Paris, renowned for its diverse culinary landscape, has increasingly embraced the rich and varied flavors of Africa. With the growing influence of African immigrants and a new generation of chefs, African cuisine is taking center stage in the City of Lights. Let's explore some of the best African restaurants in Paris, from traditional eateries to innovative fusion spots.
Little Africa: La Goutte d’Or
The 18th arrondissement, known as "La Goutte d’Or" or "the drop of gold," is a cosmopolitan neighborhood that showcases African culture through its numerous shops and restaurants. At Mama Kossa, the mantra "food, culture, love" is embodied in every dining experience. The staff ensures your experience embodies their "food, culture, love" mantra. This includes dining on succulent fare, like Ndolé Gambas, an aromatic Cameroonian spinach and shrimp stew. Cultures synergize from the kitchen to the crowd-pleasing R&B brunch, making it easy to see how they’ve built a loyal following.
Beyond Little Africa: Culinary Hotspots
Outstanding African restaurants extend beyond Little Africa. Bates suggests visiting Villa Masai, a West African-focused restaurant in the 2nd arrondissement that has served music industry greats like Burna Boy and DJ Khalid. It’s also well known for its sultry ambiance, stunning Afro-centric decor, consistent food, lovely cocktails, social media photo worthiness and weeknights filled with live music. Babylone Bis, also located in the 2nd arrondissement, is an Afro-Caribbean fusion restaurant with a deceptively simple menu and laid-back atmosphere.
Michelin Stars and Modern Flavors
MoSuke, headed by Chef Mory Sacko, won France’s first-ever Michelin Star for Central and West African cuisine in 2021. BMK Paris Bamako, is in the 10th arrondissement. The lively atmosphere complements the colorful and flavorful food influenced by various African countries. You can also purchase spreads made from pineapple, ginger, and passionfruit. The final recommendation from Bates is Waly-Fay, a Senegalese restaurant that pays homage to pan-African culture and artists from varying mediums. A unique feature of the locale is the artisan bread shop serving pillowy and crusty loaves of bread. African restaurants in Paris cater to an array of palates.
Mory Sacko: A Culinary Innovator
‘Fusion’ is a word Mory Sacko has banned from his vocabulary. “We don’t blend gastronomies - it’s more of a dialogue between different cultures,” he says of Mosuke, his first restaurant, which opened its doors in Paris in 2020. French, African and Japanese cuisines are on the menu and each dish is a triptych of ingredients, flavours and textures. “It’s a cuisine that doesn’t exist anywhere else, because through it I’m telling my own story,” Sacko says. He grew up in the Paris suburb of Seine-et-Marne, where his parents spoke two languages - Soninke and Bambara - at home, and largely cooked West African food. He also tapped into his African heritage through several - failed - attempts at recreating his mother’s mafé (peanut stew).
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Inspired by his childhood passion for Japan, Sacko began experimenting with ingredients such as miso, yuzu and togarashi (a spice blend), which complemented his training in classic French cuisine. It was working with chef Hans Zahner at the Michelin-starred Le Royal Monceau - Raffles Paris, and being challenged to create a new dish, that really sparked a fire within him. “I started thinking gastronomy and going to sleep imagining dishes,” Sacko says.
Wanting to devote more time to experimenting and developing his own style of cuisine, Sacko opened Mosuke. The restaurant’s name is a combination of Sacko’s own first name and that of Yasuke, a 16th-century African man - likely from Mozambique - who escaped slavery and became a samurai in feudal Japan. Sacko’s restaurant received its star in 2021. Today, the chef is inspired by fellow Black chefs Marcel Ravin, whose Monte Carlo restaurant Blue Bay received the first of two Michelin stars in 2015, as well as his friend Georgiana Viou, whose Nice restaurant Rouge was awarded one earlier this year.
Part of a new generation ushering cultural diversity into French gastronomy, Sacko is one of few chefs of colour to be in the spotlight in France. He appeared as a contestant on the French edition of Top Chef in 2020 and has starred in his own cooking programme, Cuisine Ouverte (‘Open Kitchen’), which aired this year on French TV. In 2022, Sacko was chosen to cook for President Emmanuel Macron at an Africa-France summit. All this recognition is worlds away from the culinary scene when Sacko was starting out - when he’d look around in vain for Black chef role models.
