
11 of the best restaurants in Paris
In recent times, Paris restaurants have shed rigid hierarchies to embrace a more dynamic and diverse worldview. I've been exploring the scene here for years, and the rise of neo-bistros has highlighted seasonally driven menus and vegetable-led cooking, while a new generation of chefs bring multicultural influences to bear on traditional tastes. But wherever and whatever you choose to eat, a meal out in Paris remains a daily ritual steeped in pleasure, provenance and a deep reverence for good food. Bon appétit!
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£££ | BOOK AHEAD | Best for a blow-the-budget gourmet extravaganza
Any of Paris's ten three-Michelin-starred restaurants will deliver a fine-dining experience that might very well be the meal of a lifetime (possibly with a once-in-a-lifetime price tag to match). But Plénitude one-ups the others with its magical location on the first floor of the ultra-luxe Cheval Blanc hotel and its dreamy views along the Seine and across the Pont Neuf. Dishes take inspiration from chef Arnaud Donckele's native Normandy, and his adopted homes of the Mediterranean (where he has the three-Michelin-starred La Vague d'Or in St Tropez) and Paris, with an emphasis on expertly balanced saucing. Expect the likes of chicken with caviar and courgette artfully arranged in a velvety champagne velouté. It's open for dinner only from Tuesday to Saturday, and you should leave time afterwards for a drink in the hotel's seventh-floor bar Le Tout-Paris with its view of the illuminated Eiffel Tower. A plush room for the night comes recommended for those looking to keep the celebrations going.
££ | BOOK AHEAD | Best for a fabulous French meal straight off the train
Quality places to eat around the Gare du Nord are as rare as an empty seat in the Eurostar waiting area, but to start (or end) your trip with an abundance of ooh la la, this tiny dining room — a five-minute walk from the station — is absolutely comme il faut. The day's menu is chalked up on a blackboard paraded around the closely set tables — though with only a few options per course, this is not the place for fussy eaters. Offal lovers and anyone who likes punchy flavours, however, will rejoice in the likes of a doorstep of duck pie laced with silky chicken liver. Les Arlots is a bistro à vins; chef Thomas Brachet takes care of the cooking, while his co-owner Tristan Renoux looks after the wine (and wine bar Billili next door), which involves a chat about preferences rather than a list.
facebook.com/lesarlots
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£££ | BOOK AHEAD | Best for fine dining without the formality
Eat in any French restaurant where fine dining is delivered without the fuss of starched tablecloths, supercilious service and sky-high prices, and you're eating in a restaurant influenced by Septime. Chef Bertrand Grébaut turbocharged the bistronomy movement when he launched this place in 2011 and Septime remains as relevant today as when it opened, with a frequently tweaked tasting menu served in an industrial-feeling interior of blackened steel and untreated wood. Influences are as likely to be Asian or North African as European, and the pairing of natural wines is the best way to get the most from the menu's assertively fresh flavours. Bookings open three weeks ahead; if you can't get a table, pay the corkage fee for a bottle at the wine shop Septime La Cave across the road and share some small plates, or try the no-reservations Clamato, a seafood sibling next door.
septime-charonne.fr
££ | BOOK AHEAD | Best for a French bistro fantasy with old-school charm
Picture the perfect French restaurant and it will probably look like Chez Georges: net curtains in the windows, mosaiced tiles on the floor, nicotine-yellow walls hung with huge mirrors for people-watching, leather banquettes buffed to a high shine from thousands of bottoms and backs, and paper-clothed tables packed so closely they must be removed when anyone wishes to go to the loo. One might assume it was a pastiche were it not for the fact that Chez Georges has looked like this since 1964, and the intervening years have allowed the kitchen to perfect a never-changing menu of classic bourgeois comfort. If in doubt, order something creamy: celeriac rémoulade followed by veal sweetbreads with morel sauce, then chestnut purée topped with double cream, perhaps. There are some big-ticket Burgundies and Bordeaux on the wine list proper, but the best-value bins are scrawled in the margins of the handwritten menu.
