Le Maquis

53 rue des Cloÿs, 75018 Paris

You don’t spend a lot of time thinking about Corsican food. Nobody does. Le Maquis makes you realize what you’re missing. We ordered the special of the day which was rabbit. When it arrives, it’s unmistakably itself. Braised or stewed, the meat is lean but deeply flavored, perfumed with rosemary, garlic, olives, and wine. It tastes like something that lived outdoors. The sauce is rich and assertive, clinging rather than pooling, demanding bread and attention. This is rabbit cooked by people who understand that restraint is earned, not assumed.

Other dishes orbit the same philosophy: sausages with snap and funk, beans cooked into submission, vegetables treated as accomplices rather than decoration. Everything tastes rooted—food with dirt still under its fingernails. Have some Corsican wine, you’ll wonder why you don’t drink it all the time. A true gem on the hill.