At 136 rue Saint-Maur (Paris 11), MAISON LE TE serves a real Taiwanese brunch: warm bao buns, glutinous rice, oolong tea brewed to order. Every day, 11am-10:30pm.
Steamed bao is cooked at the counter throughout service. Soft texture, braised pork or smoked tofu filling.
Ali Shan oolong, Dong Ding, Sun Moon Lake black tea. Imported directly from small Taiwanese growers.
Hsuan-Hsuan Chang, Taiwanese ESCP founder, signs a menu faithful to her family's cuisine in Taipei.
Paris is full of brunches: New York, Californian, Lebanese, Israeli, sometimes Japanese. But the Taiwanese brunch is a category nobody was really doing before MAISON LE TE opened at 136 rue Saint-Maur in the 11th arrondissement. Yet Taiwan has a deeply developed breakfast and brunch culture: morning markets with their bao bun counters, family restaurants serving glutinous rice with peanuts, tea houses extending the meal with high-altitude oolongs. That is the tradition MAISON LE TE has brought to Paris, in a format adapted to the way Parisians brunch: seated for a long time, no fixed slot, a menu you can browse without rushing.
The Taiwanese brunch does not resemble a European brunch. It is built around three main families. The first is steamed bread: gua bao (folded bun with braised pork), mantou (round bun often sweet), shao bing (sesame-layered flatbread). MAISON LE TE prepares gua bao fresh each morning at the counter, filled with slow-braised pork, smoked tofu, or mild curry chicken. The second family is rice: glutinous rice with crushed peanuts, congee (savory rice porridge), sweet rice balls with black sesame. The third is eggs: marbled tea eggs steeped in black tea and spices, salted radish omelette (cai pu dan), poached eggs with light soy sauce.
In Paris, the house adapts these three families into a menu that changes every six to eight weeks. The braised pork is simmered for five hours in a soy-star anise-cinnamon sauce, the recipe from the founder's grandmother. The glutinous rice is served as a bowl with dried radish, crushed peanuts, and a tea egg. Marbled tea eggs appear regularly in the breakfast option. The full menu is on the MAISON LE TE menu page.
In Taiwanese culture, tea is not a side companion to the meal the way coffee is in France. It is the center of the table, around which the dishes are organized. MAISON LE TE respects that logic. The teas served at brunch are high-altitude teas brewed to order, with the temperature and steeping time adapted to each variety. Ali Shan oolong, grown above 1500 meters in the central mountains, offers floral and buttery notes that pair well with sweet dishes like matcha pancakes. Dong Ding, more roasted, works better with savory dishes like the braised pork gua bao. Sun Moon Lake black tea, soft and fruity, bridges salty and sweet in a single cup.
The team often offers a second infusion mid-brunch: the same tea leaves open differently on the second pour, revealing notes you did not catch the first time. It is a rare gesture in Paris brunches, where the teapot is often placed on the table without explanation. Here, the team takes time to describe the terroir, the altitude, the producer. That is what distinguishes a brunch where tea is filler from an authentic Taiwanese brunch.
The MAISON LE TE interior does not look like an Asian canteen in the 13th, and not like a standard Parisian coffee shop either. It sits in between. Exposed brick walls, brass globe pendants, light wood tables come from a reinterpreted Parisian brasserie grammar. The ceramics on the tables, the small tea bowls, the chopsticks beside the cutlery come from a Taiwanese grammar. It is a blend matching the spirit of the house: Franco-Taiwanese, no caricature on either side.
Brunch here happens slowly. The menu lets you order in waves: start with a tea, add a gua bao when the appetite arrives, end with a black sesame dessert and a second tea. No time-slot pressure, no queue forcing you to eat fast. It is one of the rare places in Paris where brunch can last three hours without anyone reminding you the table is needed.
If you are discovering Taiwanese cuisine for the first time, several other pages on the site can extend the exploration. The Taiwanese cuisine in Paris page presents the full set of the house signature dishes, from lunch to dinner. The brunch in the 11th page compares the brunch offer with other addresses in the neighborhood. The Taiwanese restaurant in Paris page presents the house from a full restaurant angle.
For those who would prefer a tea time format rather than brunch, our tea house in the 11th serves the same Taiwanese tea universe with a more developed sweet menu. And to discover our other address, Le Te at the Palais-Royal in the 1st arrondissement plays a more intimate score, no brunch but the same rigorous tea selection.
MAISON LE TE is at 136 rue Saint-Maur, 75011 Paris. Metro Goncourt (line 11) five minutes on foot, Parmentier (line 3) seven minutes. Bus 46 and 96 nearby stops. Brunch is served daily 11am to 10:30pm, no fixed slot. During the week, no need to book. On weekends, especially Saturday and Sunday lunch, better to book a table in advance.
For a group brunch (birthday, family, team), the team can adapt the menu and reserve a table of eight to twelve. Contact via the contact page. Brunch can also be privatized for professional events in mid-morning or evening.
The classic Paris brunch is often a variation around the same blueprint: scrambled eggs, avocado, country bread, fresh juice, coffee. It is good, but it sometimes lacks surprise after ten years of practice. The Taiwanese brunch offers another frame. Bread is steamed rather than toasted. Eggs are marbled in a tea and spice infusion rather than scrambled. Sugar comes from black sesame, taro, yuzu rather than industrial jam. The hot drink is no longer an American filter coffee but an oolong infusion in an individual teapot. It is a complete change of scenery, within a similar meal structure (long meal, two or three plates, a hot drink).
For Asian cuisine enthusiasts already converted, it is also a chance to discover Taiwan, often eclipsed by China and Japan in the Parisian imagination. Taiwanese cuisine is a crossover: southern Chinese influences (Fujian, Canton), Japanese influences (the island was colonized until 1945), Malay and Indonesian influences. The MAISON LE TE brunch tells that crossover story in a few dishes, without a history lecture but with flavors that speak directly.
The Taiwanese brunch revolves around steamed breads (gua bao, mantou), rices (glutinous, congee), marbled tea eggs, and savory-sweet dishes. High-altitude tea plays the central role coffee plays in a European brunch.
Yes. The brunch menu is served daily from 11am to 10:30pm with no fixed slot. You can brunch in early afternoon or in the evening.
The slow-braised pork gua bao, marbled tea eggs, glutinous rice with crushed peanuts, and matcha pancakes are the signatures. The menu rotates every six to eight weeks to follow the seasons.
Yes. The Taiwanese tea menu can be consulted separately. You can come just to drink an Ali Shan or a Dong Ding, without ordering food.
Yes. The smoked tofu gua bao, glutinous rice with black mushrooms, vegetable congee, and several desserts are vegetarian. The team can adapt most dishes on request.