Frenchie
Grégory Marchand, who opened Frenchie in 2009, learned to cook in the kitchen of the orphanage in Nantes where he grew up.1
Why go
Jamie Oliver gave Marchand the nickname Frenchie in London when Marchand was 15.1 He went on to cook at Gramercy Tavern in New York, Oliver's Fifteen in London and the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong.2 He came back from New York in the 2008 crash. I had no job, no money. It was in the middle of the sub-prime crisis of 2008,
he told Surface in 2026.1 I said, 'you know what, I'm going to open my restaurant!'
1 He opened a 24-seat room on rue du Nil in 2009, and a line of 100 people soon formed outside. Anthony Bourdain came to film No Reservations before the MICHELIN Guide gave Frenchie a star ten years after it opened.1
Marchand cooks one tasting menu and keeps changing it: 'Simplexity,' I call it. We think about the menu constantly. We change one dish after another based on product availability. And we never do the same dish twice.
1 Most of the vegetables come from a farm outside Paris that he co-founded.1 The farm is also where the menu hits us,
he told Surface. It's ever-changing with micro-seasons, some as short as two weeks.
1 The MICHELIN inspectors name La Ferme de l'Envol and Terroirs d'Avenir among the kitchen's suppliers.2
Gault&Millau's critic wrote in a review dated 2026: Every visit remains a pleasure, despite the crowds and the somewhat elitist, Parisian vibe, because the atmosphere is always cheerful and the cuisine is meticulously prepared by a chef who leaves nothing to chance.
3
Order this / avoid
The menu is set and no dish repeats, so these are dishes the kitchen has served.
- On the menu: the banoffee (banana and toffee), a signature in all of Marchand's restaurants. Le Fooding, at an older lunch:
a banoffee pie that was given a superb Frenchie twist: a crispy chocolate and pecan crumble coated with dulce de leche mousse and paired with an intense banana sorbet.
61 - On the menu: a truffled potato and celeriac feuilleté (puff pastry). Daryl and Mindi Hirsch of 2foodtrippers, posted 2022:
ridiculously tasty.
7 - Drink: the pairing. Meg Zimbeck, Paris by Mouth, 2023:
The optional wine pairings are usually excellent.
5 Gault&Millau in 2026 found Montcalmès by the glass and an extra-brut from Lassaigne on the list.3
Good to know
- Price and length: Gault&Millau counted seven courses for 150 euros in 2026. In February 2025 Sortiraparis, dining as the restaurant's guest, had five courses for 145. Ask how many courses when you book.34
- Days: dinner only, Monday to Friday, as of 2023 and 2025.54
- Booking: book online or call +33 1 40 39 96 19.5 The Hirsches booked a couple of weeks ahead for their dinner.7
- No table? Marchand opened Frenchie Bar à Vins across the street as
a bar where people can wait and have a glass of wine with a bit of food.
Two weeks after it opened, he said, it had a queue of its own.1
Verdict
should-visit — Book Frenchie for Grégory Marchand's one tasting menu, changed dish by dish from the vegetables of the farm he co-founded, in a small room. It served dinner only on weekdays in 2025, and the menu was seven courses for 150 euros in 2026.