Best Views in Paris

The Académie française's secret canteen, in Voltaire's own building.

Alain Passard's three-Michelin temple to vegetables on rue de Varenne.

Two Michelin stars, a Green Star, and surprise tasting menus.

Frédéric Anton's two-star kitchen 125m up the Eiffel Tower.

Mathieu Pacaud's seafood Michelin star, behind the Esplanade des Invalides.

Tomy Gousset's Michelin-starred neo-bistro near the Esplanade.

Gaël Orieux's quiet Michelin star, sustainable fish only, fifteen years running.

The Bernard Loiseau group's Michelin-starred Palais-Bourbon canteen.

Christian Constant's cast-iron-pot canteen on rue Saint-Dominique.

The soufflé restaurant of the 7e, behind Le Bon Marché.

Prince Roland Bonaparte's former mansion with Eiffel-facing rooms and Shang Palace's Cantonese kitchen.

Haussmannian Hôtel Majestic resurrected with rooftop L'Oiseau Blanc and a 360-degree dome view.

The only chateau-hotel in Paris — Laura Gonzalez interiors, walled garden and Bellefeuille's Michelin star.

Philippe Starck's 1970s post-office turned Trocadéro design hotel with rooftop kitchen garden.

Japanese-precision French classical pâtisserie on avenue de Breteuil — Saint-Honoré as the benchmark

Paris's oldest chocolate shop since 1800 — Marie Antoinette's chemist's listed boutique on rue des Saints-Pères

Whitewashed teppanyaki bolthole — chef Koji Aida's Paris-Japan grammar since 2008.

Stéphane Jégo's Basque-Breton bistronomie since 2004 — riz au lait that built a pilgrimage.

Forty-seat 7e bistro behind Musée d'Orsay — chef Patrick Plais's blanquette, lentil salad, chocolate mousse in a fruit-bowl.

The Melbourne brunch room that taught Montmartre flat whites.

Frédéric Anton's 3-Michelin pavilion in the Bois de Boulogne.

1900 Bois de Boulogne pavilion — Michelin star since 1965, Empire and Belle Époque rotunda.

1927 Trocadéro tea-room — marble tables, white aprons, view across to the Tower.

Philippe Starck's Mediterranean ground-floor in Evok's 16e flagship.

1-Michelin garden-supplied dining room in a private Passy château-hotel.

Franck Audoux's cocktail bar in a 1911 Hector Guimard Art Nouveau building.

Husband-and-wife Michelin star on avenue de Versailles — chef Noam Gedalof, sommelier Etheliya Hananova.

A working 'routier' off Trocadéro — checkered tablecloths, 18-euro lunch.

Antoine Westermann's Montmartre poultry house — heritage breeds, rotisserie at the top of the hill.

Five-suite hidden townhouse on avenue Junot — Le Très Particulier cocktail bar, 900m² Benech garden.

1889 Abbesses brasserie — shellfish counter, Cantal charcuterie, no Montmartre theatre.

The 7e roastery that started Paris's specialty-coffee third wave in 2011.

Slavic luxe in a 1910 Art Nouveau hôtel particulier — Paris Society's caviar address.

Mikaela Liaroutsos's Greek bistro on rue Eugène Carrière — Michelin Guide listing, Le Fooding regular.

Basque auberge on Quai Saint-Exupéry — Pierre Oteiza Kintoa pork, pintxos, the Trinquet Village Seine-edge terrace.

Franck Baranger's bistronomy benchmark — Bib Gourmand on a Pigalle backstreet.

Jody Williams's all-day gastrothèque — the SoPi room that never feels off.

The XXL bouillon that put 19th-century working-class dining back on the map.

The original Pigalle boutique — leather banquettes, art on every wall, brunch all weekend.

Big Mamma's four-floor Florentine theatre under a Pigalle glass roof.

Candlelit 9e dining room, reborn under chef Lucie Boursier-Mougenot.

