Restaurant in Paris, France
Honest Northern Vietnamese at a fair price.
A Michelin Plate-recognised Northern Vietnamese restaurant in Paris's 2nd arrondissement, run by a Hanoi-born couple and rated 4.7 from over 1,200 Google reviews. At the € price tier, it delivers focused, carefully sourced cooking — phở and pork nems with mắm sauce — that punches well above its price point. Book several days ahead; this room fills consistently.
The common assumption about Vietnamese food in Paris is that you need to head to the 13th arrondissement to eat well. Mắm From Hanoï, at 39 Rue de Cléry in the 2nd, corrects that directly. This is a single-price-tier (€) Northern Vietnamese restaurant run by a Hanoi-born couple, earning a Michelin Plate in 2024 and a Google rating of 4.7 from over 1,200 reviews — numbers that reflect genuine repeat custom, not viral novelty. If you are after bona fide Northern Vietnamese cooking in central Paris, this is where to book. If you want to compare it to Pho Tai, another Vietnamese address in the city, Mắm From Hanoï wins on regional specificity: the focus here is Northern Vietnam, and the menu reflects that with unusual discipline.
Northern Vietnamese cooking is less sweet and less herb-heavy than the southern style most Parisians know from the 13th. The phở here is described in the Michelin record as slightly salty, lighter on the palate, and more easily digestible , the kind of broth that tastes like it has been built carefully rather than assembled from shortcuts. The mắm sauce (a fish-based condiment central to Hanoi's culinary identity) appears across the menu and gives the kitchen its name, which is itself a statement of intent. The pork nems served with that mắm sauce are flagged as not-to-be-missed in the Michelin citation, and the sourcing , French vegetables and meats, rigorously selected , means the kitchen is doing something more considered than the price point might suggest at first glance.
For a special occasion dinner or an intimate date in the 2nd arrondissement, this works well precisely because it does not try to be more than it is. The cooking is focused, the menu tight, and the execution consistent enough to have earned Michelin recognition at the € price tier , a combination that is harder to achieve than it sounds. If your occasion calls for spectacle and extensive front-of-house ceremony, look elsewhere. If it calls for a genuinely good meal at an honest price, with the kind of kitchen confidence that comes from cooking food you grew up eating, Mắm From Hanoï delivers.
The Michelin record advises booking several days in advance, and at this price point in a neighbourhood like Sentier , now one of the busiest dining districts in central Paris , that advice is worth taking seriously. The restaurant pulls consistent volume: 1,200-plus Google reviews at 4.7 is not a quiet room. For a special occasion meal, booking midweek gives you the leading chance of a relaxed pace; weekend evenings fill faster and the room will be louder. There is no phone number or website in the current record, so your leading route is to book in person or via whatever reservation platform the restaurant uses locally , arriving without a reservation, especially on a weekend, is a gamble not worth taking.
The Sentier neighbourhood in the 2nd is well-served by public transport (Sentier and Bonne Nouvelle metro stations are both close), and the surrounding streets have enough bar and café options that arriving early for a drink before your table is direct. For a broader picture of what else is worth your time in the area, see our full Paris restaurants guide, our full Paris bars guide, and our full Paris hotels guide.
At the € price tier, the service model here is not the kind that involves multiple staff members per table, extensive wine pairings, or tableside theatre. That is not a criticism , it is a description of what you are buying. The Michelin Plate recognition signals that the food quality clears the bar for recommendation, and the 4.7 rating across more than 1,200 reviews suggests the overall experience lands consistently. For a special occasion that calls for warmth and authenticity over formal choreography, the service approach at Mắm From Hanoï is appropriate to the room and the cooking. Do not come expecting the front-of-house depth of a grand brasserie; do come expecting a kitchen that takes its food seriously.
If your occasion genuinely requires full-service ceremony and a lengthy wine list, Paris has no shortage of that at every price point , including Michelin-recognised rooms like Kei in the 1st, which bridges French and Japanese cooking at the €€€€ tier. For a date or celebration where the food itself is the point and the bill is not the memory, Mắm From Hanoï is the smarter call.
Paris's Vietnamese restaurant scene is largely concentrated in the 13th, and most of it skews southern Vietnamese. Mắm From Hanoï's Northern focus makes it a different proposition , the phở and the mắm-centred menu are not what you find at the average bowl-and-banh-mi operation. For context on Vietnamese cooking at a similar level of seriousness in other cities, Tầm Vị in Hanoi and Camille in Orlando offer useful reference points for what skilled Vietnamese cooking looks like beyond Paris.