No website; phone +33 1 42 60 07 11
££ | BOOK AHEAD | Best for fine French ingredients and authentic Moroccan cooking
This family-friendly Moroccan restaurant, all mosaic-topped tables and brass moucharabieh lanterns, stands out from the north African competition for two compelling reasons: the quality of its ingredients and the natural wines that partner the cooking. Le Tagine's commitment to all things orange and unfiltered is matched only by the high calibre of its beautifully presented cuisine, shown to most delicious effect in the 20 or so couscous and tagine dishes. Try a chicken with olive and preserved lemon tagine, or the couscous méchoui in which star billing goes to leg of milk-fed lamb from the Pyrenees. Breads and pastries made in house show the same dedication to labour-intensive sourcing and authenticity.
letagine-restaurant.com
££ | Best for a seafood-centric late lunch
The Marché Couvert des Enfants Rouges is the oldest covered market in Paris, having occupied this spot in the Marais since the early 17th century. Les Enfants du Marché arrived some 400 years later and still feels like it brings something new to Paris with its no-bookings chef's counter right on the market floor (wrap up warm in cooler months). Expect to queue for one of the dozen or so stools, then prepare to be dazzled by fish-focused small plates that excel in bold pairings: crudo of line-caught grouper with candied citron zest and horseradish is a typically vivid assembly. The wait to be seated is less painful as the afternoon goes on; should you find yourself still here at the early-evening closing time, pick up a bottle to take away from the restaurant's La Cave wine shop round the corner.
lesenfantsdumarche.fr
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£££ | BOOK AHEAD | Best for a unique fusion of cuisines from a star chef
Montparnasse was once famous for its café culture of caffeine-and-croissant-fuelled artists and intellectuals; now it's the cooking of the chef Mory Sacko that gets foodies coming to the residential 14th arrondissement — assuming they've had the foresight (and perseverance) to reserve a table the moment bookings are released about three months in advance. MoSuke was the first west African restaurant in France to win a Michelin star, but Japan is just as much of an influence on the French-born Sacko as his Malian and Senegalese heritage, alluded to in a restaurant name inspired by the only African samurai. If that all sounds too much to take in, it makes perfect sense on the palate in thrillingly distinctive dishes such as the signature Tanzanian and Madagascan chocolate tart with wasabi ice cream that concludes a menu available in four, six or nine courses.
mosuke-restaurant.com
££ | BOOK AHEAD | Best for a contemporary take on bistro classics
Sarah Michielsen, the soignée owner of Parcelles, respects tradition without being slavishly in thrall to the past. When she bought the former Le Taxi Jaune — a famous 1930s bistro near the Pompidou Centre — she left the look of the place largely unchanged: white tablecloths, copper-topped bar, tiled floors and windows which open to the Marais street when it's warm enough. But with Parcelles, she introduced a menu of classic comfort cooking updated for modern tastes and served by staff who seem to have been to charm school. Butter-drenched scallops come draped with guanciale, there are great veggie dishes such as potato gnocchi with sage butter and fried sage, and almost everything is made in house — so much so that there's now an épicerie opposite selling pickles and pâtés. The sort of casually sophisticated place you could just as easily turn up to in jeans and trainers as a suit and tie.
parcelles-paris.fr
£££ | BOOK AHEAD | Best for plant-focused, sustainable tasting menus
Manon Fleury is something special: a chef who has put her money where her mouth is and opened a restaurant that embodies her belief in natural sustainability, human dignity and animal welfare. Of course, it helps that her zero-waste cooking, prepared and served by a mostly female staff, is so enthralling, with fruit and veg at the forefront of a menu of micro-seasonal ingredients sourced from small-scale French producers, and meat and fish only used sparingly to point up the subtle flavours and aromas of the plant-based cuisine. Think pairings such as a Swiss chard mille-feuille with yellow pollock, or a dessert of lemon with Jerusalem artichoke. The skylit-illuminated room, with its polished concrete floors and oak dining chairs, is as invitingly textured as the cooking.
datil-restaurant.fr
£ | Best for deep-filled pitta sandwiches that won't break the bank
You can eat in at the family-friendly L'As du Fallafel, but given that a falafel sandwich is the Middle East's answer to street food and the street here is so atmospheric — the traffic-free and cobbled Rue des Rosiers in the historic Jewish quarter of the Pletzl, where kosher bakeries now sit next to chic boutiques — do as the locals do and eat while window-shopping. A combination of quality cooking and celebrity endorsements (Natalie Portman says this is her favourite meal in Paris) means you should expect to queue, but what is handed through the hatch is worth the wait: a pillow of pitta stuffed with crisp falafel, crunchy salad, squishy aubergine and spicy harissa sauce for 10 euros (£8.50). Note that it's closed Friday evenings until Sunday mornings, in which case you could try King Falafel Palace a few doors down.