The 1896 original — Belle Époque listed dining room, twelve euros for blanquette.

Pigalle absinthe speakeasy — 50 Best Discovery, the Little Red Door team's Storyville room.

Pigalle bar-restaurant by Fabien Lombardi (ex-Prescription) — natural wines, aged cocktails, PUNCH-listed.

Faubourg Saint-Honoré palace — Epicure (3 Michelin) and the audience's safest 8e booking.

Christian Le Squer's three-Michelin showcase inside George V — the textbook for Paris haute cuisine.

Two-Michelin glass pavilion at George V where the kitchen runs on vegetables, dairy and seafood — no meat.

Simone Zanoni's Mediterranean-Italian one-Michelin at George V — the palace alternative to a tasting menu.

Three-Michelin since 1996 — the chef who taught Paris that haute cuisine could improvise.

Yannick Alléno's three-Michelin in a pavilion at the Champs-Élysées gardens — the sauce-extraction reference.

Yasunari Okazaki's two-Michelin sushi counter inside Pavillon Ledoyen — twelve seats, ikejime fish.

Alléno's one-Michelin counter format at Pavillon Ledoyen — the realistic same-week booking.

Jérôme Banctel's three-Michelin in a Napoleon III mansion off the Champs-Élysées.

The Plaza's restored heritage-French dining room — recipes excavated from two-and-a-half centuries of menus.

Two Michelin since 1946 — the institution where Paris learned modern restaurant service.

Place de la Madeleine institution since 1839 — Hugo Bourny's contemporary take on the Art Nouveau room.

Stéphanie Le Quellec's two-Michelin counter-front room on avenue Matignon.

The Directoire mansion with the retractable roof — a multi-decade Paris institution off the Champs-Élysées.

Two-Michelin in an 1884 mansion off the Champs — the Domaine Clarence Dillon dining room.

Paul Pairet's grill-and-rotisserie brasserie at the Crillon — the chic French fire-cooking room.

Crillon palace bar with eighteenth-century frescos — Kévin Rigault's 'A Sense of Memories' menu.

Madeleine institution since 1927 — the first-floor caviar dining room above the boutique.

Truffle institution on the Madeleine since 1932 — boutique downstairs, restaurant upstairs.

The original 1862 Ladurée tea room — the room that invented the Paris salon de thé.

Three Michelin stars, Japanese precision in a Coq-Héron jewel-box dining room

Palais-Royal arcade institution since 1784 — historic monument with a kitchen in transition

Two-star Ducasse dining room overlooking the Tuileries, with Cédric Grolet desserts

Anglophone-led tasting menu in a triplex above the Palais-Royal — Paris's quiet neo-bistro standard

Adeline Grattard's bistro reincarnation — Franco-Cantonese cooking after Yam'Tcha proper closes

Mediterranean cooking with a Tuileries terrace at the foot of the Louvre

Classical French pâtisserie under the Pyramides arcades — tea room facing the Tuileries

The Ritz's wood-paneled cocktail room — bookless reservations and a serious dry martini

Modern French bistronomic on a quiet Les Halles side street — chef-driven, value-strong tasting

1898 Place Vendôme palace — Coco Chanel's home, Hemingway's bar, Espadon's dining room

Art Deco palace on rue Saint-Honoré — 14m pool, garden courtyard, Cédric Grolet's pastry boutique

One Michelin star inside Place des Vosges' most discreet pavilion — Marais gastronomy without the spectacle.

Fewer than 20 seats, one Michelin star, one chef's vision — the Marais's most surgical tasting menu.

The bistro mythology lives at #32 rue du Vertbois — controversial, expensive, irreplaceable.

The Marais corner where natural wine, oysters and serious cocktails collapse into one room.

Open-fire Marais bistro where côte de bœuf is grilled in front of you on a wood hearth.

A Provençal bistro hiding behind Place des Vosges — and the city's largest pastis collection.

