23 Best Restaurants in Paris, France

Don't expect to be mobbed by tourists at this bright café two minutes from the Champs de Mars. Locals love it for the sidewalk terrace and garden seating in the back—not to mention the good coffee, tea, and stellar brunch. Even if you don't snag a seat outside, the charming interior is a cheerful spot to tuck into a heaping plate of eggs Benedict, smoked salmon tartine, or avocado toast. There are also fresh fruit smoothies and home-baked pastries. Its all-day hours (seven days a week) makes it the perfect place for a well-priced lunch or teatime. Reservations are always a good idea, especially on weekends.

California-born chef Gina McLintock's elegant-cozy interiors perfectly echo her scrumptious gourmet bistro fare with an Asian twist. Crowd-pleasers include dishes like delicate pumpkin beignets, rib-eye steak, and a juicy bacon burger. Live jazz on Saturday draws a fun Parisian crowd, and the small terrace is lovely in summer.

Don't let its veneer of a mere neighborhood café mislead you—this is one of the most sought-after tables in the 7e arrondissement and a great option after a visit to the Musée d'Orsay just a few steps away. Jean and Roxane Sévégnès have transformed it into a restaurant Parisians adore, focused on seasonal dishes with a southwest flair that mix traditional recipes, like tripe, tête de veau (veal brains), or that hard-to-find favorite vol au vent (truffled sweetbreads with chicken and spinach in puff pastry) with a contemporary touch. A list of well-chosen wines, including natural and organic choices, and gentle prices for the quality make this a good choice, whether you happen to be in the neighborhood or not. Be sure to reserve, especially at dinner.

Although two-Michelin-star chef David Toutain's approach may be exasperatingly conceptual for some, others find his earthy, surprising, and inspired concoctions utterly thrilling. Each dish is a lesson in contrasts—of temperature, texture, and flavor—as well as a feat of composition: briny oysters, brussels sprouts, and foie gras in a warm potato consommé; creamy raw oysters with tart kiwi and yuzu; crispy pork chips alongside velvety smoked potato puree. Toutain has a particular soft spot for root vegetables and truffles, which he sprinkles liberally throughout dishes like salsify broth with lardo and black truffle. 

Pascal Barbot rose to fame thanks to his restaurant's reasonable prices and casual atmosphere, but after the passage of several years, L'Astrance has become resolutely haute. His dishes often draw on Asian ingredients, as in grilled lamb with miso-lacquered eggplant and a palate-cleansing white sorbet spiked with chili pepper and lemongrass. They offer à la carte, as well as a lunch menu for €125 and the full tasting menu for €285 (this is what most people come for). Each menu also comes at a (significantly) higher price with wines to match each course. Barbot's cooking has such an ethereal quality that it's worth the considerable effort of booking a table—you should start trying at least two months in advance.

In a highly publicized battle, the prestigious helm of Paris's most haute (literally) restaurant was wrested from Alain Ducasse by three-star chef Fréderic Anton of the prestigious Le Pré Catelan in the Bois de Boulogne, with Anton's "zero waste" approach and his idea to serve less complicated fare, focusing on French meats and vegetables produced by smaller French artisanal farms and regional delicacies, winning out. Though not cheap (tasting menus are more than €200), winning a Michelin star in 2020 clinched the restaurant's standing as one of Paris's top splurge-worthy dining rooms.

With chef Alain Solivérès (formerly of Taillevent) now at the helm, this much-beloved outpost has taken on a new shine—and a Michelin star. The food is sophisticated and the atmosphere is lively and chic. Pastry chef Kimiko Kinoshita's gorgeous creations top off a ravishing, well-priced meal. With wines starting at around €40 (and €58–€65 lunch menus on weekdays), this is a wonderful place for a classic yet informal French meal.

The premiere restaurant at the beautiful Shangri-La Hotel is Paris's only Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant. Set in a jewel-box of a dining room, featuring giant Chinese porcelains and inlaid jade paneling, you'll dine on lacquered Peking duck, sliced at your table and delivered with a flourish, and all manner of delicacies from one of the world's great cuisines.

A five-minute walk from the Eiffel Tower, Terre de Café is a boon to coffee lovers. It also serves gluten-free pastries, healthy fruit smoothies, and gourmet brunch options.

Chef Tomy Gousset, who learned his skills in some of the city's most prestigious kitchens, flies solo at this wildly popular bistro, which won its first Michelin star in 2019. The appealingly spare dining room is an excellent backdrop for some truly dazzling dishes that taste every bit as sublime as they look. Best of all, despite being one of the best tables in the neighborhood, it's not wildly expensive.

The otherwise unexciting 15e arrondissement is home to much-lauded chef Ludivine Merlin and her Basque-inspired recipes. Basque cooking is known for its bold flavors and generosity, and the choices at Afaria are no exception. Crisp-skinned duck breast with balsamic-fig vinegar (for two) is served dramatically, inside a ceramic roof tile, with the accompanying potato gratin perched on a bed of twigs. Big chunks of spoon-tender, slow-cooked pork from Gascony come in an earthenware dish with cubes of roasted celery root. Tapas are served at a high table near the entrance and there's a large-screen TV for rugby matches.

This "best craftsman of France" revives the gastronomic art of French charcuterie in dishes like dreamy foie gras and succulent slabs of country terrine enrobed in a golden buttery crust. The small-but-choice menu also highlights specialties from the sea: shellfish soufflé or delicate fish quenelles (a specialty of Lyon, France's charcuterie capital).

