Paris has reclaimed its status as one of the world’s favorite cities to eat. The French capital is bustling with a brilliant constellation of restaurants these days, including a bevy of openings that show off how deliciously cosmopolitan it’s become: Menkicchi is maybe the best ramen shop in town, young French Malian chef Mory Sacko cooks stunningly original dishes at Mosuke, and Korean-born chef Sukwon Yong shows off the growing influence of Asia on contemporary French cooking at the reboot of Le Bistrot Flaubert. Plus there’s an inventive and diverse array of casual dining options, like the affordable Café du Coin, excellent Montmartre bistro Le Maquis, and Parcelles, an outstanding bistrot a vins in the Marais. There’s also been a renaissance of Paris’s long-established gastronomic landscape, with traditional bistros, brasseries, and stylish restaurants serving classic French cooking made famous by chef Auguste Escoffier.
Updated, February 2023:
Contrary to received wisdom, Parisians actually appreciate foreign visitors — the occasional grumpy waiter or aloof shop clerk notwithstanding — and many are welcoming the return of tourists to the city. Between the international influx and an avid local appetite sharpened by the pandemic era, the restaurant scene in Paris is thriving. With inflation and sustainability weighing on many businesses, local restaurateurs are plotting fascinating new takes on French cooking for the 21st century. A perfect example is Magma (which replaces the still very good La Scene), where Japanese-born chef Ryuya Ono’s affordable and hugely original contemporary cooking deliciously turns many old rules on their heads, like that cheese doesn’t go well with fish, for example. It’s this kind of creativity that has put Paris at the cutting edge of Europe all over again.
We update this list quarterly to make sure it reflects the ever-changing Paris dining scene.
Alexander Lobrano is a Paris restaurant expert and author of Hungry for Paris, Hungry for France, and his gastronomic coming-of-age story My Place at the Table. He blogs about restaurants and writes often for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Saveur, and other publications.
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