706 Best Restaurants in France

This restaurant's unique concept centers around a blind tasting menu, refreshed every two weeks, where you savor each dish without prior knowledge of its components—a fun, innovative approach to gastronomy that encourages a deep appreciation of flavors and textures. Options include €25 three-course set lunch menus on Tuesday and Saturday, as well as €55 six-course tasting menus. Reservation are required.

He's an indefatigable champion of small-producer wines, and you'd have to be a stone not to be swept up in Sébastien Milleret's passion. A congenial atmosphere prevails at this wineshop and bar, and excellent small dishes—luscious burrata cheese served with fruity olive oil and capers, freshly shaved bresaola and lardo, or briny smoked eel—are complemented by reasonably priced wines by the glass. On Saturday afternoon, wine barrels are rolled out for tastings that draw a neighborhood crowd.

Octopus does indeed appear on the menu at this friendly little restaurant with a view of the Grand Plage from its terrace dining area. But there's more: the Basque burgers—featuring Charolais beef, local Ossau Irauty cheese, and piquillo peppers—are a hit with locals, the steaks are generous and tender, and the chipirons (baby squid) with Basque black pudding are the chef's specialty. It also serves food all day, every day—a bonus when most other local restaurants stop serving at 2 pm.

Omar Dhiab’s eponymous restaurant breaks with fine-dining codes from the get-go: open the door to the restaurant, and you'll immediately come upon the open kitchen, where the young chef presides in jeans under his pressed chef's jacket. The laid-back ambience pervades in the plain, bright dining room, where Dhaib's mastery of balancing bitter and sour is center stage. Expect clever winks at Dhiab's Egyptian heritage and French childhood classics, like his signature sweetbread croque monsieur or his grandmother's semolina pudding served family-style for dessert.

A dazzling array of gourmet pastries here includes all the classics in imaginative and delicious flavor combinations. There are also impossibly moist individual cakes, Paris's best baba au rhum, sublime cookies, and the specialty guimauve, a flavored, melt-in-your-mouth marshmallow. Be sure to sample the gorgeous Rosy Rosa dome cake with almond, rose-infused almond milk, and creamy dark chocolate all on a black sesame biscuit topped with rose petals. Next door, savory gourmet breads, quiches, sandwiches, and other takeout foods make this the perfect refueling stop after a visit to the Centre Pompidou. There's also outdoor seating in warm weather.

One of the city's best-kept secrets, this gem of bistro has been a fixture since 1936, and the new owners have retained the old-world vibe that's ever harder to come by in Paris, especially in the Marais. Cozy and full of charm—with beamed ceilings, stone walls, and a timeless decor—the atmosphere perfectly highlights chef Julien Chevallier's deliciously down-to-earth and seasonally inspired meats, fish, and charcuterie. A masterful wine list featuring natural wines rounds out the experience. Book a terrace table in summer. Stock up on gourmet items to bring home with you at the épicerie next door.

Chef Giovanni Passerini, a favorite Parisian chef, has done it again with this wine-focused spot, the companion to his wildly popular Italian restaurant just a few steps away. It's a wine bar, gastro-bistro, and pasta factory all in one, and the oh-so-good plates of highbrow Italian comfort food are served with his typically masterful selection of well-priced French and Italian wines. The atmosphere is casual and fun while diners get down to the real business of eating and drinking and enjoying every minute of it.

You'll never feel more like a kid in a candy shop than when you feast your eyes on the scintillating pastries, candied fruits (a specialty of the Vaucluse since Roman times), chocolates, and other local sweets sold here. At the charming café next door you can enjoy your selection with tea or coffee; there's also a small menu of savory lunch dishes.

When a young Catalan native returned home from the pull of the Paris restaurant scene and partnered with a friend to open Percherons, Picasso's Céret finally got a restaurant worthy of a detour beyond art history. The prix-fixe dégustation menu (with two appetizers, two mains, a cheese course, and dessert) calls on Catalan basics like suckling pig from Spanish Catalonia's Empordá, Vallespir tomatoes from the French side, and aged goat cheese from the frontier-forming Alberes mountains.

At the hottest gastro-bistro in Nantes, Dominic Quirke, a young English chef, who worked in some of Paris's top kitchens before striking out on his own, combines a sophisticated menu featuring the best of the local producers with a stellar list of natural wines. Locals know a great thing when they taste it, and that's why they come here for Nantes veal with tartare of Breton langoustine; Sologne lamb with grilled polenta, beet pickles, and glacéed vegetables; and roast sea bass with fennel risotto and capers with creamed zucchini. A pleasant, unpretentious ambience and a roster of talented visiting chefs keep the bistro's many regulars on their toes. At €55, the five-course tasting menu is a steal.

