Ilya Kagan
Alongside the world’s most elite athletes, Paris’s top chefs and restaurateurs are getting ready to enter starting blocks of their own.
They’re sharpening their knives, firing up the stoves, and straightening out their chef toques, getting ready to welcome the 15 million visitors who will be descending on the city throughout the Olympic Games when the flame is lit on July 26 and fully extinguished at the end of the Paralympics on Sept. 8.
And while food-savvy visitors are spoiled for choice in the French capital, there are a few that embody Paris’s current gastronomic zeitgeist particularly well. From classic French restaurants in restored, historic landmarks, to female-led kitchens churning out audacious and surprising menus, and international menus that reflect Parisian society, here’s a selection of restaurants to keep on your radar this summer.
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Datil
Image Credit: Pauline Gouablin In the build-up to the Paris Olympic games, chef Manon Fleury’s name had been on the lips of every Parisian food critic with the opening of her restaurant Datil, thanks to her remarkable—and rather timely—resume. A former fencing medalist who played for team France before injuries pushed her into early retirement, Fleury, 33, is an official ambassador for the Paris games. Add to this impressive athletic acumen a newly Michelin star-minted restaurant just a few months after opening in 2023, and you get one of the “chouchou” or darlings of the French food world. Predominantly plant-based, the menu changes seasonally and might include white asparagus with sesame cream and orange blossoms; scallops with rutabaga, apple and clementines, or radicchio salad with pickled yuzu and onions.
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Restaurant Espadon at the Ritz Paris
Image Credit: Restaurant Espadon At the Ritz Paris hotel’s newest dining room, two unexpected culinary worlds collide: French Provence and West Africa. It’s a highly personal and intimate cuisine from chef Eugénie Béziat, who distills her upbringing in Gabon, Congo and the Ivory Coast, and her summers in Provence. On the plate, that translates to ingredients like lobster, cassava, hibiscus, and sea urchin brought together into a single dish, or Yassa-inspired smokey chicken with balsamic onion baked in a clay crust. Her aim? French cuisine that seeks tastes and smells “far from here,” Béziat says. A few months after the restaurant opened in the fall of 2023, it unlocked its first Michelin star earlier this year.
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Le Gabriel at La Réserve
Image Credit: Julie Limont Earlier this year, Le Gabriel notched its third Michelin star, one of only two restaurants in France graduated to the red guide’s highest accolade in 2024. Located inside the tony La Réserve hotel off the Champs-Elysées, Le Gabriel features tasting menus that reflect chef Jérôme Banctel’s culinary sensibilities. Virée (escapade), is a journey through the chef’s native Brittany region in northwest France and stars abalone in white miso butter, mackerel in white wine and tomatoes, and pigeon with crispy buckwheat. Dishes on the Périple (journey) menu, on the other hand, are influenced by the chef’s travels around the world and features langoustines with golden apple curry, and suckling pig with spiced mangoes.
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19 Saint Roch
Image Credit: Timothée Chambovet The tuned-in fashion set may already have been familiar with Pierre Touitou as the son of A.P.C. founder Jean Touitou. But it was while churning out small plates behind the bar at Vivant and Déviant—two of the city’s most fashionable wine bars—that the younger Touitou really broke out from the family’s fashion heritage and made a name for himself among Paris’s food glitterati and social elite. It was no surprise, then, that his latest restaurant, 19 Saint Roch, generated steady media buzz when it opened earlier this spring. Bistronomic in style, dishes are seasonal and Mediterranean-inspired with Japanese accents: Monkfish might be paired with tamarind artichokes and black rice while duck might be candied and served with harissa-glazed fennel and marinated peppers
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Le Grand Contrôle at the Airelles Château de Versailles
Image Credit: Le Grand Contrôle at the Airelles Château de Versailles Ticket holders of equestrian events at the Versailles Palace need not venture far to feast like French royalty. As the only hotel within the Château de Versailles grounds, the fine-dining restaurants overseen by chef titan Alain Ducasse are carefully choreographed to make diners feel like royalty. Wait staff dressed in period costume and live musicians serenade diners, transporting them back to 18th century France. It’s a theatrical experience matched by classic but modern French dishes like wild garlic roasted chicken with green peas “à la française” and pork chops from Auvergne served with turnip and mustard. Along with lunch and dinner, the hotel also serves afternoon tea and Sunday brunches.
