Villa9Trois – Seine-Saint-Denis's only MICHELIN Star, in a garden villa

Behind a gate on rue Hoche in Montreuil, a drive curls through the trees before revealing a red-brick, nineteenth-century hôtel particulier that has become one of the more surprising addresses in French gastronomy: Villa9Trois holds one MICHELIN Star, the only such distinction anywhere in Seine-Saint-Denis. Since 2016 the house has belonged to restaurateurs Claude Besson and Makhlouf Mebarki, who gave it a thorough refresh in 2022 and saw it awarded the Star the following year, in March 2023, under then-chef Camille Saint-M'Leux. The stoves now answer to Sylvain Grosjean, who arrived at the end of 2024 carrying the discipline of some of the grandest kitchens in France. What he inherited, and what he keeps, is a restaurant that behaves like a country house ten minutes from the Porte de Montreuil: a kitchen garden, a fire for winter, and cooking that takes itself seriously without ever losing its ease.

01The room and the setting

Walking from the gate to the table is part of the experience: a path crosses a kitchen garden, a chicken coop and a greenhouse full of citrus trees before diners ever sit down. Inside, the villa keeps the cosy, idiosyncratic feel of a private mansion rather than a dining room built for purpose, with two private salons for business meals and a fireplace that takes over once the terrace season ends. In summer, tables move out under the trees, on a terrace shaded from the Montreuil heat and from the rest of the département entirely.

02The chef

Sylvain Grosjean's training began at fifteen, in an apprenticeship at La Colombe in Hyères under chef Pascal Bonamy, who taught him rigour and discipline before helping him into the kitchens of the starred Villa Madie on the Cassis coast. Two years there led him to Paris and five years alongside Bernard Pacaud at L'Ambroisie, then three more as sous-chef when Mathieu Pacaud opened Apicius. A season running the kitchen at the Domaine de Murtoli in Corsica followed, then a return to Villa Madie as number two, and a spell as chef at Divellec in Paris, before Grosjean took over at Villa9Trois, bringing his sous-chef Paul-Jean Lapaque with him from Murtoli. The cooking still carries the South: he grew up between his father's pied-noir spices and his grandfather's fresh-caught seafood, and that double inheritance of sun and sea shows on the plate.

Insider tip

Open Wednesday to Sunday for lunch and dinner; book ahead for the summer terrace or the fireside salon in winter.

03The cooking

Grosjean works closely with small local growers, picking up produce such as baby chard from La Petite Épicerie de Montreuil on rue de l'Église, and leans on the restaurant's own garden for herbs and citrus. The carte changes with the seasons rather than to a fixed rhythm, built around unexpected but considered pairings rather than showy technique, and runs alongside two tasting menus that the kitchen treats as a single continuous experience rather than a greatest-hits list.

04What to order

The signature starter is an aïoli built around a perfectly cooked egg, seasonal vegetables and a fresh garlic emulsion, alongside an anchoïade of chilled seasonal vegetables with tempura and fresh anchovies, or cuttlefish dressed like a Provençal daube with horseradish and celery emulsion. Main courses run from a whole John Dory in an herb-infused bouillon with confit fennel to veal, or sweetbreads, smoked with garrigue herbs and served with Camus artichokes and a barigoule reduction. To finish, the Vacherin plays violet and frozen black fruit against a hibiscus-and-sakura-flower vinaigrette, while a toasted brioche recalls Saint-Tropez with Madagascan vanilla and sugar-crystal pearls.

05Wine and drinks

The cellar runs past two hundred references drawn from across France, guided by sommeliers Romain and Amaury, and extends into one of the richer whisky and rum lists in the Île-de-France, more than a hundred bottles strong, from classic Scotch and Bourbon through to rarities from India, Tasmania and the Philippines. A Japanese sake selection adds a quieter note, and the villa's fireside armchairs are built for a last glass of whisky with a cigar from the cellar once dinner is done.

06When to go and booking

Villa9Trois serves lunch and dinner Wednesday to Sunday, lunch from midday to two and dinner from seven to ten. A three-course lunch menu at €49 runs on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays only, excluding public holidays, while the Menu des Saveurs (four courses) and Menu Dégustation (six courses) are available throughout the week. The private car park and two salons make it a natural choice for a long business lunch as much as for a summer evening on the terrace.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.