16 Best Restaurants in Champs-Élysees, Paris

Tucked away in a quiet garden across from the Petit Palais, Ledoyen—open since 1779—is a study in Empire-style elegance (this is where Napoléon first met his eventual wife Joséphine). Star chef Yannick Alléno injects the three-star dining room with a frisson of modernity by putting fresh farmhouse ingredients front and center in his €415, nine-course tasting extravaganza (a seven-course menu is a slightly more reasonable €295, and there are à la carte options). This may seem de trop, but in Alléno's hands dishes like smoked eel soufflé with watercress coulis and candied onion, tender mussels with tart green apple and caviar, or artichoke-and-Parmesan gratin are rendered as light as a feather. The desserts are tiny masterpieces.

This handsome historic bistro highlights the extraordinary synergy that can happen when French technique meets Asian flavors. Classics like pigeon or beef come alive with pickled daikon radish, tamarind, or saké. You'll still find dishes firmly anchored in the French repertoire, like trout with trout caviar and whipped anchovy butter with lovage, or a caramel and quince dacquoise for dessert. The six-course dinner menu (€76) provides an excellent introduction to chef Louis de Vicari's outsized talent, and with five wine pairings for €60 you'll get a primer in French wines too. This is a restaurant Parisians in the know will cross town for, and that's saying a lot.

Pascal Barbot, who rose to fame at his Rue Beethoven digs (where he earned three Michelin stars), recently reopened in a larger, more luminous dining room. Though he lost a star in 2019, his cuisine remains resolutely haute (and his clientele just as loyal), with dishes that often draw on Asian ingredients, as in black-curry roasted pigeon or suckling lamb in a date and ginger sauce followed by a palate-cleansing white sorbet spiked with chili pepper and lemongrass. The restaurant offers à la carte dining, as well as lunch menus for €85 or €125 and the full tasting menu for €285 at dinner (this is what most people come for). Each menu also comes at a (significantly) higher price with wines to match each course. Barbot's cooking has such an ethereal quality that it's worth the considerable effort of booking a table—you should start trying well in advance. 

Christian Le Squer is among the most famous and most respected chefs in Paris, as proved by his turn here at one of the city's most deluxe dining rooms. You'll find all the luxury products you might expect—caviar, truffles, game in season—along with a masterful touch that often transforms homey Breton ingredients such as oysters or lamb into imaginative tours de force. A perfect example would be his famous Île de Chausey lobster, marinated in citrus and served in a heart of caramelized romaine with a featherlight beurre blanc mousseux. Desserts are ethereal, wines are top-notch, and service is unfailingly thoughtful.

Hide Kobayashi, known as "Koba," is one of several Japanese chefs in Paris who trained with some of the biggest names in French cuisine before opening their own restaurants. Not surprisingly, this great-value bistro near the Arc de Triomphe became instantly popular (reservations are a must) with locals as well as visiting Japanese and Americans who follow the food scene. Generosity is the key to the cooking here, which steers clear of haute-cuisine flourishes; both the monkfish fricassee with anchovy-rich tapenade and a classic veal kidney in mustard sauce, for instance, come with a heap of mashed potatoes. For dessert, try the stunning île flottante (floating island), made with oven-baked meringue. Wines by the glass start at €8—unheard-of in this area.

Parisian to its core, the Hôtel Plaza Athénée's Art Deco dining room—including a beautiful mural that's a registered historic landmark—is a cherished neighborhood treasure. Masterful updates of French classics include dishes like terrine of wild boar, langoustines and mayo, coquilles St-Jacques à la Grenobloise, and a stunning steak tartare prepared table-side. We love the house-made foie gras with slices of fresh figs and a rich dried-fruit chutney along with a fresh green salad generously topped with shaved black truffles. Bonus: if the gastronomic dining room helmed by star chef Jean Imbert is out of your price range, these delectable classics are also prepared here by Imbert.

