The 19 Best Restaurants in Paris

One of two gastronomic restaurants in the peerless Shangri-La hotel, this is Paris’s only Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant and the place in the city for a delectable lacquered Peking duck, carved at your table and served in several stages. This is the rare restaurant whose beautiful setting matches the deliciousness and perfection of every dish on the menu.

You don’t have to stay at the Ritz to sample the hotel’s masterful pastry chef François Perret’s prize-winning madeleines in flavors that change with the seasons and other delectable sweets. Perret uses natural sugars to provide less-sweet versions of the classics, along with delicious gluten-free pastries and a menu of classics updated to delight contemporary tastes. We love the marbled chocolate-chip tart, the divine Ritz au Lait, seasonal fruit tarts, and savory sandwiches to enjoy with a drink in the café or to go.

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Paris’s first seafood restaurant opened in 1872, was already a Paris institution in 1925 when it inaugurated its Art Deco flagship near the Arc de Triomphe. A favorite of Parisian high society and exiled Russian nobles, the Bolshevik revolution put an end to Prunier’s supply of caviar until a regular alerted the Pruniers to France’s native sturgeon, harvested near Bordeaux. Today, Prunier still offers the freshest caviar in Paris direct from France’s Aquitaine and Dordogne regions, along with a menu of seafood classics in one of Paris’s most beautiful and romantic historic interiors.

Parisian gastronomic extravagance has largely disappeared in favor of leaner fare. 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. This is a favorite restaurant among politicians and locals, who feel it’s well worth the tweak to the pocketbook (and the waistline).

Its picturesque bistro setting and inviting terrace are the perfect setting to tuck into chef Flavio Lucarini’s exceptional menu of “bistronomic” dishes, featuring meticulously sourced seasonal products and the flavors of his native Italy. Tucked away on a classic Haussmannian street at the western edge of Paris, not far from the Parc Monceau, this is an excellent restaurant to dine when visiting the Arc de Triomphe, the Bois de Boulogne, or the museums around the park.

This temple to the French sablé—a melt-in-your-mouth butter cookie served here plain or with a range of fillings—boasts an indoor-outdoor lunch, brunch, and tearoom that’s as charming as they come. Savory sandwiches, sablé cookies, fruit tarts, and a famously moist and zesty lemon cake round out a luminous teatime in the glass-roofed atrium.

Bertillon is a household name in Paris for its all-natural ice creams and sorbets in exceptional flavors that change with the seasons. Founded on the Île Saint-Louis in 1954, the ice cream is sold from a multitude of window vendors around the island, but there’s nothing like relaxing in the boutique’s tea salon. All of Berthillon’s sundaes come in tall metal goblets with a variety of toppings and a towering dollop of billowy crème Chantilly. Other delights on the menu include Berthillon’s specialty pastries and one of Paris’s best tarte tatins (the tearoom closes in August).

Talented chef Tatiana Levha’s far-flung influences are revealed in surprising dishes like deep-fried giblets, fresh radishes with anchovy butter, or herb-infused cockles to start, followed by whole lacquered quail, or crispy melt-in-your-mouth pork on a bed of braised leeks. Sophisticated desserts and a good selection of natural wines in a small, elegant dining room add up to an essential Paris dining experience at this restaurant.

Pastry chef Claire Damon performs feats of magic in her Rue du Bac pâtisserie in a dozen or so exquisitely conceived pastries. Her unparalleled Absolu Citron—a sort of capsized Corsican lemon-meringue tart with the delicate crunch of meringue below topped by tart lemon curd—is the star of the show. Damon uses only the best-quality fruits, nuts, and organic flours for her melt-in-the-mouth pastries and viennoiseries, including a feather-light brioche perfumed with orange flowers.

Without altering the lovely vintage 1912 setting one bit, in 2006, superchef Alain Ducasse took over the place, retaining yet subtly improving the menu of classic dishes that harken back to its Les Halles heyday when this Lyon-style bistro was run by Benoît Petit and his family for three generations. Dishes like marinated salmon, frogs’ legs in morel-mushroom cream sauce, and an outstanding cassoulet served in a cast-iron pot by a roaring fire harken back to the bistro’s traditional roots. It’s a splurge to dine here, so go all the way and top off your meal with the caramelized tarte tatin or a delicious rum-doused baba.

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