instagram.com/lasdufallafel
£ | Best for kid-friendly crêpes and parent-friendly alternatives
If you haven't had a proper crêpe since your French exchange (the ones made on a hotplate in the park don't count), then this ever-expanding stable of Gallic pancake houses across the city is a reminder of just how delicious they can be. Breizh is the Breton word for Brittany, where the founder and Breton native Bertrand Larcher grows his organic buckwheat (naturally gluten-free) for savoury galettes such as the ham, egg and Comté cheese 'complète'. Kids will love the chocolate and cream-filled sweet crêpes, though the version slicked with nothing more than salted Bordier butter and brown sugar is a rather more adult-orientated pleasure, as is a glass of crisp Breton cider if a Breizh Cola isn't going to hit the spot. The original, tiny Breizh Café in the Marais remains the most atmospheric, but with a dozen chicly simple branches in the centre of Paris, you're never too far from a sugar spike when sightseeing fatigue sets in.
breizhcafe.com
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BBC News
10 hours ago
- BBC News
Tour de France - Pogacar takes yellow jersey after Evenepoel wins stage five time trial
Update: Date: 17:05 BST Title: Pogacar in his pomp Content: Tadej Pogacar becomes the first rider to wear the yellow, green and polka-dot jerseys at this stage in the Tour since Eddy Merckx in 1970. Update: Date: 17:00 BST Title: General classification after stage five Content: 1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 17hrs 22mins 58secs 2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Soudal Quick-Step) +42secs 3. Kevin Vauquelin (Fra/Arkea-B&B Hotels) +59secs 4. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Visma - Lease a Bike) +1min 13secs 5. Matteo Jorgenson (US/Visma-Lease a Bike) +1min 22secs 6. Mathieu van der Poel (Ned/Alpecin - Deceuninck) +1min 28secs 7. Joao Almeida (Por/UAE Team Emirates - XRG) +1min 53secs 8. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) +2mins 30secs 9. Florian Lipowitz (Ger/Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) +2mins 31secs 10. Mattias Skjelmose (Den/Lidl-Trek) +2mins 32secs Update: Date: 16:54 BST Title: Tough at the top Content: If you are wondering just where Jonas Vingegaard finished, well it was 13th, which means he is now fourth in the GC race, one minute and 13 seconds down on the leader and his main rival Tadej Pogacar. Update: Date: 16:51 BST Title: Stage five results Content: 1. Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Soudal Quick-Step) 36mins 42secs 2. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +16secs 3. Edoardo Affini (Ita/Visma-Lease a Bike) +33secs 4. Bruno Armirail (Fra/Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +35secs 5. Kevin Vauquelin (Fra/Arkea-B&B Hotels) +49secs 6. Florian Lipowitz (Ger/Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) +58secs 7. Ivan Romeo (Spa/Movistar) +1mins 02secs 8. Joao Almeida (Por/UAE Team Emirates - XRG) +1min 14secs 9. Lucas Plapp (Aut/Jayco AlUla) +1min 17secs 10. Pablo Castrillo (Spa/Movistar) +1min 18secs Update: Date: 16:42 BST Title: Van der Poel loses the maillot jaune Content: Mathieu van der Poel ends up one minute and 44 seconds back on Remco Evenepoel. To be honest. It's job done and a perfectly respectable time as his spell in yellow comes to an end. Tadej Pogacar will be the man in possession now. Update: Date: 16:36 BST Title: Pogacar on course for yellow Content: Tadej Pogacar is heading into the finish quick. He is up out of his saddle almost sprinting to the line. He crosses just 16 seconds adrift of Remco Evenepoel's time. The Slovenian is set to take the yellow jersey. Update: Date: 16:35 BST Title: Demoralising day for Vingegaard Content: Jonas Vingegaard finishes one minute and 21 seconds behind Remco Evenepoel. Wow. Update: Date: 16:34 BST Title: Vingegaard nears the finish Content: Jonas Vingegaard is in the last kilometre. This has been a hellish time trial for the two-time Tour champion. Remco Evenepoel is warming down with a TV in front of him, enjoying every second of this. Update: Date: 16:32 BST Title: Pogacar ploughs on Content: Tadej Pogacar's advantage on Jonas Vingegaard is over a minute on the road. This is unthinkable. Update: Date: 16:30 BST Title: Vingegaard suffering Content: Tadej Pogacar is absolutely flying at the moment. Meanwhile, Jonas Vingegaard is suffering. He has another five torturous kilometres to go. Update: Date: 16:27 BST Title: Vauquelin going well Content: Crikey. Kevin Vauquelin powers past Enric Mas, who began two minutes in front of him. Update: Date: 16:26 BST Title: How the dots drove history Content: Jeremy FordCycling journalist in Caen On 9 July 2015, stage Six of the Tour de France took place. A fairly flat 191.5km stage from Abbeville to Le Havre. Daniel Teklehaimanot of Team MTN-Qhubeka, a tall and slight 26-year-old from the small town of Debarwa in central Eritrea crosses the line in 145th position. However, at the moment Daniel crossed the line - 5:13pm that evening - a major moment in history took place. Daniel, with three KOM points, became the wearer of the 'polka dot' KOM jersey. At that moment, he became the first Black man to ever wear a jersey in the 112-year history of the Tour de France. Daniel said at the time in interviews: 'It is a big step for African cycling, and I feel really proud at the moment because I have this jersey,' he said. 