Substance – Trocadéro's one-star table starts a new chapter

Substance sits on a quiet stretch of rue de Chaillot, between the Champs-Élysées and the Trocadéro, in a part of the 16th arrondissement that rarely announces its restaurants. It opened in 2018 as the first restaurant built by Stéphane Manigold's Groupe Éclore, under founding chef Matthias Marc, who ran it for seven years, winning it a MICHELIN star in 2022, before announcing his departure, effective 31 December 2025. By that autumn the kitchen had already passed to Flavio Lucarini and Aurora Storari, who had been leading Substance since the fall of 2025 alongside maître d' and sommelier Giacomo Gironi, following their run together at Hémicycle, and the 2026 MICHELIN Guide confirmed the star for the first time under the new duo's direction. Substance holds One MICHELIN Star. Behind the marble counter and open kitchen, the pair now write a cuisine that reads more openly Roman than before, while keeping the seasonal discipline the house was built on.

01The room and the setting

The dining room keeps the identity Groupe Éclore gave it at the opening: a design-led, unbuttoned room near the Triangle d'Or, built around a marble counter that faces the open kitchen, where the multi-course menus are served in a relaxed mood. From the counter stools, guests watch Lucarini and Storari plate each course a few feet away, the same vantage earlier regulars used to watch the founding chef at work.

02The chefs

Storari was born in Rome in 1992 and trained through kitchens including Mirazur and Le Clarence before joining forces with Lucarini, a fellow Roman who had come up through Passerini and Le Gabriel. Together they opened Hémicycle, near the Assemblée Nationale, in August 2023, where Storari won the MICHELIN Guide's Prix Passion Dessert in 2024 for her work on the pastry side. Hémicycle closed at the end of 2025, and the pair crossed the Seine to Substance, bringing maître d' and sommelier Giacomo Gironi with them. Gault&Millau found the restaurant's loyal clientele had barely noticed the handover.

Insider tip

Open Monday to Friday for lunch and dinner; closed Saturday and Sunday. Book online, by phone or by e-mail.

03The cooking

The repertoire now leans toward pasta dishes that reference Rome as much as Paris, and main courses built on bitter greens and citrus rather than cream, while keeping the seasonal, short-supply-chain habit the house was built on. The signature remains the Spaghetti Cacio e peps!, the kitchen's own take on the Roman classic, available both à la carte and as a supplement on the longer tasting menus. Storari closes the meal with desserts built on the same precision that earned her the Passion Dessert distinction, working through texture and bitterness rather than straightforward sweetness.

04What to order

Starters run from a koji-matured beetroot with cow's-milk curd, whey sauce and hibiscus granita (€42) to a button mushroom stuffed with cecina in a tamarind and rose geranium consommé (€55), and a barbecued lobster with poblano chilli, black garlic, guanciale and rose (€68). Among the mains, the Spaghetti Cacio e peps! (€52) sits alongside steamed red mullet with melting sweet potato and watercress coulis (€68) and roasted saddle of deer with smoked butter, radicchio and five-flavour condiment (€69). Desserts include a roasted squash parfait with coffee baba and quince sorbet, a spiced floating island with shiso ice cream and fermented milk sauce, and poached pear with chocolate XO and a crisp waffle, each €25.

05Wine and drinks

The wine list runs past 700 references, with growers chosen for the quality of their bottles and their environmental practice. The 200-strong champagne list was co-written by Stéphane Manigold and grower Anselme Selosse, whose own cuvée, Substance, gave the restaurant its name — a detail that still explains the address today, even under its new kitchen.

06When to go and booking

Substance serves lunch from 12:00 to 1:30pm and dinner from 7:30 to 9:00pm, Monday to Friday, and is closed Saturday and Sunday. Tables can be booked online, by phone or by e-mail, and the single dining room can be privatised entirely for up to 30 guests, with the menu built together with the chefs. Each October, the house also partners with the breast-cancer charity RoseUp.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.