Restaurants

Our favorite Paris gourmet restaurants

As the capital of good taste, Paris is overflowing with great places to eat. To help you make sense of it all, and because hunger justifies the means, here’s a selection of our favorite Parisian gourmet restaurants.

Espadon at the Ritz Paris, Paris 1er

After a three-year hiatus, the five-star Place Vendôme restaurant reopens Espadon, its legendary Paris gastronomic restaurant, with Eugénie Béziat. A woman in her own right, surrounded by a motivated team in her own image. Respect.
With her determined, Mediterranean look, the former head chef of La Flibuste in Villeneuve-Loubet (home of Auguste Escoffier), where she won a star, boldly takes her bearings. "Two years ago, when I received a call from the Director of the Ritz Paris asking to meet me, I thought it was a joke. But it was. The little bit of madness in me told me that I wouldn't be turned down for a job like that". Eugénie's first experience of Paris, "Born in Gabon, raised in Africa, marked by this land, I nourish my cooking with its perfumes, its spices, its audacity."

espadon eugenie beziat ©studio pam
espadon eugenie beziat ©studio pam

A vestibule with sculpted white wax and stucco walls leads to the dining room, which now opens onto the garden. As soon as the sun shines, the 30 place settings are set up. With her head held high and her allure of a prima ballerina, the head waitress whispers the concept: no à la carte menu, but two set menus, in 5 sequences at €290, or in 8 sequences at €380, to enjoy, perfectly prepared, "French gastronomic cuisine, spiced up with African flavors and ingredients that add tangy notes". The trifecta for this first dinner: oysters on a galette de brousse, with a long-lasting brede-mafane coulis, artichokes with the bitterness of cocoa to tantalize the taste buds, and Breton lobster cooked to perfection and doped with bissap and hibiscus juice. François Perret's crunchy chocolate soufflé is the final touch. Light and airy.

espadon ritz paris ©studio pam
espadon ritz paris ©studio pam

Luminous decor, Astier de Villatte tableware and, surprise, a 1,960 m² vegetable garden in Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche that Eugénie has cultivated with a market gardener. "I am because we are", this African proverb sums up the situation. With ten people in the kitchen and ten in the dining room, we are stronger, more united...".

espadon ©studio pam
espadon ©studio pam

Ritz Paris
Open Tuesday to Saturday.
Menu from 5 to 8 sequences, from €285
15, Place Vendôme, 75001 Paris

Le Pantagruel, Paris 2e

The Sentier has its own ogre, and it's set up shop at number 24 under the name Pantagruel. At the helm of this intimate, totally uninhibited Parisian gastronomic restaurant, chef Jason Gouzy blows the wind of a mischievous cuisine blending the heritage of classical gastronomy with more personal, modernist influences. The originality of the concept lies in the desire to offer a triptych of tastes: one product in 3 plates for 3 different culinary intentions. There's a very classic dish, an auteur dish and the last proposal, which is more rock, sometimes even borrowing from modestreet-food... It's very clever, well executed and we loved this way of heckling the great clichés of classic cuisine with a certain benevolent impertinence.

Le Pantagruel
24 rue du sentier, 75002 Paris
Open Monday to Friday

 

Lucas Carton, Paris 8e

As you step through the doors of this venerable institution on Place de La Madeleine, you enter the walls of one of Paris' first gourmet restaurants. Once seated at your table, let your eyes wander along the wood panelling and take in the sublime décor, imagined as a tribute to Art Nouveau.

Marinated langoustine, smoked raw cream © LephotographeduDimanche

And to take care of your palate, chef Hugo Bourny (who has worked in fine establishments such as Anne-Sophie Pic's) delivers an energetic, daring cuisine, the opposite of the classicism one might expect from the house. And it's not unpleasant, quite the contrary. Noble, delicate products are blended with the rusticity of certain vegetables from small-scale producers, all linked by an intuitive cuisine that plays on the power of flavors, notably with subtle land-sea counterpoints.

