“If you know, you know. Le Loft isn’t the type of restaurant you’ll stumble upon while wandering the streets of Paris. Hidden in a loft-style quarter, one has to find a courtyard entrance leading to a nondescript building. Here, South Korean French chef Pierre Sang plates up contemporary French cuisine peppered with Korean influences. Don’t be surprised if you’re not given a menu. Using fresh local produce, Sang’s food is comforting yet experimental and creative. If I were to describe it best, the experience feels like you’re in a friend’s living room with an open-concept kitchen. They are usually fully booked so my advice is to plan ahead and be patient.”

Le Loft by Pierre Sang
Address: 55 Rue Oberkampf, Paris 75011, France

“Go here for a total experience around coffee, tailored for coffee connoisseurs by one of the greatest minds in the culinary world. It is a really petite space, with only three tables up for grabs, where even the roasting process can be witnessed right before you. Among the extensively curated coffee selections, the pressure-drawn coffee, which resembled the alluring cascading effect of draft beer, was most memorable to me. The cold-extraction filtered coffee is beautifully presented in a tall pint and has an amazing texture to each sip. I even took a picture of it”

Le Café Alain Ducasse—Manufacture à Paris
Address: 12 Rue St Sabin, 75011 Paris, France

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“One of my most memorable meals in recent times has to be the Parisian steakhouse by award-winning chef Jean-François Piège. I am very fascinated by the attention to detail, everything down to the choice of tableware, table setting, ambience and even how the menu is planned. The biggest difference, to me, boils down to the in-house dry ageing process. My favourite order is the perfectly seared steak entrecôte accompanied by beautifully roasted vegetables. These large plates encourage sharing which reminds me of my childhood when my six siblings and I shared whatever was on the table. Nowadays, in the spirit of conviviality, we still get together over such communal meals over Christmas and during summer. And sometimes, I imagine serving up a huge cake in my patisseries where everyone could just come together and share.”

Clover Grill
Address: 6 Rue Bailleul, 75001 Paris, France

“So this one’s specific and no, it isn’t a restaurant or a cafe. Instead, it’s a boutique sneaker store that sells rare and exclusive sneakers. I am a huge fan of sneakers and that is usually where I get them. Even when I don’t plan to buy a pair, I enjoy purely hanging out with fellow sneakerheads over a cup of coffee we get from the tiny coffeeshop right across the street.”

Afterdrop
Address: 19 Rue Tiquetonne, 75002 Paris, France

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