Terra – the glass-roofed grill table of the Haut Marais

Terra sits behind an unmarked grey door on rue des Gravilliers, in the quiet upper stretch of the Marais, where a long corridor gives no hint of what follows. Past the discreet entrance, the room opens into an immense glass roof, thick planting, a wall stacked with bottles and a kitchen working in full view. The restaurant was opened in March 2018 by three friends, Arthur Jourdan, Robin Stucki and Alexandre Marie, who settled at 21 rue des Gravilliers in the heart of the Haut Marais. Everything turns on an open kitchen and, at its centre, a wood-fire grill the house treats as its defining signature, used on matured meat, seared fish, farmhouse poultry and vegetable dishes alike. It holds no stars but is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, noted for Modern Cuisine, and kept for special occasions.

01The room and the setting

Tables are well spaced across roughly fifty covers, with tall plants supplying the green and the chlorophyll. Behind the imposing wine wall at the back of the room stands a long communal table seating ten to eighteen. Diners take either a candlelit table or the corner counter, facing the cooks at work over the coals. Disco plays low under the glass, and the whole room feels closer to a winter garden than a dining hall.

02The chef

Terra opened a new chapter in its kitchen in 2026 with the arrival of Allan Gillery Pavard, a self-taught chef who has passed through the Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne, Pollen Street Social in London, the Royal Monceau, Le Galopin and Le Verre Volé in Paris. He steps into a house built from the start by three friends rather than around one chef's name. Robin Stucki met Arthur Jourdan at the École hôtelière de Lausanne, and together they opened Chez Nous, a wine bar in the 6th arrondissement, about a dozen years ago. Alexandre Marie had already helped open Le Galopin, the restaurant of Top Chef winner Romain Tischenko, before running the Paris MYKITA eyewear shop for five years and then returning to restaurants to start Terra with his friends.

Insider tip

Dinner only, Tuesday to Saturday, 19:00–23:00; closed Sunday and Monday. Dishes are built for sharing between two.

03The cooking

The kitchen turns on a wood-fire grill the house itself calls its defining signature, used across matured cuts of meat, delicately seared fish, free-range poultry and vegetarian dishes built with equal care. Every plate lands at the centre of the table, built for two to share rather than for one diner to finish alone. The card is rewritten every month, so individual dishes rarely last long — only the format holds: a short run of starters, a line of shared mains and a brief dessert list.

04What to order

On the card read in October 2026, starters ran from an Ikejime tuna tartare with raspberry vinaigrette and harissa to a perfect egg with girolles and celeriac cream, an octopus taloa with pil-pil sauce, and a duck terrine with watercress and rhubarb. Among the mains built for two: a wood-grilled Chuck Flap of Black Angus with pepper sauce and dan-dan fries, a pigeon pie layered with veal sweetbreads, foie gras and truffle, and a monkfish grilled à l'américaine with fresh taglierini. The most expensive dish on the list, an Australian Wagyu bavette grilled over the coals, runs to €190 for two. Desserts stay restrained — a red-berry tartlet with verbena cream, a melon sorbet with kaffir lime oil — except on Fridays and Saturdays, when the kitchen adds crêpes Suzette for two, finished tableside with orange butter and Grand Marnier.

05Wine and drinks

The cellar runs past 1,000 references, mixing natural and artisanal wines with classics and rarer bottles, travelling from Burgundy and the Jura to the Loire, Corsica and vineyards abroad. The list on site stretches from a glass of Chartreuse Jaune to a single Chartreuse Verte bottle priced at €195, and magnums of white wine or champagne are brought out only after roughly twenty minutes, long enough to reach the right temperature. A short cocktail list runs alongside, built around house staples such as a Terra Mule and a citrus-infused Negroni.

06The neighbourhood

The Terra story began in 2014 with the wine bar Chez Nous in the 6th arrondissement; four years later Arthur Jourdan and Robin Stucki, now joined by Alexandre Marie, opened Terra itself, already built around the wood fire and the shared plate. The same team has since added Terra Bar à Vins in 2021 and Terra Pizza in 2023, both still on rue des Gravilliers. The street sits in the Haut Marais, once lined with workshops and artisans' ateliers, within walking distance of the Rambuteau and Arts-et-Métiers Métro stations.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.