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Le Tout-Paris, Cheval Blanc Paris
Image Credit: Vincent Leroux As far as Parisian rooftops go, Le Tout-Paris is easily one of the city’s most impressive. Located on the seventh floor of the Cheval Blanc Paris hotel, part of the Samaritaine department store, a meal at Le Tout-Paris is accompanied by wraparound views of the Seine and its many historic bridges including the Pont Neuf and, in the distance, the Eiffel Tower herself, which shimmers on cue every hour come nightfall. Though a more casual and sassier alternative to the hotel’s triple Michelin-starred restaurant Plénitude and its ambitious Japanese restaurant Hakuba, the food at Le Tout-Paris is still executed with rigor. Dishes like langoustines with morels and pigeon with tarragon and chervil sauce helped the restaurant earn its first Michelin star earlier this year.
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Oka Fogo
Image Credit: Joann Pai Opened in the 17th arrondissement earlier this year, Oka Fogo is two restaurants in one. At Fogo, Brazilian chef Raphael Rego cooks with fire, throwing seafood and meats aged in-house over an open flame. At Oka, he also cooks with fire but with a little more finesse. In his own words: “I built Oka like a French restaurant, with a Brazilian captain.” With just 16 seats, the tasting menu at Oka, which means house in the native Tupi-guarani language, is ambitious and refined, alternating between France and Brazil. Confited and grilled Breton lobster is served with caramel cachaça, for instance, while chargrilled Wagyu picanha is served with fermented black beans and biquinho peppers.
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Faubourg Daimant
Image Credit: Léo Kharfan For a gourmet, meat-free dining option in the French capital, bookmark Faubourg Daimant, the latest plant-based restaurant that has converted notoriously carnivorous Parisians to the green side. Opened by the same folks who helm Plan D, a popular vegan takeout sandwich and ice cream shop on the Canal Saint-Martin, Faubourg Daimant cleverly reinvents French classics with modern, vegetarian takes. Smoked tofu stands in convincingly for deep-fried “pork” croquettes, and Puy lentils are transformed into an umami-rich rillette, served with pickled red onions and chewy sourdough bread, while smokey, flame-broiled eggplant is served carpaccio-style with a creamy mayo, zaatar, pomegranate seeds, pistachios, and mint.
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Laurent
Image Credit: Laurent With its proximity to the Champs-Elysées, the restaurant Laurent attracts the affluent business crowd for power lunches by day, before transitioning into a more glamorous Parisian destination by night. Originally the former hunting lodge of King Louis XIV, the building was restored and reopened in 2023. Elegant archways, crystal chandeliers, wicker armchairs, and floor-to-ceiling windows in the rotunda set the scene for guests in the main dining room. Patrons are served elegant French cuisine like foie gras with candied rhubarb, lamb chops, and the classic sole meunière with buckwheat butter, which is deboned and filleted tableside. Guests can also dine in smaller, more intimate salons upstairs or on the outdoor courtyard terrace.
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Homer Lobster
Image Credit: Homer Lobster Not all gourmet meals in Paris need be three-hour, multi-course affairs. For a quick but indulgent lunch between events, or to satisfy random afternoon munchies, consider Homer Lobster which specializes in lobster rolls on the go. Though the idea of tucking into a New England delicacy in Paris might seem odd, consider this: In 2018, chef Moïse Sfez’s lobster-stuffed rolls were the “celebrity judge” pick at the World’s Best Lobster Roll Competition in Portland, Maine. Inspired by his lobster roll during a trip to the U.S. in 2010, Sfez opened his first shop in 2018, swapping out rolls for buttery French brioche, and offering toppings like caviar and herbed lemon buttery and sides like truffled chips, or chips and caviar.
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Dar Mima
Image Credit: Romain Ricard Located at the top of the Institut du Monde Arabe (World Arab Institute) on the ninth floor, Dar Mima brings beloved Moroccan, Lebanese, and North African dishes to a lavishly designed dining room. The vision of French Moroccan actor Jamel Debbouze, perhaps best known among global cinephiles as the sweet grocer bullied by his boss in the movie Amelie, the restaurant is a grand and loving tribute to his mother Fatima, who also collaborated on the menu. Dishes include traditional comfort foods like chicken tagine and lamb couscous, but also tuna tartare, perfumed with zaatar spices. In summer, the rooftop terrace offers panoramic views overlooking the Seine and the Notre-Dame Cathedral, while evenings come alive with live music.
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