To see what well-heeled Parisians eat these days, book a table at this chic little bistro run by Jacques Lacipière as soon as you get to town. The contemporary dining room is unusually comfortable, and the sidewalk tables have an Eiffel Tower view, but it's the excellent, well-priced cuisine du marché that has made this spot a hit. The sophisticated fare sometimes features Salers beef and green asparagus, roasted lobster with mushroom risotto, and game in season. House-made desserts could include citrus terrine with passion-fruit sorbet or caramelized apple mille-feuille with hazelnut ice cream. The €39 prix-fixe menu for lunch or dinner, featuring dishes with distinct haute-cuisine touches, is one of the city's great bargains.

Parisian gastronomic extravagance has largely disappeared in favor of leaner fare. But that is not so at this beloved stalwart, where you can revel in such Gallic classics as towering soufflés, buttery frogs' legs, or a hearty steak smothered in sauce béarnaise. A favorite among politicians and locals, who feel the fare is well worth the tweak to the pocketbook (and the waistline).

Giant mirrors, red leatherette banquettes, vintage posters, and checker-tile floors add up to a '60s movie set of a Parisian bistro. But the menu of delicious comfort food—made with top-quality artisanal ingredients and the best produce from throughout France—is delightfully real. Wines and menus are exceedingly reasonable for this neighborhood, which is one reason it's filled with locals.

Come for the early sitting at this little bistro specializing in classic French fare and you'll often discover the dining room filled with more than a few tourists (the waiters speak English perfectly). The reasonably priced (€60) five-course tasting menu may account for the restaurant's popularity—there are two seatings each night. The service can be brusque, with waiters plunking even the higher-priced bottles of wine on the table without waiting for the customer to swill and slurp. Still, these problems seem to be minor judging by the ever-crowded tables. The restaurant's popular wine bar (La Cave de l'Os à Moelle), just across the street, serves a popular, prix-fixe menu for €31.

It's not just this contemporary bistro's chic black storefront and floor-to-ceiling windows that stand out among the elegant neighborhood's pale sandstone buildings and pricey dining. A frisson of excitement in fresh, imaginative, and unfussy dishes paired with small-producer wines brings a breath of fresh air, and the €30 lunch menu is especially enticing.

Set in a quiet, aristocratic quartier near the Musée Rodin, postage stamp–size La Table d'Aki features cuisine centered on the sea. Chef Akihiro Horikoshi works all alone in an open kitchen while 16 lucky diners await the next course: lush, simple dishes like plump langoustine shimmering in a silky shallot-fennel sauce or delicate medallions of sole in a mellow red-wine-and-leek reduction. Although perfect for a long, leisurely lunch, the glaring lighting isn't ideal for a romantic dinner.

With its globe lamps and molded ceilings, this neighborhood institution feels elegant yet not overpolished, attracting a wonderfully Parisian mix of elderly lone diners, business lunchers, tourists, couples, and the post-theater crowd, all of whom come for the enormous seafood platters, duck foie gras with Sauternes jelly, steak tartare, and roasted chicken rendered famous by Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give. Open every day, Le Grand Colbert is also a pleasant destination for a quick bite between 3 pm and 6 pm, when most everything else is closed.

From a wine-soaked boeuf Bourguignon and garlicky snails to tasty slabs of homemade country pâté served with cornichons and a hearty red, this Art Nouveau–era bistro offers all the classics of southwestern France. Check the blackboard menu for the daily specials, delivered in generous portions at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

A quiet residential street shelters one of Paris's great neighborhood bistros and among the last of the city's authentic ones, which retains its moleskin banquettes, blackboard menus, and small wooden tables where you'll touch elbows with your neighbors. Expect fresh market ingredients in a gastronomic menu that's liberal with deluxe details. A typical meal might include vegetable soup with foie gras and cream, truffle tagliatelles, panfried scallops in crab sauce or axoa de veau (a Basque veal sauté), and a vanilla soufflé with cherry jam. All this plus a great choice of wines by the glass keep happy regulars filling the dining room. Prix-fixe menus start at €32 at lunch.

Chef Christian Constant has an unfailing sense of how Parisians want to eat these days, as proved by this third addition to his mini restaurant empire near the Eiffel Tower. At Les Cocottes, he's shifted the normally leisurely bistro experience into high gear, which allows him to keep prices moderate. Seated at a long counter on slightly uncomfortable stools that discourage lingering, diners can mix and match from a menu of soups, salads, cocottes (dishes served in cast-iron pots), verrines (starters presented in tapas-style glasses), and comforting desserts, all made from fresh, seasonal ingredients.

There's not a brasserie in Paris with a view to match the one at this eatery set on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower (the Jules Verne, helmed by chef Frédéric Anton, is on the second floor). Multiple Michelin star chef Thierry Marx presides over this chic dining room, done up in creamy leather and blond wood, where everything is "stylish, sustainable, and cozy" (and we might add, expensive) with special attention to local products whenever possible. Like any good Parisian brasserie, this dining room is open from 10 am until 11:30 pm and serves every meal, from breakfast to late-night drinks at the bar. Views are equally stupendous day or night, but there's nothing so romantic as seeing the City of Lights at night—especially from within the tower, glittering madly for five minutes at the beginning of each hour after sunset. Online booking lets you choose your view; a window seat will cost you extra.