50 best restaurants in Paris
Other world capitals might be catching up, but Paris restaurants can still mix it up with the best of them. Here's our guide to the finest it has to offer, from intimate bistros to haute cuisine gastrodromes, plus a few leftfield gems
Latin quarter | The Marais and eastern Paris | St Germain and Montparnasse | Tuilleries and Opéra Pigalle and Montmartre | Champs-Elysées
Latin Quarter, the Islands and 13th
Atelier Maître Albert
This classy Guy Savoy offshoot with its outsized fireplace specialises in spit-roasted meats. Start with one of the soups for which the chef is famous, perhaps artichoke with spice bread and wild mushrooms.
Atelier Maître Albert, 1 rue Maître Albert, 5th (00 33 1 56 81 30 01/ www.ateliermaitrealbert.com) Métro Maubert Mutualité. Meal for two with wine and service: around €120.
L’Avant Goût
CLASSIC BISTRO
Christophe Beaufront’s cheerful red-and-yellow bistro provides the perfect excuse to see the villagey Butte-aux-Cailles neighbourhood (or vice-versa). A classic dish is the updated pot-au-feu de cochon, various cuts of pork served with sweet potatoes, fennel and a glass of spiced broth.
L’Avant Goût, 26 rue Bobillot, 13th (00 33 1 53 80 24 00) Métro Place d’Italie. Meal for two with wine and service: around €80.
Le Buisson Ardent
The painted glass panels dating from 1925 would be reason enough to visit this bistro, but the kitchen also makes a big effort with inventive dishes such as scallops from Erquy with a lime-coriander emulsion and roasted sweet potatoes, and mango tarte tatin with lemon froth.
Le Buisson Ardent, 25 rue Jussieu, 5th (00 33 1 43 54 93 02/www.lebuissonardent.fr) Métro Jussieu. Meal for two with wine and service: around €80.
Article continues
Mon Vieil Ami
Renowned Alsatian chef Antoine Westermann gives vegetables star status at his Ile St-Louis bistro. Under his protégé Frédéric Crochet, the kitchen turns out sophisticated bistro fare that borrows from French regions and abroad, as in ‘Tarbais beans with preserved lemon and fresh coriander, crisp shoulder of lamb’.
Mon Vieil Ami, 69 rue St-Louis en l’Ile, 4th (00 33 1 40 46 01 35/www.mon-vieil-ami.com) Métro Pont Marie. Meal for two with wine and service: around €110.
Les Papilles
It looks like a long, narrow wine shop with some tables and a bar, but Les Papilles is home to a chef with haute cuisine credentials. Go for the four-course menu, which brings sophisticated bistro cooking served family-style in cast-iron and copper pots, and choose your wine straight off the shelves for a €6 corkage charge.
Les Papilles, 30 rue Gay Lussac, 5th (00 33 1 43 25 20 79/www.lespapillesparis.fr) Métro Luxembourg. Meal for two with wine and service: around €75.
Le Pré Verre
It’s rare to find a French chef who successfully incorporates Asian spices into bistro classics. Philippe Delacourcelle sets the standard here with dishes such as his trademark suckling pig with spices, making the restaurant so popular with visiting Japanese that he has opened a branch in Tokyo.
Le Pré Verre, 8 rue Thénard, 5th (00 33 1 43 54.59.47/www.lepreverre.com) Métro Maubert-Mutualité. Meal for two with wine and service: around €80.
Ribouldingue
Owner Nadège Varigny has a fondness for offal, from pig’s snout to lamb’s testicles, which is shared by many of the regulars here. If fried slices of cow’s udder make you shudder, you’ll also find more conventional dishes on the very affordable menu.
Ribouldingue, 10 rue St-Julien le Pauvre, 5th (00 33 1 46 33 98 80) Métro Saint-Michel. Meal for two with wine and service: around €75.
Latin quarter | The Marais and eastern Paris | St Germain and Montparnasse | Tuilleries and Opéra | Pigalle and Montmartre | Champs-Elysées
