Merry

A stone’s throw from Place du Vingt-Août, Hélène Thiry and Yuri Vandam, who’ve worked at Clamato and Le Dauphin in Paris, Humus and Hortense in Brussels and Couvert Couvert (no small feat!), keep themselves – and us – entertained in their chic urban mansion with parquet floors and moldings, which opened in 2022. Lunch that day: melted leeks, a smoked lentil emulsion and gourmet potato mousse with bottarga; free-range Malines chicken given an Asian twist two ways – suprême roasted on the breast bone, served with a bed of Chinese cabbage, sweet potato cream and punchy kimchi, and in dim sum drizzled in a dense ginger lemongrass jus; before a bewitching hay ice cream with some zingy raw and cooked apples and horseradish crumble. // Mary Martin

FEELING THIRSTY? Merry wines! And only living ones at that: Kiki, an Alsatian white from Christophe Lindenlaub (€50 for a one-liter bottle), Sin, a (red) Catalan tempranillo from Els Vinyerons (€39), The Iris, an Austrian red from Michael Opitz (€44), or Nantosuelta Breton hard cider from Johanna Cécillon (€39).
PRICE: Menus €35 and €45 (lunch) and €55 (dinner), four-glass wine pairings €36, non-alcoholic pairings €24.