Kapé

It didn’t take long for Jessica Gonzales and Aurélie Véchot, the duo behind Bobi, to decide they wanted to open up their café in the Oberkampf neighborhood, with an idea you can really stick a fork into: to introduce people to Filipino food and drinks, from breakfast through snack time. Once seated on one of the modernist barstools across from the big open kitchen, make room for puto (rice cake steamed in a banana leaf with coconut jam) and the unusual (ultra)violet igname cookies, before digging into the savory little lunch dishes. Tested and approved the day we went, seated between a table full of girlfriends and a startupper whose nose was buried in his computer: pandesal, those miniature toasts topped with buttered chicharrón (grilled chicken skin); arroz caldo, a delicious warm brothy rice dish packed full of ginger, fried garlic, eggs and chicken; or even the adobo dip, the Philippines’ national dish revisited here as a big, colorful bun (arugula, pickled green papaya and carrots), available as both a vegetarian version (made with jackfruit) or with chicken. Keep the good times rolling with one or two silvanas, aka cashew dacquoise biscuits stuffed with Filipino chocolate mousse. And if your belly allows it, you might even leave with a few edible goodies to go, chosen from the tiny épicerie section. // Louisa Fly

FEELING THIRSTY? : Coffee shop drinks with added soul: coffees prepared with purple igname (ube in Philippino), like the ube latte or the ubeffogatto (€6 each), coffee made with beans from the archipelago (Kape de Filipina, €4-7), coffee jelly (cold infused milk and coffee jelly, €6.50), hot chocolate made with Filipino cacao (€5.50) or moringa herbal tea (€5).
PRICE: : À la carte €10-20.