We’ve rated Mokonuts as GREAT with three stars * * *
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Mokonuts has held a spot on our list of 50 Favorites since the beginning of this list, one of only a handful of Paris restaurants with that sort of staying power. We reviewed it in 2020 before this newsletter existed, and I wanted to return to more fully explain why it has never left the list. I also just wanted to return.
Mokonuts is the work of one married couple: Omar Koreitem cooks the savory side, Moko Hirayama the sweet, and the restaurant carries the “Moko” in her name. Neither came up the conventional way — before food, he coordinated events at Yankee Stadium and she practiced law; they met in New York, taught themselves to cook through restaurant kitchens in London and Paris, and opened this tiny room in December 2015.
Koreitem changes the menu every day and rarely cooks the same dish twice. Hirayama’s desserts are rustic, homey, and deliberately unfussy. The food moves fluidly between France, Koreitem’s Lebanon and Hirayama’s Japan without ever announcing itself as fusion. It is outstanding, and widely praised. I haven’t met a person or media outlet who doesn’t rave about Mokonuts.
Ten years in, the couple could have turned Mokonuts into something bigger — and pointedly haven’t. They still close in the afternoon to collect their daughters, still turn away all but a handful of private evenings, still fit about twenty covers into one bright, blue-fronted room. They’ve built plenty around it — a celebrated cookbook, and two spinoffs in Locomal, a Mexican joint that recently replaced their launch pad Mokoloco, and the all-day café Mokochaya — but the mothership has stayed the same.
These other projects don’t appear to have hurt the original. Their attention doesn’t feel divided, and my most recent lunch at Mokonuts was as great as any I’ve had in the past decade.
THE FOOD
The menu at Mokonuts is short, with just 2-3 starters, a pair of mains, and a handful of desserts.
We skipped the labné (9€) this last time because I’ve had it so often — Koreitem’s Greek-yogurt-and-olive-oil version is always there, always topped with crunchy veg, always delicious.
For this lunch, we dove directly into the prettiest plate of œuf, mousserons, asperges sauvages (16€): a soft, barely-set egg over a tangle of mousserons in a light, brothy sauce, spears of wild asparagus laid across the top, the whole thing dusted with sumac.
Alongside it, a crudo of sériole (16€), the raw fish dressed with purslane, a squeeze of lemon, and the sumac that turns up all over Koreitem’s cooking.
The confit salmon (28€) was beautifully silky — this is the kind of cooking that looks simple and isn't. I've now had it twice from Koreitem's kitchen, and discovered that the recipe is in their new cookbook. I fully intend to fail at making it at home, and to enjoy trying.
The filet de cochon (28€) arrived rosy-pink, sliced over snap peas, green beans and a wedge of grilled sucrine (little gem), all lacquered in a delicious jus. There’s almost always a perfectly juicy cut of pork, lamb, or veal on the menu, served with whatever the season is giving. Koreitem’s cooking has never once been off. This is the most consistent kitchen I’ve encountered.
For dessert, an apricot crostata (11€) with macerated lemon on a flaky, sugar-crusted pastry, and a strawberry, chocolate and buckwheat cake (11€), dark and dense under a quenelle of cream and a scatter of toasted sarrasin — both from Hirayama's rustic hand.
And speaking of that rustic hand: it was still coated in dough as she checked guests in at the start of service — the epitome of hustle hospitality.
THE DRINKS
Wine is a short, natural-leaning list by the glass (11–13€) — the reason to book a table here isn't the cellar, but you can drink well with lunch. Alongside it, a rotating soft du jour (5€) — the day we went, a lemony house seltzer, bright and refreshing and just right for a warm afternoon.
THE VIBE
The room is small and bright: whitewashed brick hung with shelves of natural-wine bottles, mismatched schoolhouse chairs in green and yellow, small raw-wood tables pushed close along a banquette, and a crazy-paved terrazzo floor in ochre and pale blue that catches the window light. Everything you eat arrives on handmade stoneware, earth-toned and a little irregular, no two plates alike. Moko greets everyone; the service is warm rather than quick. In all my visits, I’ve never made it out in under two hours.
As for the neighborhood, Mokonuts sits in a pocket of the southern 11th near Septime and Osteria Ferrara. A decade ago, this area was often described as “far-flung.” Today it’s the epicenter of Paris dining.
THE VERDICT
Ten years and half a dozen visits in, Mokonuts is still one of the most quietly special lunches in Paris — a place for anyone who wants seasonal, daily-changing cooking without a shred of ceremony. Book 4-6 weeks ahead and remember that lunch (their only service) is a leisurely affair. Vegetarians might want to head elsewhere — vegetables shine at Mokonuts, but they don’t always have a vegetarian main. Open Monday!
MOKONUTS
5 Rue Saint-Bernard, 75011
Open Monday-Friday for lunch only
Closed Saturday & Sunday
Reservations online or at +33 9 80 81 82 85
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This is my favorite restaurant in the world. Went again just over a week ago and it just blew us away. We somehow always get to chatting with other diners at Mokonuts. It feels like a pilgrimage to go there and everyone is excited. We’ve seen some pretty high profile chefs dining there over the years. Mad respect for Moko and Omar - they continue to amaze us.
The loveliest review of the loveliest restaurant - xoD