Perhaps the most traditional of all Paris luxury restaurants, this elegant two-star grande dame basks in renewed freshness under chef Giuliano Sperandio, who brings a welcome contemporary spirit that translates to daring on the plate. Dishes such as scallops meunière (with butter and lemon) are matched with contemporary choices like a splendid line-caught Saint-Pierre cooked over fennel twigs with a gratin of herb mussels and roasted langoustine or duckling poached in vin jaune with saffron-caviar sauce. One of the 19th-century paneled salons has been turned into a winter garden, and contemporary paintings adorn the walls. The service is flawless, and the legendary wine list is full of classics.

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.

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.

A Champs-Élysées institution, Le Fouquet's brasserie has served steak tartare and lobster ravioli to the French royalty of stage and screen since 1899; Edith Piaf and Charles Aznavour were regulars, and the César Awards dinner is still served here every year. The brasserie's two glassed-in terraces overlook Avenue George V and the Champs-Élysées and provide an excellent spot for watching the Parisian world go by. Settle into a black velvet chair for breakfast, lunch (€49 for three-course prix-fixe option), or dinner (€99 for three-course prix-fixe option, with glass of Champagne). It's not cheap, but the reliably good menu, designed by superstar chef Pierre Gagnaire, is full of French classics.

This legendary French provincial dining room has entered a new era with the departure of chef Éric Fréchon, tapping Arnaud Faye, previously of Chantilly's Chèvre d'Or, to take his place, and so far, retaining its three Michelin stars. Faye has brought his own flair while upholding a standard of excellence and finesse befitting the dining room. If €360 (for six courses; €490 for eight) seems high, you might think of it as an investment in a sublime evening and a beautiful memory. In summer, dining out in the hotel's French garden is a delight.

Some Japanese expats say you won't find anything closer to authentic Japanese cooking in Paris than the kitchen in Kifuné. Sit at the bar to admire the sushi chef's lightning-quick skills, or opt for a more intimate table for tasting the sublime crab-and-shrimp salad starter or a deeply comforting miso soup with clams. To follow, you can't go wrong with the sashimi. Eating here will leave a dent in your wallet (though there is a €35 set menu at lunch), but for fans of Japanese cuisine, the meals are worth it. With only 20 seats, it often turns away would-be customers, so book in advance.

Run by Yoichi Kino, a 30-year master sushi chef whose family has specialized in smoked eel for generations, and Ryuma Takubo, who earned a Michelin star in Japan, Komatsubaki specializes in the exquisite vegetarian cuisine favored by Japanese monks. Diners choose from three sophisticated prix-fixe menus, including a stunning vegetarian version, all served on delicate dishes and accompanied by a distinctive selection of white Burgundies, sakes, and teas. Watch the chefs at work in a tiny jewel-box setting, complete with an elegant authentic dining room that seats six on tatami mats. 

Chef Thomas Boullault made a seamless transition when he took the helm of this storied dining room, a favorite among Parisian gourmets. Expect seasonal dishes with a touch of finesse from the open kitchen. Elegant creations like tartelette (tartlet) of venison with squid and trompettes de la mort mushrooms in a wine reduction might be featured. There is no à la carte, and if the dinner menus seem steep at €140 (several dishes have supplements), try the lunch menu for €85. Watch out for the pricey wines by the glass.

The operatically beautiful LiLi, in the Peninsula Paris hotel, puts sophisticated Cantonese cuisine in its rightful place—the gastronomic center of the world. The menu features all the classics, raised to the status of haute cuisine: small plates of dim sum (seafood, vegetable, or pork dumplings) alongside more substantial fare like fried rice studded with market-fresh vegetables, succulent Sichuan shrimp, and barbecued suckling pig. The chef's signature crème de mangue laced with pomelo pearls is an ethereal ending to an exceptional meal. At €75, the prix-fixe lunch menu is a wonderful introduction to this timeless cuisine.

Despite opening in the midst of a pandemic, in September 2021, this sumptuous contemporary dining room—tucked away in a stunner of a Belle Époque town house—achieved a Michelin star within five months. Chef Sébastien Sanjou's ingredients all have pedigrees (listed on the menu) for exceptional seasonal fare that's both refined and robust. This discreet black book address is all the rage among discriminating Paris gastronomes.