If you want to venture to the frontier of contemporary cooking—and if money is no object—dinner here is a must (reservations essential). One of the longest Michelin three-star holders in France (since 1996), chef Pierre Gagnaire's work is at once cerebral and poetic, often blending three or four unexpected tastes and textures in a single dish. Just taking in the menu requires focus (ask the waiters for help), so complex are the multiline descriptions about each dish's luxury ingredients. The Grand Dessert, a seven-dessert marathon, will leave you breathless, though it's not as overwhelming as it sounds. The occasional ill-judged dishes linger as drawbacks, and prices keep shooting skyward, so Pierre Gagnaire is an experience best saved for a mega-splurge.

As you'd expect, Da Marco serves up a wide range of pizzas, including the house special topped with local white ham and chorizo. But there's also an array of tasty dishes with a distinct regional flavor and an emphasis on Pyrenean ham and pork dishes.

This luminous, casual dining room is an absolute must on any foodie circuit of Provence. Michelin-starred chef Mathieu Desmaret's thoughtful approach to seasonal Provençal products and wild ingredients and exquisite attention to unusual flavor pairings make for a revelatory experience far beyond the usual gourmet cuisine. Beautifully presented dishes both delight and surprise—such as a luscious emerald-green velouté of wild-dandelion paired with chèvre and flowers or perfectly roasted Ventoux black pork with tender asparagus and mussels. Lunch features three- or six-course menus; dinner sees six- or eight-course menus.

Culinary innovation runs deep in this food-centric city, and the impressively pedigreed Gaëtan Gentil is among a generation of chefs shaking things up with fruit-and-vegetable-centered cuisine that's as subtle, and sustainable, as it is surprising. Unexpected flavor combinations (grapefruit and marigold; chicken and lemon verbena) are refreshingly original and presented with an almost pictorial beauty. With a shiny Michelin star, a stellar reputation, and a sumptuous dining room, reservations are a must.

Tucked away on a pretty street in the center of Avignon, this cozy duplex restaurant with a Japanese vibe is a hot spot for delicious, locally sourced small plates that elevate the humble vegetable. Aurélie Tomassin's thoughtful cuisine follows the seasons in dishes like squash-blossom-and-cheese-stuffed fritters, anchovy toast with sweet onion and homemade aioli, tender shredded chicken sandwich with lemon and frisée, or spicy hummus with homemade pita.

A Paris institution since 1924, this absolute stunner of a seafood brasserie was also one of the first restaurants to champion French-raised caviar, after the Bolshevik revolution cut the Russian supply. Fast-forward to 2023, when star chef Yannick Alléno took the helm of the Art Deco dining room (one of the most spectacular historic interiors in Paris), infusing the menu with a new elegance in dishes like a caviar-flecked salmon-and-seaweed hand roll, langoustine carpaccio with caviar cream, or a perfectly prepared filet of sole, all washed down with sparkly Champagne or a crisp Bourgogne blanc. Desserts are equally luscious. Dining here is a quintessential Parisian experience, whether for a leisurely lunch or an elegant candlelit dinner.

On full view from her open kitchen, chef Virginie Giboire is cool and precise as she prepares a sophisticated market cuisine that earned her a Michelin star, one of the few restaurants in Rennes to garner that distinction. Everyone nowadays is doing seasonal and local, but Giboire, who trained at Paris's prestigious Ferrandi school and with superstar Thierry Marx, wields a traditional mastery in dishes that carry her unique signature: mixing wild-crafted herbs and seasonal ingredients in dishes like John Dory with spring asparagus, wild garlic, and roasted buckwheat. The vibe is low-key and friendly, and the fixed price menus—there is no à la carte—are a good value.

Back in Monet's day, this pretty-in-pink villa was the favorite hotel of the American painters' colony. Today it remains one of the most charming spots in the Île-de-France (despite the tourists), although the surroundings retain more historic charm than the simple cuisine (mainly salads large enough to count as a main course in their own right, or straightforward, if unremarkable, dishes like an omelet or gigot d'agneau [lamb and mutton]). A decent three-course prix-fixe menu is available at lunch and dinner. Renovated to appear as it did in Monet's time, the dining room is stage-set rustic; and there’s an extraordinarily pretty rose garden out back with embowered paths that lead to the studio Cézanne once used.

Judging by the crowd of regulars flocking to his restaurant, Daniel Desavie has built quite a reputation for his classic Provençal dishes—hardly surprising given that he was trained for 23 years by the late Roger Vergé at the famous Moulins de Mougins. Try the half lobster with cranberry beans and wild mushrooms salad in herb vinaigrette before tucking into thinly sliced beef with truffle coulis. If you want to add wine, a sommelier will help you turn your classic meal into a masterful one. There are splendidly set-priced lunch and dinner menus at both the restaurant and his more relaxed Le Bistrot, which features a weekly market offering. 

Don't be put off by the name—and the must-try signature dish—at this terrific eatery, where young chef Adrien Ferrand's complex dishes are as magnificent to taste as they are to behold. From a crisp-tender grilled suckling pig to the delicious smoked eel with apple, and a roster of exquisite desserts—Granny Smith broth with hazelnut sabayon or "craquant" of chocolate with caramel cream and banana marmalade—a meal here is a delight from start to finish. The tasting menu (at lunch €32 or €39; €89 at dinner) is a great introduction to this marvelous food.