Bertrand Larcher's original Paris crêperie — Bordier butter, Breton cider, Tokyo-trained discipline.

Argentinian carnivore room in a former butcher shop — relaunched with Mauro Colagreco's hand on the menu.

1864 Belle Époque brasserie under a stained-glass dome — choucroute, plateaux de fruits de mer, full theatre.

1924 corner bistro with an open kitchen — and Paris's most decorated bœuf bourguignon.

Paris's oldest covered market, since 1615 — 21 stalls, all of lunchtime Marais, on one block.

The cult sandwich stall inside Marché des Enfants Rouges — 30-minute queue, 13.50€, no apologies.

Since 1979 on rue des Rosiers — the Pletzl falafel sandwich Lenny Kravitz and Natalie Portman keep coming back for.

World's 50 Best Bars veteran — eleven consecutive years on the list, peak rank #6 in 2023.

Taqueria up front, hidden cocktail bar through the back door — one of Paris's first speakeasies, still in form.

Whisky-led cocktail den behind a discreet 4e façade — Vogue called it one of the world's 20 best.

Mazouz brothers' Marais cocktail bar — North African-Pop Art mash-up, since 2001, with a hidden courtyard.

5-star hideaway behind ivy on Place des Vosges — 56 rooms, a courtyard, a Michelin-starred restaurant.

12 rooms, all looking onto Place des Vosges — Evok Collection's quietest, most contemplative Paris address.

Boutique design hotel inside a former metals factory — concrete, courtyard, cocktail bar at the centre.

12 rooms, exposed beams, quiet 4e side street — the Marais's small, well-priced character hotel.

Marais chocolatier with a tea room — millefeuille made à la minute, possibly Paris's finest caramels.

Myriam Sabet's Levantine pâtisserie — kadaïf 1001-feuilles that Istanbul visitors instinctively recognise.

Christophe Vasseur's 1875-listed bakery on rue Yves Toudic — pain des amis, escargots, no shortcuts.

Canal Saint-Martin's natural-wine institution — 400 references, plates from the kitchen behind the bottles.

The Australian-style breakfast counter that taught Paris to queue for pancakes — and serve them well.

Naturophile cave-à-manger by the canal — visiting chefs, no reservations, minimum-intervention list.

Charles Compagnon's open-plan neo-bistro — Asian-inflected cooking, no reservations, all-day kitchen.

Anglo-French neo-bistro on Faubourg Poissonnière — a wine list with weight, an unfussy kitchen.

French-spirits-only cocktail bar in a graffiti-clad doorway — World's 50 Best Bars regular.

Female-led cocktail bar with bi-fold windows on the Belleville-Canal axis — zero pretension, real depth.

Avenue Montaigne palace with red awnings, Dior Spa and Jean Imbert's gilded dining room.

The only European palace with three Michelin-starred restaurants and Jeff Leatham's florals.

1758 stone palace on Place de la Concorde, gold-scaled pool and Karl Lagerfeld suites.

Tuileries-facing Dorchester palace with Restaurant Le Meurice Alain Ducasse and Cédric Grolet pastry.

Place Vendôme palace by Ed Tuttle with Michelin-starred Pur' and a contemporary art-hung corridor.

Philippe Starck's contemporary palace with private cinema, Matsuhisa and the Clarins-MyBlend spa.

LVMH's Samaritaine flagship with three-Michelin Plénitude, Dior Spa Cheval Blanc and a 30-meter pool.

Pierre Yves Rochon-designed townhouse-palace near the Élysée with Michelin two-star Le Gabriel.

Jean-Louis Deniot-designed Evok hotel facing Comédie-Française, with Brasserie Réjane and a marble pool.

Laurent Taïeb's reborn 1888 central post office with rooftop ROOF and Eiffel-facing terraces.

