The best Japanese restaurants in Paris by Kaitsuko

The best Japanese restaurants in the capital

Japanese stainless steel kitchen knives

Kaiseki or skewers, soba or eels, sushi or ramen ... Connoisseurs know: there is not one, but several Japanese cuisines. Whatever your craving of the day, here is our selection of the best Japanese restaurants in Paris.

Sushi

The Abyss at the Ledoyen Pavilion

A sushi master, products of remarkable quality (Atlantic ikejime fish), the creative touch of Yannick Alléno... Everything is there to have a great time. Twelve seats at the counter, to be at the heart of the action.

Sushi B

A pocket table with a Zen and stripped-down setting. As an excellent craftsman, the chef only works with quality and fresh products, with surgical precision. His sushi and maki are memorable, the flavors gallop in the mouth without ever an excess of soy or wasabi: the sense of measure personified.

Jin

Jin is first and foremost the expertise of one man, Takuya Watanabe, a chef originally from Niseko, who first worked successfully in Japan... before succumbing to the charms of the French capital. Top-notch sushi and sashimi, top-notch ingredients, all backed up by discreet and efficient service. No wines, but superb sakes.

Kaiseki

Aida

You can choose to sit at the counter (nine seats) to have a front row seat to the teppanyaki, or in the small, soberly furnished private lounge with its tatami mats. Through a unique tasting menu, you will discover fine and sophisticated cuisine, weaving beautiful links between Japan and France; sashimi, Brittany lobster, chateaubriand or sweetbreads are accompanied by good Burgundy wines, selected with passion by the chef.

Pasta

Kisin – Kunitoraya

What do our taste buds do when they cross paths with a Tokyo chef, living in Paris? They quiver with pleasure. Here, the udon tastes like the real thing, to be enjoyed in a small, uncluttered room, decorated in the spirit of Japanese shops. A natural cuisine, without additives, healthy and tasty, with a very good quality-price ratio.

Soba Shelter

You probably know sobas, Japanese buckwheat noodles... This restaurant (the second address of the partners behind Abri) has made them its specialty and offers them, so to speak, in all sauces: cold or hot, with broth and sliced duck for example. In the evening, the score goes off on a tangent, like an izakaya: make way for small, well-prepared portions – sashimi, tempura, fish dishes – that will delight connoisseurs, and everyone else.

Kodawari ramen

You'd think you were in an alleyway in old Tokyo, the atmosphere is so lively and the restaurant is so narrow. The ramen, made on site and served in delicious Landes chicken broths, attracts gourmets of all kinds. The specialty of the place: the Kurogowa ramen, made with a secret sauce and chashu from Basque farm pork. Avoid rush hour!

Eels

Nodaiwa

Eel is the specialty of this restaurant. Filleted, grilled and then steamed, it is immersed in a bath of soy sauce, sake and sugar (to which is added the chef's secret...), before being grilled again and covered in sauce. It is eaten on rice, in a bowl or a lacquered box. The vast majority of the clientele is Japanese, which says it all about the quality of the dishes.

Skewers – charcoal cooking

Good Kushikatsu

This small Japanese restaurant cultivates a very particular culinary specialty, coming from the city of Osaka: kushikatsu, mini-skewers breaded and fried to order. The succession of bites reveals finesse and aromas, and nicely represents the land of the Rising Sun. Likewise the decor, chic and typically Japanese.

Enyaa

Confusing and exciting! The setting is as refined as possible – white stone vaults and pillars, polished concrete floor, square tables in light wood – and the cuisine, Japanese, highlights the best French products: for example, these beautiful eels from the Loire. The wine list is also alluring, with exclusively very good champagnes and sakes: an assumed bias that will delight connoisseurs.

The Rigmarole

Chef Robert Compagnon and pastry chef Jessica Yang have combined their talents to create this atypical restaurant, already very popular in Paris. Here they recreate the atmosphere and flavors of Japanese yakitori and robatayaki restaurants (sea bass tartare, skate wing, remarkable skewer of free-range poultry grilled before our eyes) as well as Italian or French cuisine (spaghetti with bottarga, a pure delight!). Book several weeks in advance.