For France's broader high-end dining picture, Pearl covers celebrated rooms including Mirazur in Menton, Flocons de Sel in Megève, Troisgros in Ouches, Auberge de l'Ill in Illhaeusern, Bras in Laguiole, and Paul Bocuse in Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or. Also worth your time in Paris if you are exploring the creative end of the fine dining spectrum: Arpège and Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen. You can explore the full picture via our Paris experiences guide and our Paris wineries guide.
Start with the pork nems served with mắm sauce , the Michelin citation calls them not-to-be-missed, and they showcase the fish-based condiment the restaurant is named for. Follow with the phở: this is Northern-style, which means slightly saltier and lighter than the southern version, built for depth rather than sweetness. The menu is focused rather than extensive, so the leading approach is to order what you came for: the nems, the phở, and the mắm sauce across both.
Book several days in advance , the Michelin record is explicit about this, and the 1,200-plus Google reviews at 4.7 confirm it is a consistently full room. The cuisine is Northern Vietnamese, which is a meaningfully different style from the southern Vietnamese food most Paris visitors know: expect less sweetness, less herb volume, and more restrained, salinity-forward flavour. The price tier is €, which means this is genuinely affordable for central Paris, and the Michelin Plate (2024) confirms the kitchen is doing something worth the trip. It is located in the Sentier neighbourhood of the 2nd arrondissement, well connected by metro.
There is no confirmed bar seating in the current venue record. Given the restaurant's format , a focused Vietnamese kitchen in a busy Sentier address at the € price tier , it is more likely a standard table-service setup than a counter dining operation. If bar or counter seating matters to your visit, it is worth asking when you book or when you arrive. Walk-in bar seating without a reservation is not something this record can confirm.
The venue record does not include specific dietary restriction information, and there is no website or phone number listed to check directly. Northern Vietnamese cooking relies heavily on fish-based condiments (mắm is a fish sauce/paste), so strict pescatarian, vegetarian, or shellfish-allergy requirements may be difficult to accommodate given the kitchen's core focus. If dietary needs are a factor, the safest approach is to ask in person when booking or on arrival. Do not assume adaptations are available without confirming.
Yes, at the € price tier with a focused menu, solo dining here is a practical and low-pressure option. A single bowl of phở or an order of nems with mắm sauce is exactly the kind of meal that works well alone , no awkward half-portions, no pressure to stretch across a long tasting menu. The Sentier neighbourhood is also well-suited to solo visits: it is active, central, and easy to reach. If solo dining in Paris is your regular mode, see our full Paris restaurants guide for more options across price tiers.
| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mắm From Hanoï | In a corner of the Sentier neighbourhood, this authentic Vietnamese restaurant is a hit, and rightly so (book several days in advance). The Hanoi-born couple at the helm prepare bona fide Northern Vietnamese cuisine – the word mắm refers to a fish-based condiment that is very popular there. The vegetables and meats are of French origin and rigorously selected. Focusing on the essentials, the menu includes the not-to-be-missed pork nems, served with their famous mắm sauce, plus an excellent phở: typical of the North, the soup is slightly salty and all the more easily digestible for it – the quintessence of this aromatic food, which effortlessly fuses simplicity of execution with complexity of flavour.; Michelin Plate (2024) | € | — |
| Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| Kei | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| L'Ambroisie | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| Le Cinq - Four Seasons Hôtel George V | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| Pierre Gagnaire | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.
The phở and the pork nems with mắm sauce are the two dishes the Michelin record calls out specifically, and both reflect the Northern Vietnamese focus of the kitchen. The phở is described as slightly salty and more digestible than southern-style versions — order it as your anchor dish. The nems are listed as not-to-be-missed, so skip them only if pork is off the table for you.
Book several days in advance — the Michelin record flags this explicitly, and the Sentier neighbourhood is one of Paris's busiest dining districts. The cuisine is Northern Vietnamese, which means less sweetness and fewer fresh herbs than the southern style most visitors expect; the flavours are more restrained and aromatic. At the € price tier, this is a focused, no-frills operation, so come for the cooking, not the service theatre.
There is no bar seating documented for Mắm From Hanoï. Given the small, neighbourhood-restaurant format typical of this address and price tier, walk-in counter or bar options are unlikely. Book ahead rather than banking on a casual drop-in.
The menu centres on pork nems and phở, both of which are meat-based, so this is not a strong pick for vegetarians or those avoiding pork. The fish-based mắm condiment is central to the kitchen's identity, which also rules it out for pescatarian-adjacent restrictions. No specific dietary accommodation policy is documented, so check the venue's official channels before visiting if restrictions apply.
Yes — at the € price point with a focused menu built around bowls and nems, solo dining is a natural fit here. A single diner can work through the two headline dishes (phở and pork nems) without over-ordering. Book ahead regardless of group size; the restaurant fills quickly for its category.
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