Yann Couvreur's first patisserie since May 2016 — the original room with the fox-mark logo

Gaston Lenôtre's flagship since 1957 — the Plaine Monceau room that taught a generation of French pastry chefs

Belle Époque salon de thé since 1903 — Mont-Blanc and chocolat l'Africain under the rue de Rivoli arcades

Robert Linxe's original chocolate boutique since 1977 — the room that defined Paris bean-to-praline

Meilleur Ouvrier de France 2000 chocolatier — the Madeleine flagship with the life-size chocolate sculptures

France's oldest tea house since 1854 — the Bourg-Tibourg flagship with the colonial-era painted casks

Mickaël Benichou's 2013 patisserie-boulangerie — painted-ceiling 19th-century shop, marble counter heaped with bread

Ten-seat omakase between Louvre and Place Vendôme — chef Satoshi Kobayashi's surgical edomae.

Counter-seat Korean — chef Kim Kwang-Loc's mandu and tartares, fashion-week regulars on stools.

Marais Korean BBQ — chef Sunghak Han's table-top grill, halal option, Michelin guide listing.

Mourad Mazouz's Marais Maghreb institution since 1990 — tagines and pastilla under 17th-century beams.

Southwest French institution since 1894 — Art-Nouveau dining room beside the Halles épicerie.

Tiny zinc-bar bistro near Châtelet — GaultMillau toque, charcuterie from named Auvergne producers.

Canal Saint-Martin Cambodian institution — bo bun, summer rolls, banana-tapioca dessert, packed every night.

1906 Art Nouveau bouillon — Mucha-style nymphs, listed monument, Édith Piaf's table.

1895 Saint-Lazare brasserie — Niermans mosaics, listed since 1989.

1919 Place des Ternes brasserie — Laura Gonzalez interior, three-time MOF écailler.

2-Michelin institution off Place des Ternes — 45 years of haute French classicism.

MOF chef, 1-Michelin, Parisian-apartment dining on rue Bayen.

Jean-Marc Notelet's chalkboard bistro — spice-forward cuisine du marché near l'Étoile.

1883 Belle Époque seafood brasserie — Rostang family, daily-port-sourced fish.

The first Italian in Paris to win a Michelin star — 600-bottle list, 40 years on.

Emmanuel Ryon — MOF glacier, Pastry World Champion — turns gelato into Marais grand cru.

The Île Saint-Louis institution Gault Millau crowned in 1961 — still family-run, still the standard.

Natural-wine cave-à-manger from 2008 — David Lebovitz's pick, pre-trend bona fides.

1898 Art Nouveau dining room, classified historic monument — Belle Époque bouillon revived.

Paris's oldest artisanal coffee roaster — since 1880, still on the same Saint-Honoré sidewalk.

Marais épicerie-fine + restaurant — Delphine Plisson's Dean & DeLuca answer for Paris.

Haut-Marais no-menu cocktail bar — bartender asks your mood, builds the drink around French organic seasonal produce.

République speakeasy hidden behind a working laundromat — push the right washing-machine door, climb the staircase.

Le Bristol's curiosity-cabinet bar — Maxime Hoerth, first bartender awarded Meilleur Ouvrier de France (2011).

Royal Monceau's Philippe Starck-designed long bar — Forbes Travel Guide Star Bars 2025 pick on Avenue Hoche.

Châtelet jazz club since 1984 — 300+ concerts a year, free Friday-Saturday midnight jam.

Anatolian home cooking on rue Pasquier — the Madeleine room the Istanbul audience will actually recognise.

Ethiopian institution on rue Sauffroy — the 17e Batignolles room that has held the cuisine in Paris for decades.

Vegan French on rue Saint-Paul — twenty-plus years reinterpreting French classics without animal product.

Mexican street-food institution on rue Eugène Varlin — Canal Saint-Martin's handmade-tortilla bench since 2011.

Bertrand Grébaut's 11e neo-bistro that reset the gravitational centre east in 2011.

Greg Marchand's 2e bistro that rewrote the neo-bistro template in 2009.

