Chez Janou

About Chez Janou

Chez Janou has poured pastis and plated southern-France cooking on a quiet Marais corner since 1996, a two-minute walk from Place des Vosges. Named after its founder, a former restaurant critic, it trades on warmth rather than ceremony: a tin-topped bar, chalkboard menus and a southern accent in the middle of the 3rd arrondissement. The draw is generous Provençal plates at bistro prices — main courses run €20 to €30 — capped by a bowl of chocolate mousse the kitchen simply leaves on your table.

The Kitchen

The kitchen cooks the south of France straight: French Provençal classics built on tomato, garlic, anise and olive oil. The signature is gambas flambées au pastis — prawns flamed in pastis and served with anise-scented rice — alongside gratinéed mussels, farcis provençaux and a sea bass fillet finished with tapenade purée. Behind the bar sits the house obsession: a collection of more than 80 pastis, the largest you will find in central Paris, served as an aperitif or over ice with the meal.

Then there is the mousse. The chocolate mousse arrives in a vast communal bowl with a serving spoon, and you take as much as you like — a ritual that has drawn queues since the bowl went viral online. A weekday lunch formula runs about €18, with à la carte starters €12 to €14, so two can eat and drink well for well under what the smarter Marais tables charge.

The Room

The room is small, low-lit and loud in the best way — closely spaced tables, mirrored walls, vintage Ricard signage and a hum of conversation that rises through service. There are perhaps fifty covers inside plus a handful of coveted terrace tables on the pedestrian corner of Rue Roger Verlomme. Lighting is candle-and-bulb warm; the dress code is none in particular, though Parisians turn up looking sharp-casual. Book ahead, because the corner tables go first and walk-ins often wait.