Named for its illustrious chef and pastry chef, this restaurant draws foodies who are keen to enjoy inventive, earthy, and refined cuisine that doesn't so much redefine Provençal cooking as expand it. With a laser focus on local, sustainable ingredients, Rey eschews all animal fats, salt, and other staples of French gastronomy in favor of rich, slow-cooked fish and vegetable broths steeped with herbs and seaweeds, olive oil, peppers, and edible leaves and flowers to complement fish and meat. Rey first gained notoriety as second runner-up in France's Top Chef 2011 and then shattered the culinary glass ceiling in 2017 with her first Michelin star. Her dishes are small works of art that leave diners satisfied without a hint of heaviness, even after 10 courses. Wahid, Rey's husband and the winner of France's Pastry Chef of the Year 2005, creates the desserts—small wonders as beautiful and complex as they are delicious.

On the quay at the heart of Rouen's gastronomic epicenter, Restaurant Gill was Rouen's only two-Michelin-star restaurant for 36 years—until chef Gilles Tournadre famously asked to exit the system in 2020. Stars or no, Tournadre maintains his reputation for culinary rigor, working with the splendors of the Norman woods, fields, and shore: oysters, crab, scallops, lobster, and several types of fish can be found on the menu every day, along with game like hare and piglet. Signature dishes include pigeon à la Rouennaise and Brittany lobster sautéed with sweet potato mousselline and lemongrass juice. When ordering your dinner, remember to request the soufflé made with (what else?) a silky old Norman Calvados. Although the tasting menu is pricey, it's worth the splurge for a primer in one of France's great regional cuisines.

At the Hôtel La Ponche’s restaurant, Michelin-starred chef Thomas Danigo (of Galanga, Paris fame) has created a menu of dishes that emphasize Provençal ingredients, including fish fresh from pêcheurs locaux. A summer lunch on the terrace is a quintessential St-Tropez experience, but, as the day fades, the scene shifts to the dining room's easy glamour. Sink into the red arm chairs, enjoy the knowledgeable service, and savor dishes like yellowtail ceviche in citrus marinade or slow-cooked veal cheek.

Part of a tiny Old Town enclave determined to resist the press of tourism, this casual tavern has tables scattered across a sunny terrace on Place Safranier. Chef Gaïatto Olivier is in charge of a refined menu that reflects his five years in the kitchen at the celebrated Eden Roc—think roasted catch of the day with chickpea stew, chorizo, mussels fennel, and coriander—but at a fraction of the price.

Try the truffled galettes with asparagus or the loup de mer (sea bass) with caviar to see how the acclaimed Anne-Sophie Pic—the first female chef in France to earn three Michelin stars since Eugènie Brazier in 1933—is continuing a family legacy that began in 1889. Pic carries on the tradition of her grandfather, one of the first celebrity chefs in France, on the same premises where he earned three Michelin stars in 1934. Settle into the sumptuous dining room for an epic meal seated on Louis Seize-style bergères or, in summer, in the lush tropical garden; you can then retire upstairs to the luxe-contemporary guest rooms at the Hotel Pic.

The stellar period interior of this renovated 12th-century mansion makes for an impressive backdrop to innovative and delicious cuisine. Try the pan-roasted veal medallion with dried porcini blinis and thinly sliced mushrooms with chervil, or splurge for the whole lobster sautéed in olive oil, muscat grapes, and beurre blanc with verjuice. The seasonal truffle menu may be too rich for some (€145), but a €45 lunch menu offers nice balance for budget-conscious travelers.

Cotton-candy-color walls, comfy banquettes, and giant mirrors belie the fact that this cozy eatery is one of the city's top destinations to experience the flavors of the Philippines. Meals are served family-style with one plate for each diner to sample from a succession of dishes, each more delicious than the next, including Hainan soy-glazed burrata flecked with ginger; fried chicken wings with black coffee sauce; and a fish of the day in coconut milk with truffle. For dessert, the strawberry pavlova comes on clouds of pandan cream and a scrumptious lime-zest cheesecake on a bed of crumbled polvoron (a type of shortbread).

Chef Richard Lequet creates a cuisine of rare refinement, served in the sleek contemporary dining room of his eponymous hotel or on a spacious terrace in the heart of a wooded park. Trained in top kitchens around France, Lequet was the youngest chef in Limoges to be awarded a Michelin star. It’s a delight to go from dinner to your room, but even if you’re not a hotel guest, a meal here is a must when visiting the region.

Nestled on a narrow old town side street, this modest restaurant deliciously links the Mediterranean with Mexico in its sun-kissed, veggie-centric cuisine. Crisp homemade tortillas envelop ingredients like caramelized Brussels sprouts, carrot cream, avocado, and chimichurri sauce or pulled chicken or pork with pickled vegetables and frisée lettuce. Desserts include a sinfully rich chocolate ganache cake with a vegan butternut and sweet potato ice cream made with coconut and almond milks, caramelized pumpkin seed, and tequila.