La Cantine Chinoise, Belleville's excellent Chinese restaurant

With its unmistakable storefront, La Cantine Chinoise is a Belleville institution. What's more, the restaurant has been run by the same family for over 20 years! Never dared take the plunge? Come on, we'll take you with us to discover what La Cantine Chinoise has in store for you!

La Cantine Chinoise is divided into three services: on the one hand, a small bakery corner with freshly baked brioches, breads and doughnuts. Secondly, a catering service to take home a multitude of tasty dishes (and thus delight the whole family). And last but not least, there's a real canteen where you can sit on your hungry butt.

Here, the culinary specialtiesare those of Wenzhou, a city in south-eastern China. But you can also find dishes from other regions of the Middle Kingdom. And of course, it's all homemade!

When it comes to drinks, originality reigns supreme, with beverages you won't find anywhere else: sparkling lychee juice, iced café-bing, traditional drink made with azuki and coconut milk, traditional drink infused with smoked plums... Original!

And when it comes to food, it's a parade of goodies. If you don't know what to choose, let the bosses guide you. They always know how to find that little something that will tantalize your taste buds. Ravioli, egg rolls, tempura, woks, kaifans, tanmians... We've got a whole host of delicious discoveries in store for you!

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For our part, we start our dinner with the inevitable jiaozi (3.5€), grilled ravioli with pork, mushrooms and chives, in a generous, plump format, and with a good handful ofedamame (4.5€). We also fall for the steamed shrimp wonton ravioli (8.5€) coated in a delicious chili sauce, peanuts and coriander. A real treat! We're also tempted by the delicious pork or vegetarian baos.

Next up is liangpi (9€), a wide rice noodle eaten cold, with cucumber, tofu fritters, lots of peanuts and coriander, and a spicy sauce (but not too spicy either, we reassure sensitive palates). And then, because of the bad weather, we couldn't imagine not tasting the soups at the Cantine Chinoise. So we opt for the soumi bacon (9.5€), a traditional soup of fine vermicelli with Chinese wine (yes, yes), vegetables, Chinese bacon and two flat eggs on top. A real treat.

And since we're off to a good start, we'll also try some of La Cantine Chinoise's divinely prepared vegetable dishes: on the one hand, enoki mushrooms sautéed with garlic and soy sauce (8.5€), and on the other, what's proving to be La Cantine Chinoise's cult dish - and we now understand why, so many of us have been re-ga-lous: Chinese eggplant (10€) simmered Hongshao style with garlic, on a bed of fragrant rice. Don't skip this dish, it's excellent. Those brave enough not to be afraid of spice will be tempted by the delicious Sis Huan fish or the Banmian Bœuf, noodles sautéed with spicy beef.

In short, with dishes accessible to all budgets, generous quantities and flavors that truly take us on a journey, we can't recommend a visit to the Cantine Chinoise enough!

Please note that it's been over 4 years since our last visit, so the place and experience may have changed.

This test was conducted as part of a professional invitation. If your experience differs from ours, please let us know.