Nakatani – the sous-chef who became the Faubourg's own star

On rue Pierre-Leroux, a discreet street a few minutes' walk from the hushed luxury of Le Bon Marché, Nakatani occupies an address that once held a bistro called Grannie chez Naoto. Since 9 September 2014 it has been the sole venture of Shinsuke Nakatani, a chef born in Kyoto who arrived in France in 2001 and spent nine years in the kitchens of Hélène Darroze, the last three of them as her chef. He left to build sixteen seats of his own, in a room shaped by the architect Shinku Noda of Atelier ÈS. The gamble paid off: it holds one MICHELIN Star, awarded in 2016 and held every year since. There is no printed carte here, only a single set menu rewritten through the seasons — four courses at lunchtime, six at dinner — built from French meat and market produce handled with a quietly Japanese precision that has made this small room, on an otherwise ordinary street, one of the 7th arrondissement's most private addresses.

01The room and the setting

The dining room is kept almost monastic: pale walls climb to painted beams, and the open kitchen sits in full view of the handful of tables that make up its sixteen seats. Up two steps from the entrance, a small alcove seats two pairs of diners at a time, a detail the architect Shinku Noda of Atelier ÈS built into an otherwise spare, calm volume meant to feel discreet rather than showy.

In 2021, Nakatani added a four-seat wooden counter set directly in front of the stoves — the only place in the room where guests watch the pass and the plating up close, a few feet from the chef himself.

02The chef

Shinsuke Nakatani was born in Kyoto and arrived in France in 2001, working through several regional restaurants before joining Hélène Darroze in Paris, where he stayed nine years, the final three of them as her chef. He opened his own address on 9 September 2014, the name over the door his own for the first time.

Insider tip

Closed Sunday and Monday; lunch 12:30–15:00, dinner 19:30–23:50; booking essential for the four-seat counter.

The MICHELIN Guide awarded a star in 2016, a distinction the restaurant has held every year since. Gault & Millau's current edition rates the address 14 out of 20, filing it as a Chef's Restaurant on what it calls the affluent and chic rue Pierre-Leroux, where a chef with a following can afford to publish no detail of his menus beyond the price.

03The cooking

There is no à la carte. At lunch, a four-course menu runs starter, fish, meat and dessert, built entirely around French meat and poultry; at dinner, six courses change with the market and the season. Reviewers describe a kitchen built on restraint rather than flourish — neatly cut vegetables, elaborated textures, sauces used sparingly.

Nakatani's signature is control at the level of technique: critics at Gayot noted that he washes his vegetables at a measured temperature to coax out umami, the long, persistent savour that marks the Japanese palate as much as the French one — a habit that runs through dishes built from unshowy produce handled with unusual patience.

04What to order

The dinner menu comes in two versions: a seasonal six-course Dégustation Course at €175, or the same course built around a dish of Japanese wagyu beef for €215 — the jump between the two that regulars on booking platforms flag as the real decision of the evening. At midday, the shorter menu at €95 keeps to the same architecture: one starter, one fish course, one meat course, one dessert, with all meat and poultry sourced in France.

05Wine and drinks

Nakatani's own wine list runs long and leans hard into Burgundy: pages of grower Champagne from Egly-Ouriet and Bollinger give way to white Burgundies from Coche-Dury, François Raveneau and Comtes Lafon, and reds that pass through Armand Rousseau's Chambertin Clos de Bèze and Roumier's Chambolle-Musigny.

Rarities surface further down the list — a 1995 Dom Pérignon P2 Rosé, a 2013 Salon Blanc de Blancs — alongside a short run of spirits that includes a 21-year-old Hibiki whisky, a quiet nod to the kitchen behind the counter.

06When to go and booking

Nakatani serves lunch from 12:30pm to 3pm, with last orders at 2pm, and dinner from 7:30pm to 11:50pm, with last orders at 9pm, Tuesday to Saturday; it is closed on Sunday and Monday. With only sixteen seats — four of them at the counter — tables move fast, and the restaurant takes Carte Bleue, American Express, Visa, Mastercard, Diner Club and cash.

07The neighbourhood

The address sits in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, the quiet grid of the 7th arrondissement built around Le Bon Marché and the cheese shop Quatrehomme, a few doors from the restaurant Aida, and a short walk from Métro Vaneau on line 10 — a part of Paris that keeps its best tables as discreet as its courtyards.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.