Le Bélisaire : the 15th arrondissement’s best-kept secret
Matthieu opened Le Bélisaire in 2001, on a quiet street in the 15th arrondissement that has no particular reason to attract attention. It has never needed one.
He arrived in Paris by way of Brittany — trained first under Jean-Pierre Crouzil in Plancoët, then under Gérard Besson in Paris, a specialist in game and truffle who understood that French cooking is, at its core, about product.
Matthieu understood this too. He still does.
What the kitchen produces
The menu at Bélisaire changes with what arrives. Pot-au-feu tout cochon on a cold Tuesday.
A fine tarte of foie gras and cèpes when the season allows. A back of hake prepared the way Brittany prepares it — which is to say, without interference.
The fish is always worth ordering. Matthieu sources it daily through Laurent Daniel, a mareyeur based in Finistère whose catches arrive from the Pays Bigouden — one of the most prized fishing territories in Brittany, where the Atlantic dictates the menu before the chef does. He is Breton. The supply chain makes sense.
The room is bright and joyful. The service is the kind that knows when to be present and when to leave you alone.
Reservations are essential. The regulars have learned this.
Le Bélisaire — 2 rue Marmontel, 75015 Paris
Magnum 150cl : a different register, the same honesty
A few years ago, Matthieu opened a second table — this time in the 17th arrondissement, facing the rotonde of Parc Monceau. Magnum 150cl is a different kind of place.
Where Bélisaire is precise and intimate, Magnum is generous and open.
In Matthieu’s own words: “Il y a un côté hyper friendly : on peut venir seul ou à plusieurs. C’est un restaurant plus libre, qui reflète ma personnalité.”
The food and the wine
The plates here are designed for sharing — exceptional artisanal charcuterie from the Tarn, oysters from Carnac that bear no resemblance to the oysters you find in tourist restaurants, vegetables that have actually been thought about.
The kind of meal that makes you understand why French food has the reputation it does, before that reputation was diluted by convenience.
The wine list is natural, serious, and served — as the name suggests — in Magnum. Frédéric Cossard, Adrien Berlioz, Patrick Bouju: vignerons who work their vines the way a kitchen should work its products, with attention and without shortcuts.
Magnum 150cl — 1 rue de Phalsbourg, 75017 Paris. Open 7 days, lunch and dinner.
What comes next: a table closer to the tide
Those who know Matthieu’s cooking understand that its soul has always been Atlantic. The iodine in the air, the precision of a good mareyeur, the fish that arrives before the city is fully awake — these are not incidental details. They are the point.
His next chapter makes that explicit. Together with a group of partners, Matthieu is developing a new restaurant — this time by the sea, closer still to the source. The details remain his to share. But the direction is clear: a table where the ocean is not an ingredient, but the premise.
It is, in its way, a logical conclusion to everything Le Bélisaire has always been.
What these two restaurants tell you about Paris
Most cities have restaurants. Paris has a certain kind of chef — one who opens a table in an unlikely street, cooks what he believes in, and builds, over two decades, a clientele that does not need to be told where to go. They know.
Matthieu Garrel is that kind of chef. Le Bélisaire and Magnum 150cl are that kind of table. They do not appear at the top of every list. They appear at the top of the right ones.
If your visit to Paris includes the question of where to eat well — genuinely well, without performance or artifice — these are the addresses I give.
→ Further reading: Paris and public art — the city as an open-air museum
→ Plan your visit: Private experiences in Paris
No two meals are the same.
