Not too far from the Canal Saint Martin, this slightly hidden restaurant is worth seeking out…

photos : jasonw


Despite what the name might imply, Soya is not actually a 100% organic restaurant or even vegetarian, however a lot of the ingredients are organic (around 80%), the chicken is not factory-farmed and there’s a selection of organic teas and coffees on offer.

They opened late last year, and for the moment serve breakfast (from 8am), lunch and then coffee and tea until 6pm. Hopefully, evening opening should arrive later this Spring. The restaurant is a little hard to spot (there’s no sign outside), but this is probably part of the discrete nature of the place; apart from one large painting, the walls are fairly minimalist, painted in a warm chocolate colour. Light pours in the through the high windows that run along the front of the place, and the high ceiling means that despite the fairly small size of the room you don’t feel constricted.

We decided to try out the reasonably-priced lunch menu (11 euros), which includes either a starter and main course, or a main course and dessert. The choice is small (but sweet) and we opted to skip the starters and go straight for the onion tart ‘and its lovely salad’, which turned out to be lettuce leaves dressed with vinaigrette and sprinkled with sesame seeds and other seeds. Both were suitable tasty.

The choice for dessert was… no choice at all! In fact there was only one dessert dish on offer that day, a caramelised apple cake (not necessarily my favourite dessert). It was served liberally sprinkled with cinnamon and had a side serving of yoghurt and honey. It was actually quite nice, although the serving was a little small (if you check the photo, look at the size of it compared to my teaspoon!).

I finished off with a coffee, and reflected that the meal was perhaps a little ‘light’ for the price, but more or less in line with what is charged elsewhere. The staff were friendly, and it’s nice to see someone take so much effort with the presentation of food. I would definitely recommend it, and look forward to trying out their breakfast menu too!

Check out our Flickr gallery for a few more sweet shots of the restaurant.

Soya, 20 rue de la Pierre Levée, Paris 11th arrondissement.
Open Monday – Saturday, 8am – 6pm. Métro Goncourt (line 11) or Parmentier (line 3)

Bigger map here