Senegal-born chef Mory Sacko named young chef of the year
Sustainability and Accessibility
In addition to promoting racial diversity, Sacko is also committed to sustainability. “If we want to keep practising this craft in the next 30 years, we have to find solutions,” he says. For instance, he’s experimenting with making his own miso, rather than ordering it from Japan. Instead of producing it using the traditional koji beans, his team is working on fermenting black-eyed beans, which originate from Africa.Despite running a fine-dining restaurant - and having appeared as the guest chef at luxury brand Louis Vuitton’s Saint-Tropez hotel last summer - it’s important to Sacko that his food is as accessible as possible. That prompted him to launch Mosugo, a street food restaurant that’s also held pop-ups across Paris. The concept is gourmet reimaginings of classic fast food, such as a fried chicken burger with miso mayonnaise, pickled cucumber and Emmental cheese.
The Mainstreaming of African Cuisine
The mainstreaming journey began with pioneering chefs such as Cameroon-born Alexandre Bella Ola, who was the first to popularise African cuisine through TV shows. In his wake, a new generation of diasporic chefs has emerged, many born in France and trained at elite cooking schools such as Lenôtre, Ferrandi and Institut Paul Bocuse.
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| Restaurant | Location | Cuisine | Special Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mama Kossa | 18th arrondissement | Cameroonian | "Food, culture, love" mantra, R&B brunch |
| Villa Masai | 2nd arrondissement | West African | Sultry ambiance, Afro-centric decor |
| MoSuke | N/A | Central and West African | Michelin-starred, Afro-Japanese fusions |
| BMK Paris Bamako | 10th arrondissement | Pan-African | Lively atmosphere, colorful food |
| Waly-Fay | Bastille neighborhood | Senegalese | Homage to pan-African culture |
Most notable was Olivier Thimothée, a man of Martinique-Algerian extraction, who launched his Waly-Fay restaurant in the Bastille neighborhood in 1997. A diverse crowd has kept its industrial-chic interior buzzing ever since. Thimothée’s high bar has inspired other African food masters to raise their game.
Fusion and Innovation
A growing number of entrepreneurs have taken the fusion route. New Soul Food, run by twin brothers Rudy and Joël Laine (Guadeloupean father, Cameroonian mother), began as a food truck planted in the business district La Défense, blaring out music while serving Caribbean-African dishes to a snaking line of customers. The twins have since launched a bricks-and-mortar restaurant, New Soul Food Le Maquis, by Canal Saint-Martin in the trendy 10th arrondissement. Amid hip Afro interiors, waiters wearing ‘Black Food Matters’ T-shirts serve dishes such as braised chicken with attiéké, candied tomatoes and ‘Afropean’ yassa sauce.
A Focus on Health and Nutrition
Aistou also runs a cookery school to teach innovative ways of cooking with them. She says that in the past three years, mainstream supermarkets have begun stocking African ingredients such as okra, scotch bonnet chillies and fonio, an ancient African grain. Many on the scene believe the continent can lead the way in nutritional health. Cameroonian-born Nathalie Brigaud Ngoum agrees about the health focus.
Exploring North African Flavors
The moment we decided to have North African food for dinner on Friday night the puzzle begun. Where to go? Direction: L’Atlantide, Parc Buttes Chaumont, the 19th arrondissement! Upon our arrival at L’Atlantide I felt right away that the restaurant may be Algerian. The menu pointed toward Kabylie: it is not in many restaurants that one can find a typical Kabylie couscous dish called Ameqful where semolina is steam-cooked with seven different types of vegetables and mixed with olive oil in the end.
The server confirmed that the restaurant is Kabylie, and specifically from Tizi Ouzou. My husband promised to taste Ameqful the next time and opted instead for Seksu, which is a more common couscous dish of vegetable stew served with lamb, grilled chicken and merguez sausages. I hesitated between a fresh vegetable tajine and a dried fruit tajine, and chose the latter. The accompanying grilled almonds, onion confit, dried raisins and prunes married well with the lamb, and the Moroccan red Guerrouane, Les Trois Domaines 2011, had a hint of the Mediterranean sun in it. L’Atlantide: 7 Avenue de Laumière, 75019 Paris. 01-42450981.
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