A unique setting for surprising cuisine. An address, a table that should be in the diary of every fine Parisian palate.

Lucas Carton
9 place de la Madeleine, 75008 Paris

© LephotographeduDimanche

L'Arôme, Paris 8e

The human touch is at the heart of the concept of this Parisian gourmet restaurant, which has been awarded a Michelin star since 2009. Your ambassador of good taste: Thomas Boullault, who is passionate about small-scale producers and their treasures, which he loves to share in his dishes, which follow the rhythms of the seasons. A hushed setting for an intimate ambience painted in golden hues, you'd almost forget that the noisy Champs-Élysées avenue is just a few yards away. The kitchen opens onto the dining room, allowing you to watch the brigade at work, a desire to erase boundaries so that the two spaces - dining room and kitchen - form a coherent whole. The magic happens, in the plates, the product is in the spotlight and the technique, at its service, is only there to tell its story. A cuisine that's clear, fine, elegant and unpretentious... In a word: authentic!

l'arome
l'arome

L'Arôme
3, Rue Saint-Philippe du Roule - 75008 Paris
Closed Saturday and Sunday
Open from 12h to 14h and from 19h30 to 21h00

La Dame de Pic, Paris 1st

She's our dame de cœur when it comes to Parisian gastronomy. Anne-Sophie Pic, 3 Michelin stars, voted best chef in the world in 2011 and worthy heir to a dynasty of talented chefs, has set up shop at number 20 rue du Louvre, in the capital's highly touristy1st arrondissement. The delicacy and sensitivity that characterize the chef are fully reflected in this cosy setting, imagined as a bucolic escape from the hustle and bustle of Paris.

la Dame de Pic

With a menu in 4, 5 or 7 sequences, enter the culinary universe of Anne-Sophie Pic, a world dominated by plants, a feminine cuisine, punctuated by a skilful balance between the power of flavors and the delicacy of the aromas expressed... Sensitive souls, do not abstain!

La Dame de Pic
20 Rue du Louvre, 75001 Paris
Service from 12:00 to 13:30 and from 19:00 to 21:00.
Restaurant open 7/7 for lunch and dinner

Black fruit vacherin © La Dame de Pic

Le Jules Verne, Paris 7th arrondissement

A star hanging from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower, on which this restaurant is nestled. A breathtaking view of Paris, the Quai Branly, the Trocadéro and the Champ-de-Mars. And in the kitchen, all the savoir-faire of a tricolore (MOF) in the person of Fréderic Anton. For this unique setting, the chef has imagined a menu that's just as unique, with a choice of 5 or 7 dishes, in which he perfectly replays his highly personal ranges, infusing them with all the elegance of French gastronomy.

The only flaw to be found with this Jules Verne is its success, and the time you'll have to wait for the chance to make a gourmet ascent.

Le Jules Verne
2nd floor of the Eiffel Tower
Avenue Gustave Eiffel, 75007 Paris
Daily from 12:00 to 13:30 and from 19:00 to 21:00

le Jules Verne

Anona, Paris 17th

From boulevard des Batignolles, Thibaut Spiwack, chef at Paris gastronomic restaurant Anona, takes you on a journey through the rich terroir of the Paris region. A committed, locavore approach, rewarded with a green star in addition to the one already awarded by the famous red guide. In the dining room, natural materials such as wood and sandstone (gleaned from local craftsmen) set the tone. Having worked in the kitchens of Philippe Legendre and Alain Senderens, the chef has inherited a definite taste for local dishes and a love of well-sourced seasonal produce. These products he likes to set to music to the rhythm of a fair, elegant and creative cuisine that never forgets to be ethical in terms of waste reduction and energy consumption.

anona

A must for epicureans sensitive to the challenges of sustainable gastronomy.

Anona
80 Boulevard des Batignolles, 75017 Paris

© Anona

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