Ippon

No more Japanese eats here! On Rue Lulli, the Juville-Fravega-Hernandez triad decided to disregard the Japanese heritage of the original restaurant Ippon, first of its name. And instead, they opened up a brand-new culinary palace decked out in chrome and wood, dreamt up by designer Axel Chay. Everything has changed, apart from the immutable solid wood bar behind which Brussels native Loïck Tonnoir (ex-Bouchéry, Ötap and Figure) has taken control. Sent out to the marble tables, he firmly established his reign with a flawless meal: valiant anchovies astride brioche, spurred on by whipped butter; a spellbinding amberjack aguachile with butternut squash; dry-aged prime rib with some very adorable broccolini; skate enhanced with Beluga lentils and a vin-jaune-infused beurre blanc sauce… The criminally good dessert? Warm chocolate mousse with peanuts and white miso caramel. In short, if anyone else wants a seat on this throne, they’ll be sitting on a Belgian’s lap. // Folayemi Abimbola

FEELING THIRSTY? : Around 20 natural wines: C’est Comme Ça, a cabernet franc from Stéphane Delettre (€7 a glass), Heideboden, a Austrian white produced by Claus Preisinger (€43 a bottle), Les Affiches, a Malbec from Pascal and Jules Verhaeghe (€35)…
PRICE: : Set menus €21-24 (weekday lunch), à la carte €38-51 (dinner and Saturday).