Breizh Café
David Lebovitz starts his meals at Breizh Café in the Marais with a buckwheat galette rolled up with seaweed butter.1
Why go
Bertrand Larcher founded Breizh Café in 1995 out of two kitchens, the Breton one he grew up on and the Japanese one he found later.8 He writes that every one of them is an embassy for the tastes and flavours that shaped my childhood in Fougères, in Brittany,
and that the two cuisines meet in one grain: Brittany eats buckwheat, and so does Japan
(une ambassade des goûts et des saveurs qui ont patiné mon enfance à Fougères en Bretagne
/ la Bretagne mange du sarrasin, le Japon aussi
).7 The Marais room on rue Vieille du Temple makes galettes de blé noir (buckwheat crêpes) from organic buckwheat, as David Lebovitz noted in 2026.21
Lebovitz ate lunch here in January 2008 and found a kitchen that let good produce shine: there's no red pepper dust on the corner of the plate or twirls of squiggly balsamic sauces that have no business being there.
2 Meg Zimbeck of Paris by Mouth wrote in May 2022: Breizh Café is by far our favorite crêperie in Paris.
3 She rated it more coolly in March 2025: GOOD with two stars.
4
Order this / avoid
- Order: the complète, a galette with ham, cheese and egg. Meg Zimbeck, Paris by Mouth, 2022, praised
the crispy lacy edges of their buckwheat galettes.
3 David Lebovitz, 2008, had his with raw Savoie ham:filled with nutty, melted gruyère and topped with a lacy rosette of top-quality ham.
2 - Order: the buckwheat galette with buckwheat ice cream and buckwheat honey for dessert. David Lebovitz, on his favorites page (updated 2026), calls it
one of my favorite desserts in Paris.
1 - Drink: lait ribot, Breton buttermilk. David Lebovitz ordered two bowls of it in 2008 and called it his favorite of the drinks. Pick the bowl up and drink from it, as he did.2
What locals & experts say
- Alexander Lobrano, Eater (guide updated June 2026):
Go for the galette stuffed with smoked herring and potato, followed by the matcha, white chocolate, and strawberry crepe.
6
Good to know
- Booking: book online through breizhcafe.com or call 01 42 72 13 77.9 Sara Lieberman of The Infatuation:
The Marais location is probably the only one of the nine in Paris where you do need a reservation because it's so small.
5 - When: open every day from morning to late evening in September 2026.9
Verdict
could-visit — Go for Breton buckwheat galettes, starting with the complète (ham, cheese, egg), and drink the buttermilk from its bowl. Paris by Mouth's praise had cooled between 2022 and 2025. This branch is small, so reserve.