past, but make the room feel of today. The job went to Be Dandy, the studio behind his first restaurant, Les Petits Princes in Suresnes, working to the idea that a good idea should stay a simple one. The result keeps the pavement terrace that made La Régalade a Left Bank landmark in its day, and the dining room still carries the bones of a classic Parisian bistro — close-set tables, a working counter, the practical warmth of a room built for service rather than show.

Outdoor seating remains part of the offer, the room is air-conditioned for Paris summers, and the dress code runs from casual to business to formal without anyone feeling out of place — a house built, as its owner intended, to be unpretentious without lacking ambition.

02The chef

Lucas Felzine arrived at the stoves in September 2025, having already taken charge earlier that year at Arnaud Duhem's other address, Les Petits Princes in Suresnes. His training reads like a tour of some of the city's most exacting kitchens: Ze Kitchen Galerie under William Ledeuil, L'Arpège under Alain Passard, La Dame de Pic under Anne-Sophie Pic, and the Shangri-La Paris under Philippe Labbé, with a spell running the kitchen at Uma along the way.

Insider tip

Open Mon–Fri only; tasting menu €65 lunch / €69 dinner for the whole table.

He has been one of the names associated with Nikkei cooking in Paris since 2014, and that Japanese-Peruvian instinct for citrus, ginger and raw fish now runs quietly beneath the classic bistro register he inherited from Rémy Danthez, the restaurant's opening chef, who had spent twelve years learning the trade from Bruno Doucet at the old Régalade.

03What to order

The terrine de campagne has never left the menu — a direct line back to the Régalade years — and it still opens most meals here. Beyond that anchor, the carte moves through the seasons with real conviction: chilled peas with rose and almonds in spring, scallop carpaccio the moment the season opens, and come autumn, red mullet with shiso alongside aged pigeon and candied quince.

Winter brings two dishes worth timing a visit around: lièvre à la royale, a classic hare dish reworked and offered only in limited quantity, and Fin Gras du Mézenc, a rare AOP beef cut that Les Petits Parisiens is, for the second year running, the only Left Bank address to carry. For dessert, the rice pudding has earned its own write-up from Gault & Millau — proof that a dish built on almost nothing can still carry a kitchen's signature.

04Wine and drinks

The cellar is the work of Loïc Mougène, a Paris sommelier who built his reputation at La Robe et le Palais before bringing his eye for natural wine to Les Petits Parisiens. His list leans toward small, living producers, while keeping a handful of fine classics in reserve for guests who want the reassurance of a known name alongside the discoveries.

05The neighbourhood, when to go and booking

Les Petits Parisiens sits in Petit-Montrouge, a residential fold of the 14th arrondissement served by the Alésia and Porte d'Orléans Métro stations — a part of Paris that rewards a short detour rather than a passing visit. The restaurant keeps bistro hours rather than gastronomic ones: lunch and dinner Monday to Friday, closed at weekends, with lunch menus from €29 and a five-course tasting menu offered to the whole table at €65 for lunch and €69 for dinner, as read on the restaurant's own site in October 2026.

Booking by telephone or online is the sensible route, particularly for the weekday lunch sitting, which still draws the neighbourhood's regulars first.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.