Sea effects, earth souls

You have to stop time and come here, to this hidden house at the very beginning of Chaussée de Waterloo, facing the Porte de Hal. Only beautifully graffitied paintings on the windows allow you to identify the place. Once you step into the vast dining room, everything exudes a workshop spirit—brick walls and glued crabs, raw wooden tables, and a long counter at the front.

For ten years now, Yoth Ondara has been at the helm of this unclassifiable address, one that breathes both freedom and the influences of his origins. Born in Asia and raised in the South of France, he expresses his dual identity like no other. A relentless chef when it comes to selecting ultra-sourced, noble ingredients, his cuisine is a rich waltz, revealing a poetry of raw intensity. He embraces products without transforming them—rather, he elevates them to reveal their purest essence.

Dishes are composed in harmony with the tides and earthly finds: scallops, lemon oil, hazelnuts—one of the restaurant’s bestsellers; smoked eel, cauliflower, foie gras; clams, sake, herbs; razor clams with kumquats; or the delicate balance of scallops, Tuscan lard, pumpkin; mussels and chorizo.

With the gentle complicity of Van, his partner, Yoth Ondara crafts a story with every dish—a tale of landscapes and seasons. He gathers terroirs from near and far, allowing them to express themselves in an intense yet soft harmony: sea bream, padron pepper, shiitake; crab paella with chorizo; sea urchin spaghetti with burrata—to die for; veal with dried bonito and spinach; crispy pork with octopus and carrots—another hit; duck with spices, cockles, and cabbage. And to finish, a devilish chocolate ganache with sesame and fleur de sel. So many bestsellers written permanently on the board, as unchanging as the devoted fans who demand them.

Between sea effects and earth souls, this is a place for unique dining experiences, through compositions that can only be received from their hands and truly lived within their walls.

LD