Madame FAN – Chinese heritage, Parisian polish, by the Arc de Triomphe

Two streets back from the Arc de Triomphe, Madame FAN serves contemporary Chinese cooking in a room designed to feel like a Parisian salon rather than a conventional Chinese restaurant. It is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, a distinction the house says it has now held for six consecutive years, and it has become one of the address of choice in the 17th arrondissement for business lunches, anniversaries and quiet romantic dinners. The restaurant was built on the site of FANFAN, a Franco-Asian fusion address that ran for five years before its founder rebuilt it entirely around Chinese gastronomy. Today the kitchen, led by Chef Anthony Zhang, sets Chinese regional repertoire against French seasonal produce, from Iberian pork in the house's own Xiao Long Bao to pigeon, duck and sea bass cooked with a precision that borrows as much from French technique as from Chinese tradition.

01The room and the setting

At 18 rue Bayen, the dining room is built to read like a Parisian salon reinterpreted through a Chinese lens: soft lighting, close tables and dark wood rather than the usual signifiers of a Chinese restaurant. A private room is kept aside for groups, business dinners and family celebrations, in keeping with a house that positions itself for both romantic dinners and corporate entertaining.

02The chef and the founder

The kitchen is led by Chef Anthony Zhang, who draws on the great regional repertoires of Chinese cooking while giving equal weight to French seasonal produce. Behind the project is Yinhua Qiu, who grew up in Nanjing until the age of eighteen, then arrived in Paris and worked in corporate finance while running a small restaurant in the evenings until the pull of the kitchen won out. Her first restaurant, a Huaiyang address near Place d'Italie, worked out of a kitchen of under two square metres; a second, near the Opéra, brought visibility but also a first-hand view of the prejudices still attached to Chinese cooking in Paris at the time. That experience sent her back to China, where she founded L'Arôme in Nanjing in 2014. A decade on, her France Larome Group runs fifteen restaurants across China, France and Thailand, and Madame FAN itself is the rebuild of FANFAN, reopened as what she calls Paris's first address dedicated to xiao long bao.

Insider tip

Three menus from €32 to €85; private room; book ahead for dinner.

03The cooking

The menu is pitched as a dialogue between Chinese culinary memory and French gastronomic precision, built around seasonal produce rather than a fixed repertoire, and the restaurant states it has been distinguished by the MICHELIN Guide for six consecutive years. Three menus structure a visit: a weekday lunch menu from €32, a Menu Découverte at €49 served at both lunch and dinner for a sweep of the house's signature flavours, and an €85 Menu Dégustation that follows chef Zhang's full vision across Chinese heritage and French seasonal produce.

04What to order

The house signatures, as listed on the menu, are the Xiao Long Bao with Iberian pork and truffle, a crisp signature pigeon, duck breast smoked over Long Jing tea, and a crisp fillet of sea bass with Sichuan pepper, with a rice pot finished with foie gras among the mains. One review of the kitchen singles out the Xiao Long Bao au porc ibérique, dumplings holding a rich broth worth savouring drop by drop, and notes lamb skewers with cumin, tender and smoky, served on mini-barbecues brought to the table. Regulars on Tripadvisor point to the chilli bite in the dan-dan noodles and recommend trying the century egg for anyone new to the cuisine.

05Wine and drinks

The wine and sake list runs to more than 150 references chosen specifically to sit alongside Chinese-French cooking rather than default to a conventional pairing, with a stated focus on independent producers, biodynamic wines and artisan Japanese sake houses. Among the sakes is Hakkaisan's Snow Aged three-year Junmai Daiginjo, matured by the traditional yukimuro method under heavy snowfall in the Uonuma region of Japan, which the house describes as giving a silky texture, roundness and delicate notes of pear. For gifting, the restaurant also sells a card for two tasting menus with wine pairing at €260.

06The neighbourhood

Rue Bayen sits in the quiet residential grid behind the Arc de Triomphe, in a corner of the 17th arrondissement that online listings file under the Arc de Triomphe and Ternes district, among a scattering of Asian addresses rather than a dedicated restaurant row. Madame Fan is one of the more popular restaurants in the Chinese category around the Arc de Triomphe, a fitting result for a kitchen built specifically to challenge what Chinese fine dining in Paris can look like.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.