Au Fil du Zinc

A Wine Town's Most Considered Table

Chablis draws visitors primarily for its vineyards: the Kimmeridgian limestone slopes that produce the appellation's characteristically lean, mineral Chardonnay. The restaurants that serve those visitors tend to divide into two camps: casual wine-bar annexes designed to shift bottles alongside charcuterie, and more formal dining rooms that pitch themselves at coach-tour lunch crowds. Au Fil du Zinc, on Rue des Moulins near the centre of town, occupies a more precise position than either. It operates at the creative end of the regional bistro tradition, where sourcing specificity and kitchen craft matter more than setting formality or portion volume.

That positioning is increasingly common in smaller French appellation towns, where a single ambitious chef can reset the expectations of a dining room that might otherwise coast on location. The pattern is visible elsewhere in provincial France: a new owner-chef arrives, tightens the supply chain, sharpens the menu, and earns Michelin recognition within a year or two of the transition. At Au Fil du Zinc, that recognition came in the form of a Michelin Plate in 2024, awarded to Mathieu Sagardoytho following his takeover of the address.

Sourcing as Editorial Statement

The clearest signal of how Sagardoytho approaches his kitchen is in the provenance specificity attached to the menu. Mackerel from Trinité-sur-Mer on the Breton coast, lamb from Clavisy farm, plums from Yonne: these are not generic regional gestures but named-source ingredients that imply active supplier relationships and a willingness to build a menu around what those relationships make available rather than around what a conventional French bistro is expected to serve.

This kind of sourcing discipline has become the defining characteristic of France's serious mid-market creative restaurants in the 2020s. The model is not the three-Michelin-star laboratory — places like Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen or Mirazur in Menton operate at a different scale and price register entirely. Nor is it the heritage institution, in the tradition of Auberge de l'Ill or Paul Bocuse. The relevant peer set for Au Fil du Zinc is the growing cohort of chef-owner bistros working at the €€€ price point where ingredient integrity and personal vision do the work that theatre and tableside service do at the leading end. For comparison at the mountain creative end of that tradition, Flocons de Sel in Megève and Bras in Laguiole demonstrate how deep regional rootedness and kitchen creativity can coexist at different altitudes and price points.

The mirin-marinated mackerel that appears in the Michelin description is worth pausing on: it signals a kitchen comfortable with light Japanese technique as a flavouring tool, which places Sagardoytho's approach in a generation of French chefs who absorbed Japanese culinary influence without making it a concept. That crossover has become fluent enough in contemporary French creative cooking that it no longer reads as fusion; it reads as a seasoned chef's natural vocabulary. For a contrasting take on where that Nordic-Japanese-French creative thread leads at the leading of the market, the work at Frantzén in Stockholm and its Dubai outpost FZN by Björn Frantzén is instructive, even if the scale is entirely different.

The Wine List in Context

Chablis restaurants often carry wine lists that are, in practice, Chablis lists: a row of Premier Crus, a few Grand Crus, and a token selection from the rest of Burgundy and occasionally elsewhere. The wine program at Au Fil du Zinc is described as a remarkable list of Chablis alongside other Burgundies, which in context suggests a list with genuine depth across the appellation and meaningful selection from the Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune rather than a cursory nod toward Chambolle or Gevrey.

For visitors in Chablis primarily for the wine, this matters. A serious list attached to a creative kitchen is a more complete proposition than a serious list attached to a conventional bistro menu, and in a town where many dining options are weighted toward the latter, Au Fil du Zinc occupies a specific gap. Those travelling specifically to explore Burgundy's broader range of creative cooking might also consider Troisgros in Ouches or the technically ambitious Assiette Champenoise in Reims, though both operate at higher price points and in different appellation contexts.

Where It Sits in the Chablis Dining Picture

The Chablis restaurant scene is small enough that individual openings shift the overall character noticeably. Au Fil du Zinc, with its Michelin Plate recognition and sourcing-led menu, sits at the serious creative end of the local offer. Visitors who want a more casual wine-and-food experience in town have other options: Les Trois Bourgeons and Chablis Wine Not each approach the local food-and-wine proposition from a different angle. For a fuller picture of what Chablis offers across restaurants, bars, hotels, wineries, and experiences, see our full Chablis restaurants guide, our full Chablis bars guide, our full Chablis hotels guide, our full Chablis wineries guide, and our full Chablis experiences guide.

For those comparing Au Fil du Zinc with ambitious French creative cooking operating at full tilt, it is worth being clear about the difference in register. Places like AM par Alexandre Mazzia in Marseille push into conceptual territory that a €€€ chef-owner bistro in a small Burgundian wine town has neither the mandate nor the market to pursue. Au Fil du Zinc's value is exactly that it does not try to be those places: it is a tightly run, ingredient-serious creative restaurant in a setting where that level of kitchen intent is genuinely rare.

Planning a Visit

The restaurant is at 18 Rue des Moulins in the centre of Chablis, direct to reach from the main village on foot. The Michelin Plate recognition and a 4.7 rating across 653 Google reviews suggest consistent demand, and advance reservations are advisable, particularly for weekend dinners during the spring and autumn harvest season when wine tourism in the appellation peaks. The €€€ price point places it above casual lunch territory but well below the grand tasting-menu tier; diners should plan for a full evening rather than a quick meal. No phone or website information is held in our current records, so booking through a third-party reservation platform or by direct contact via email is the practical route to securing a table.

What Should I Eat at Au Fil du Zinc?

The Michelin Plate citation references three dishes that anchor the kitchen's identity: mackerel from Trinité-sur-Mer marinated in mirin, lamb from Clavisy farm, and plums from Yonne. These named-source preparations are the clearest expression of how Sagardoytho constructs a menu: around specific producers and seasonal availability rather than around a fixed canon of signature dishes. If those ingredients are on the menu during your visit, they are the logical place to start understanding what the kitchen is doing. The wine list, with its depth in Chablis and broader Burgundy, is a serious accompaniment, and asking for pairing guidance with the current menu is likely to yield a more interesting result than working through the list independently.