Signature Montmartre – a Korean echo on rue des Trois-Frères

Signature Montmartre sits on rue des Trois-Frères, the narrow street that runs between Place des Abbesses and the white domes of the Sacré-Cœur, in a corner of the 18th arrondissement still thick with artists' stairways and small, stubborn addresses. The restaurant was opened at the end of 2017 by a Franco-Korean partnership: Victor Malivert, an engineer by training who had lived in South Korea and taught himself wine, runs the small dining room, while Youngrim Kim, who writes under the name Lim Kim, trained as a pastry chef and had already spent a decade in France writing about Korean cooking on a blog before the two of them opened the restaurant together. It holds no star but is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, and Gault&Millau gives it one toque at 12/20 for a kitchen that treats bistronomy and Far Eastern seasoning as a single idea rather than two cuisines set side by side.

01The room and the setting

The dining room is spare and the tables are set well apart from one another, a detail that counts in a quartier where most addresses pack diners close. The address itself sits on rue des Trois Frères, between the place des Abbesses and the Sacré Coeur, reachable on foot from métro Abbesses, on line 12, or Anvers, on line 2.

02The chef

Victor Malivert trained as an engineer, lived in South Korea and became a fine connoisseur of terroir products, particularly wine, knowledge he now puts to use nightly in the dining room. Youngrim Kim, who writes under the pseudonym Lim Kim, had been in France for ten years and was already known as the author of the culinary blog Kimshii before she and Victor opened Signature Montmartre at the end of December 2017. The restaurant's own site notes that a genius cook, Sung Mi, has since come to complete this small team, keeping the kitchen a tight, three-person operation.

Insider tip

Dinner only, Wednesday to Sunday, 19:00–23:00; the 8-course menu requires booking ahead for the whole table.

03The cooking

The kitchen's premise is to build menus around French classics and dress them in Far Eastern flavour rather than running two separate repertoires side by side. In October 2026 that meant a four-course Paraphe menu – an amuse-bouche, starter, main and dessert chosen by the chefs, for €59 – and an eight-course Signature menu, served to the whole table and only by reservation, running through an amuse-bouche, three starters, two mains, a cheese course and dessert for €95.

Dishes move between registers within a single plate: a silky tofu cream is finished with a tuile of nurungji, the toasted Korean rice usually scraped from the bottom of a stone pot, alongside tarama, and a classic French foie gras royale is lifted with a gel of omija, the tart Korean berry, under a crumble of panko and sautéed girolles.

04What to order

Among the starters, a tataki of albacore tuna arrives with a charred aubergine caviar, tempura of Japanese aubergine, confit cherry tomatoes and a teriyaki sauce, with the option of adding Kristal caviar from Kaviari. The two mains swap register with the seasons: a pearly lieu jaune marinated in white miso, sauced with a two-miso fish jus and set against pommes Anna and burnt leeks, or a magret of duck smoked over hay with a verjus-sharpened jus, a red-bean purée and roasted sweet potato. Cheese comes from a single nearby address, a board from La Butte Fromagère on rue des Abbesses, and dessert leans toward fresh Solliès figs with a fig compote, a shortbread and a smoked hojicha cream, or a dark-chocolate cake with black sesame cream and a 72% cocoa coulis.

05Wine and drinks

The cellar leans on small Champagne growers and classified Bordeaux rather than natural wine, though Victor is very present at the table, always ready with advice, even if the list is simple and the by-the-glass pricing on the steep side. The top Champagne is a 2016 Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs 'Minéral' from Pascal Agrapart, and the reds run from a 2002 Château Figeac, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru Classé A, down to village Bordeaux under €60. Those wanting the house's Korean note without food can open with a Kir royal coréen, vintage Champagne mixed with omija, or close with a Franco-Korean grog built on honey, yuzu and Chartreuse.

06When to go and booking

Signature Montmartre serves dinner only, Wednesday to Sunday from 19:00 to 23:00, and stays closed on Monday and Tuesday. The eight-course Signature menu is offered to the whole table and only on request, and booking ahead is worth doing if you want to be sure of tasting the house's fusion cooking on a street more used to postcard shops than serious kitchens.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.