The 30 best Paris restaurants

Selection of 30 best Paris restaurants

Paris is an ideal place to taste the famous French cuisine. We have selected 30 restaurants that we know well in four categories:

* Best affordable restaurants in Paris: stick to set menu, drink tap water, pay around 25 euros at these top quality restaurants.
* Art nouveau restaurants: the most beautiful restaurants in town have an Art Nouveau interior and serve quality French gastronomy.
* Paris restaurants with a view: a few restaurants combine good French gastronomy with a spectacular view of Paris.
* Gastronomic restaurants in Paris: taste nouvelle cuisine, fusion food and traditional French gastronomy at their best.

Restaurants are often closed on Sundays or Mondays, on December 25 and January 1. Many of them are closed fully or partly in August. Paris brasseries are open seven days a week and on holidays. Most restaurants have a set menu for lunch on weekdays that is much cheaper than à la carte. It is free and quite common to drink tap water in Paris.

Best Eiffel Tower restaurant

You are looking for a restaurant in town to propose, celebrate a wedding anniversary or another great event.

Take the spectacular private lift of the restaurant to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower. At 125 meters, enjoy the breathtaking view. The restaurant is managed by cook Frédéric Anton, 3 star with Pré Catelan in Bois de Boulogne. The overall experience - lift, view, cuisine and service - positions the Jules Verne as the best choice in town for one time travellers, specially at lunchtime on weekdays.

Check our selection of the top restaurants with a view of Paris.

Best Art Nouveau restaurant

The city has a rich legacy of beautiful Art Nouveau restaurants. A few combine beauty with good food.

We love Mollard, an affordable brasserie near Saint-Lazare train station, the Opéra Garnier and the department stores. The seashells, sauerkraut and the famous Omelette Norvègienne make up a delicious meal. Drink beer from the tap or Alsatian white wine. We are regulars.

Top Paris Art nouveau restaurants

Top Paris tourist hotel

Located near Sorbonne University in the left bank, 3-star Hotel Henri IV offers 13 luxury rooms with period furniture and painted ceilings. It is a 10 minute walk to Notre-Dame. Marble fireplaces and vintage paintings give the rooms a 19th-century feel. This property has one of the best-rated locations and is also rated for the best value in town.

Paris iconic restaurant

Since 1686, Le Procope, the oldest café in Paris, is serving customers in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Près district. Rousseau, Diderot, Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, Musset, Verlaine were patrons and tasted the traditional dishes such as coq au vin, calf's head in casserole, millefeuille, that have remained unchanged: .

We always love to have lunch in Le Procope. It combines beautiful dining rooms, good food, affordable menus and quality service. It may be the most touristic restaurant of our selection, but Le Procope remains day after day an iconic Paris restaurant.

Best gastronomic restaurant

In between the Seine River and Saint-Germain-des-Près on the left bank, Relais Louis XIII is housed in a 17th century house, featuring old stones, noble wooden beams, engravings, stained glass windows and antique chairs.

Very attached to traditional French cuisine, Manuel Martinez, the cook, revisits it and brings an elegant modernity to his classical dishes. The cook is obsessed with finding the truth in flavors, through a meticulous produce selection process. Great gastronomy. 80 euro signature menu at lunch time. 85 euros carte blanche five set menu, a delicious culinary adventure.

Gastronomic restaurants in Paris

Best fusion food restaurant

William Ledeuil is a talented French cook. His fusion food is so tasty you will remember it for ever. His cuisine is derived from his passion for Asia and his respect for French cuisine tradition. The ingredients and the flavors are decisive. He combines them in total freedom, depending on his inspiration.

William Ledeuil runs two restaurants in the left bank, some of the bests in town. Set menu start from 29 (KitchenTer(re)) to 41 euros (Ze Kitchen Gallery) at lunchtime.

Cooking lessons in Paris

A great complement to tasting French cuisine is a cooking class and wine tasting. Through a partner, Paris Digest offers you cooking lessons, macaroons workshops, wine tasting and create your own wine workshops in Paris. All activities are done in English.

Other activities include perfume creation workshops, sightseeing bike tours, tours in a 2CV vintage car, river cruises, limo tours. These are activities that will turn your stay into a memorable experience.

Paris cooking class and other activity booking

Best restaurant in green setting

At the edge of the lovely Parc Montsouris, south of the city, Pavillon Montsouris has a beautiful dining room in winter and a terrace right in the park when the weather is good. Service and food are excellent. Prices are moderate for this quality. The metro station is Cité Universitaire on RER B, 10' from Notre Dame. A really good experience.

Best Boeuf Bourguignon restaurant

French food has iconic dishes such as Soupe à l'oignon and Boeuf Bourguignon. The recipe of Boeuf Bourguignon helps explain why French cuisine is so good.

Select first class chuck. The chuck is cooked in red wine (10 liters for 5 kg of meat) for 5 to 6 hours until the latter reduces by half. The meat is then marinated during 24 hours with carrots, onions and garlic. Then the meat and vegetables are colored separately in the pan, before being cooked again between 5 and 7 hours. Celery, peppercorns, cloves and tomato paste are added to reduce the acidity of the wine. Mushrooms, bacon and carrots are cooked separately. Then all is annealed, warmed up minute and served.

A renowned Boeuf Bourguignon is served at Café des Musées in Le Marais.

Best legendary restaurant

A legendary address near Opéra Garnier, the Café de la Paix boasts its famous Napoléon III décor. Inaugurated in 1862, at the same time as the Grand Hôtel which shares its premises, this iconic restaurant has always been at the heart of Parisian art and art de vivre.

We appreciate the friendliness of the service, the quietness and space and the perfectly prepared French cuisine. The set menu is served at lunch and dinner time.

Best elegant dining

Since 1942, Lasserre provides fine dining in an utmost elegant environment. Like most top end restaurants in Paris, Lasserre is a lifetime experience. The excellent service matches the dish superb taste and aesthetics.

Lasserre is certainly one of the most famous restaurants in Paris today. Lassere is located in the heart of the famous golden triangle near the Champs-Elysées. From the moment you enter, you are treated as a personal guest. An elevator brings you to the intimate and elegant dining room. There, a spectacular roof opening permits dining under a canopy of sky and stars. The Chef, Michel Roth, is preparing a French gastronomic cuisine. Be part of the legend. Many famous people have dined at Lasserre including Salvador Dalí, Romy Schneider, Marc Chagall, Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot and Robert De Niro. Set menu costs 170 euros. One Michelin star.

Paris metro: Champs-Elysees Clemenceau, line 1,13. Map.