Mahogany expat bar from 1911 — birthplace of the Bloody Mary, between Opéra and the Place Vendôme

The 2007 Sentier speakeasy that built modern Paris cocktail culture — still no reservations

The no-reservations rue du Nil counter from Gregory Marchand's group — natural wine and small plates

Italian bistrattoria in the 19th-century Passage des Panoramas — Simone Tondo's Michelin-starred room

The Goncourt Prize restaurant since 1914 — Place Gaillon institution under chef Romain Van Thienen

Contemporary Lebanese on rue de la Banque — Liza Asseily's Beirut-Paris dialogue

1890 Lyon-bouchon-style bistro — under the Dumant family from 2025, after Ducasse

The trompe-l'oeil fruit pastries you've seen on Instagram — boutique and salon

Sartre and Beauvoir's corner of Boulevard Saint-Germain since 1887.

The other Saint-Germain café, with the better view of the church.

Alsatian choucroute, landmarked Art Nouveau, the Académiciens' lunch.

Hemingway's table, a piano bar, and the steak that bears his name.

Two Michelin stars in the Hôtel de la Monnaie, looking at the Seine.

The bistronomy capital of Paris, on the Carrefour de l'Odéon.

William Ledeuil's Southeast-Asian-French cuisine, Michelin-starred since 2008.

The 1932 bistro classique, Ducasse-stewarded since 2013.

Eric Trochon's industrial bistronomy on rue de Seine.

The tiny bistro between Saint-Sulpice and Luxembourg, Fooding-prize winner.

The only Palace hotel on the Left Bank, 1910 Belle Époque on Boulevard Raspail.

The Picasso of pastry, in his original Saint-Germain showcase.

The Saint-Germain sourdough institution since 1932.

Septime's no-reservations seafood sister — daily-catch small plates on rue de Charonne.

The Levha sisters' Franco-Filipino neo-bistro under a hand-painted ceiling on rue Saint-Maur.

The wine bar inside the Septime universe — 90 natural references, 30 standing seats, no booking.

Cyril Lignac's classified-monument bistro — fish-forward menu in an 1894 zinc-and-mosaic room.

The 11e's reference bistro — steak-frites, soufflé, white tablecloths and zero affectation.

Pauline Séné's Top Chef-pedigreed bistronomy at the more ambitious end of rue Paul Bert.

Belle Époque tiles, marionette-sized kitchen, neo-bistro cooking — opposite the Cirque d'Hiver.

Half-punk, half-precise — the natural-wine small-plates bistro that rewrote the 11e in 2011.

Oberkampf natural-wine canteen, charcuterie and small plates, run by ex-Chateaubriand.

Vegetable-driven neo-bistro with a 400-bottle wine list and savoury-leaning desserts.

Mok and Omar's lunch counter and bakery — Lebanese-Japanese-American detail in a 25-seat room.

Maxime Bouttier's first solo table — raw-and-living tasting menu on rue de la Folie Méricourt.

1902 Art Nouveau brasserie on Ledru-Rollin — Mucha frescoes, listed interior, honest cooking.

A turn-of-the-century café preserved without irony — zinc bar, red banquettes, all-day terrace.

Marble-clad tapas-and-wine room next to the old Chateaubriand — Rem Koolhaas interior, natural-wine list.

Former Hugo & Victor relaunched under the chef's name — 2003 French Dessert Champion's first eponymous boutique

Japanese-French pâtisserie since 2001 — matcha, yuzu and black sesame on classical French structures

Cyril Lignac and Benoît Couvrand's original 11e patisserie — the Equinoxe was born here

Best Baguette de Paris 2024 winner — sourdough, charcoal-black tradition, and weekend croissant programme

Alain Ducasse's bean-to-bar manufacture in the 11e — Nicolas Berger's atelier behind a cobbled courtyard

Paris's oldest pâtisserie since 1730 — Louis XV's pastry chef's listed shop on rue Montorgueil