The story
Rhizome is a modern bistro at 6 rue des Pâtissiers in Compiègne, France, cooking with produce from the Hauts-de-France region. Michelin lists it as Recommended (2026), and Le Fooding included it in its 2026 selection.
Samuel Fontaine leads the kitchen and Claire Lefort runs the front of house. Both grew up in the Aisne and trained at Mère Brazier in Lyon, Saturne in Paris, Auberge du Vert Mont in Boeschepe and Bacchanales in Vence. The restaurant opened in 2018 as a locavore kitchen. Its ingredients come from farms within 200 kilometres of Compiègne, grown organically or responsibly.
The menus change with the season and with what arrives from local farms. Recent lunch and dinner lists have included courgette salad with haddock and basil, free-range chicken with turnips, broad beans and herb butter, and artichoke barigoule with chervil and local speck panna cotta. The dinner menu, served in three courses for 63 euros, also features beef tataki with kimchi and duck breast with peas and rhubarb. A weekday lunch costs 35 euros, and a children's dinner is 29 euros.
The room has almond green walls, brick, a small glass roof and light oak tables, a setting Le Fooding describes as cosy. Diners often mention the calm atmosphere and attentive service. The restaurant also runs a wine shop selling organic and biodynamic bottles, with local beers and farm juices from the Ferme des Charmettes.
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Rhizome? It’s a bundle of roots! And knowing your roots is important at this cozy neo-bistro which serves ingredients bearing the Hauts-de-France stamp (pork from Picardy, chicken from Le Petit Bocage, organic vegetables from Pierre Chabrol, cheeses from the Ferme de Berneuil…) in a space decked out with almond green tones, brick walls, a mini glass roof and light oak tables… And the same goes for Aisne natives Samuel Fontaine (in the kitchen) and Claire Lefort (front of house), who trained at Mère Brazier in Lyon, Saturne in Paris, Auberge du Vert Mont in Boeschepe and Bacchanales in Vence. The other day at lunch, after a cream of Soissons beans for the regionalist prelude: a peeled tomato salad mixed with smoked duck breast from the Ferme des Charmettes, and moistened by some stunningly complex tomato water poured from a jug; veal rump served pink with new potatoes, where the bitter (homemade) veal jus and the crisp purslane matched perfectly with the sweetness from the eggplant caviar; and, just as impressive as the rest, a farm-fresh yogurt mousse with the first poached plums of the season, served with homemade meadowsweet ice cream. Enough to keep you satisfied until the fall – apples, mushrooms and, who knows, wild game… // G.D.
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