The story
Chakaiseki Akiyoshi, at 59 rue Letellier in Paris's 15th arrondissement, is a Japanese kaiseki restaurant that earned one Michelin star in 2026. The room seats only a handful of guests each day, and the meal unfolds as a sequence of small, deliberate courses.
Yuichiro Akiyoshi trained for ten years at Hyotei, a three-star Michelin restaurant in Kyoto. He later served Japanese cuisine as head chef at the OECD embassy in Paris for three years. His kaiseki follows the seasons and avoids heavy seasoning, so each ingredient keeps its own flavour. The menu changes every month.
The Le Fooding listing describes a slow progression of courses. Amberjack sashimi arrives under ponzu jelly with spinach and tofu, followed by a white miso soup with butternut tofu tempura. A slice of grouper, marinated and grilled over binchotan charcoal, comes next, then mackerel maki wrapped in nori and shiso. The meal closes with matcha from Marukyu Koyamaen and a red bean ball.
Japanese sukiya carpenters built the interior, which is designed as a tea house. Guests choose between a chef's counter, where the cooking happens face to face, a tea ceremony counter, and a table suited to parties of more than two. Music is absent from the room, so the sound of water coming to a boil and the kitchen itself become part of the meal.
Recognition
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High quality cooking
In search of lost time? You’ll (re)discover it to be deliciously slow-moving at the bar of this meditative cha-kaiseki restaurant, the first establishment dedicated to the cult of tea in all of France, cleverly hidden behind a discreet wooden facade on an otherwise unremarkable street in the 15th arrondissement. At the entrance of this monastic cocoon of a space that welcomes in only a handful of guests each day, Misuzu Akiyoshi, the vaporous hostess dressed in a traditional kimono, rings the gong to announce the deeply ceremonial meal. The “small” menu crafted by her husband Yuichiro (ex-Hyotei in Kyoto), served away from the hustle and bustle of the city, featured all of the following, after a ritualistic flavored water: elegant amberjack sashimi topped with ponzu jelly and paired with spinach and tofu; a ghostly white miso soup with clouds of butternut tofu tempura; a slice of marinated grouper grilled over binchotan charcoal; a dashi broth with a delicate scallop and shrimp ball; grilled mackerel maki rolled up in a double layer of nori and shiso; an intriguing chilled turnip under a thick layer of sesame and silky tofu sauce; a bowl of rice topped with grilled sardines, swimming in a spicy broth dotted with puffed rice and a trio of daikon radish, cucumber and kombu tsukemono pickles; before the highly anticipated Ousu, Marukyu Koyamaen matcha paired with a red bean ball. Do the minutes that pass more slowly have more flavor? You’ll have two hours to decide. // Sofia Sétif
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