Mojju – a Korean kitchen inside a Parisian bistro shell

On rue de l'Exposition, a quiet street in the 7th arrondissement near Les Invalides, Mojju occupies the space once held by the Basque bistro Pottoka, which chef Thibault Sombardier turned over to an entirely different cuisine on 22 February 2024. It is Sombardier's third address under his own name, after the restaurant Antoine, which he took to a MICHELIN star before closing it in 2020, and the bistros Mensae and Sellae. The French chef and Top Chef finalist hands his kitchen here to a Korean team, led at the opening by chef Hosub Im. The room sits at the meeting point of a Parisian bistro and a Korean hanok, the traditional timber house of the peninsula, and the whole project began on a trip Sombardier made to South Korea in 2022. Mojju is Selected in the MICHELIN Guide and rated 12 out of 20 by Gault et Millau, recognition for a kitchen that has made its own space on a street better known for Basque and Auvergnat tables.

01The room and the setting

Dorénavant Studio built the dining room around the codes of a hanok, with rounded light fixtures, Asian objects and banquettes in printed fabric arranged around an imposing bar. The main room seats twenty-five, with a second, smaller room extending the house on busy nights. The effect is warm rather than theatrical, in the Gros-Caillou quarter of the 7th arrondissement, a few streets back from the esplanade of Les Invalides.

02The chef

Thibault Sombardier reached the final of Top Chef's fifth season in 2014, cooking sardine, saddle of lamb and apricot for eight MICHELIN inspectors along the way. He had already taken the kitchen at Antoine, a fish restaurant in the 16th arrondissement, to a MICHELIN star in 2012, a restaurant he ran until closing it in 2020, and he used the bistros Mensae and then Sellae to develop a looser, more generous style on the side. Since 2025 he has also run the kitchen at Anne, the MICHELIN-starred restaurant inside the Pavillon de la Reine on Place des Vosges. Mojju itself grew out of a trip Sombardier took to South Korea in 2022, which left him wanting a Paris address built entirely around Korean produce and technique.

Insider tip

Two tasting menus only; lunch Friday to Sunday; book ahead, the room seats twenty-five.

03The cooking

The name is a nod to moju, a fermented rice alcohol from the city of Jeonju, and the kitchen built around it leans on the Korean barbecue: cuts of matured meat and marinated fish are grilled over charcoal, then rolled into ssam wraps with crunchy salad leaves and well-seasoned sauces, alongside the small fermented and marinated side dishes known as banchan. Sombardier's French bistro instincts set the register around that Korean core, softening condiments for a Parisian table rather than reproducing a Seoul grill house wholesale.

04What to order

Mojju runs two blind tasting menus, Taste of Mojju and the wagyu-focused Taste of Wagyu, alongside a short list of small plates to share. The current card opens with Gillardeau oysters in a kimchi vinaigrette and yuk-hoe, a Korean-style beef tartare dressed with Korean pear, before the grill sends out a miso-matured duckling. On earlier menus, the same grill has produced a miso-marinated duck breast and a nashi-pear beef tartare finished with sesame and confit egg yolk, alongside the kind of well-spiced kimchi variations a Korean table builds its reputation on. Desserts close on a French note: a praline chocolate mousse with black sesame ice cream that regulars mention before anything else.

05When to go and booking

The kitchen serves dinner every night and lunch only from Friday to Sunday. The room is small, and it is worth booking ahead.

06The neighbourhood

Mojju sits in Gros-Caillou, the quiet grid of streets between Les Invalides and the Champ de Mars, a short walk from the La Tour-Maubourg metro station on line 8. It belongs to a small wave of Korean tables that has reached the Left Bank in recent years, though few others carry a MICHELIN-starred chef's name on the door.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.