Villa9Trois, Montreuil's star-spangled new institution

Montreuil institution Villa9Trois is getting a new lease on life under the impetus of young chef Camille Saint-M'Leux, who has decided to wipe the slate clean.

The Paris suburbs, too, have some lovely addresses for gourmets. On the heights of Montreuil, the Villa9Trois restaurant has been a Montreuil institution for 30 years. For the year 2022, it has given itself a facelift with the arrival of a new chef, Camille Saint-M'Leux .

A graduate of theEcole Ferrandi, the 27-year-old chef trained with the very best: Arnaud Pitrois at Le Clos des Gourmets, Alain Solivérès and François Daubinet at Le Taillevent, Michael Bartocetti at L'Abeille, and of course Christian Le Squer at Le Cinq, the George V's starred restaurant. Camille Saint-M'Leux stepped out from behind those stoves with the desire to offer committed, responsible cuisine, and Villa9trois, which had been stuck in French "tratra" cuisine for several years, was the perfect address to carry out his project.

As soon as you arrive at Villa9trois, this new way of doing things is immediately apparent, with the installation of a vegetable and herb garden, a chicken coop and a citrus greenhouse on the restaurant's extensive grounds, all of which serve as pantries for the restaurant's kitchens.

Ideas are teeming in the mind of the young chef, assisted by Curtis Fallourd, who also worked at Le Cinq, and the restaurant's beautiful outdoor space, with its green alleys and large terrace that we can already imagine will be very busy next summer, allows him to express them unreservedly.

The Villa9trois menu features gourmet dishes that pay tribute to French cuisine from a modern, rejuvenated angle, and are available in 4-course (59€), 6-course (79€) or à la carte menus. On the menu, for example, a very naughty suckling pig from the Châteauneuf farm, served with cabbage and ribot milk (32€); sweetbreads (42€), prepared not snacked as is customary in restaurants, but au gratin with old Comté cheese and colorful cauliflower; or the chef's flagship dish: Châteauneuf beef and smoked herring roe, covered in a shimmering veil of dried ink.

In addition to these fine cuts of meat, the Villa9trois menu also showcases some of the finest se afood available, such as the Roscoff spider crab, just seasoned and in an aniseed broth (22€), the glazed sea urchin, bacon confit and cauliflower, or the excellent pollack from a small boat, cooked with mother-of-pearl and accompanied by a delicious braised endive and sunflower praline.

For desserts, Chef Saint-M'Leux enlisted the help of Silicien pastry chef Aldo Gennuso, who trained at Maison Astor and Loiseau Rive Gauche. We discover the pastry chef's sweet expertise in his Palerme-Turin (18€), like a journey to Italy, around bitter orange, gianduja and Piedmont hazelnut; a success.

A lovely montreuilloise address that's definitely living a second youth!

This test was conducted as part of a professional invitation. If your experience differs from ours, please mention it in the comments.