'I am proud to be African, and I am proud to be Eritrean. This is a day I will never forget." And at that moment, nearly 8,000km away, a spark was lit. Back in Asmara, many people there watch the Tour de France in cinemas in exceptionally large groups so the emotions of seeing the first Eritrean win a Tour de France jersey ran wild, there were parties and festivities for days. Among those in the seats of a cinema in downtown Asmara was a just-turned 15-year-old Biniam Girmay. 'I remember it very well. I was in a cinema that day with my father. Every Eritrean felt so happy that day. It was just super nice to see to see an Eritrean rider shining in the Tour de France. Daniel was a complete legend to us all, and it was amazing to see him represent us back then.' Daniel Teklehaimanot 10 years ago Biniam Girmay this year taking the white jersey on stage 1 after winning green in 2024 Update: Date: 16:26 BST Title: Post Content: Remco Evenepoel has set a time of 36 minutes and 42 seconds but will it be enough for the yellow jersey? Tadej Pogacar is stabilising the gap to the Belgium and is 47 seconds ahead of Jonas Vingegaard on the road. The is 'Big Mig' v Rominger stuff. Update: Date: 16:24 BST Title: Evenepoel goes quickest Content: Remco Evenepoel is heading towards the finish... This is going to be quick. The Belgian crosses the line 33 seconds quicker than Edoardo Affini. He averaged 54km/h there. Update: Date: 16:20 BST Title: 'Go boy' Content: The Arkea B&B Hotels team radio are on to Kevin Vauquelin. "Go boy" is the instruction as they tell their young French rider that he faster than Primoz Roglic, Jonas Vingegaard and Matteo Jorgensen. Update: Date: 16:17 BST Title: Vingegaard toiling Content: Jonas Vingegaard looks like he could be going into the red. He is struggling big time. Tadej Pogacar has taken 30 seconds out of him at the second checkpoint. Update: Date: 16:15 BST Title: Evenepoel on course to go into hot seat Content: Remco Evenepoel is 11 seconds better than Edoardo Affini at the third checkpoint. The Italian will surely be getting twitchy in the hot seat now. Update: Date: 16:12 BST Title: Post Content: Mathieu vad der Poel goes through the first time check and he's not a million miles off Jonas Vingegaard's time so fairly respectable stuff from the Dutch rider. The virtual GC shows Tadej Pogacar with a 25-second lead at present. Update: Date: 16:08 BST Title: Strong start from Pogacar Content: Tadej Pogacar is one second slower than Remco Evenepoel at the first time check. Update: Date: 16:06 BST Title: Post Content: Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard are both on the road and the Dane is struggling slightly. He is 20 seconds down on Evenepoel at the first checkpoint. The yellow jersey, Mathieu van der Poel also looks a little uncomfortable.


Wales Online
11 hours ago
- Wales Online
Wales v France Live: Euro 2025 kick-off time, TV channel and score updates
Wales take on France in their second game of Euro 2025 in Switzerland. Cymru will play their final two matches of the group stages in St Gallen, with their loss against Netherlands last weekend having taken place in Lucerne. While it was a 3-0 defeat, the team made history, with Wales making their first-ever women's major tournament finals. The Red Wall were out in full force, with around 4,000 packing out the stands at Allmend Stadion, and are filling the streets of St Gallen ahead of another massive match. Unfortunate news broke on Tuesday that the Cymru team bus had been involved in a road traffic collision on their way to a training session at Kybunpark. Thankfully, the FAW were able to clarify that no players or staff were injured as a result. Welsh fans would have been concerned to see Ceri Holland go down with an injury against Netherlands, forcing her to leave the field. However, Rhian Wilkinson was able to confirm in the post-match press conference that it was simply cramp, so she will be available for the this game. Wales are facing a French side who toppled holders England on match day one, beating the Lionesses 2-1 in Zurich. Wales will be knocked out if they lose to France and Netherlands avoid defeat against England this evening. The match, which kicks off at 8pm UK time, will be broadcast on ITV1. Stay up to date with live updates provided below.


Telegraph
13 hours ago
- Telegraph
‘Rodent never tasted so good': My 14-course meal at the world's best restaurant
The very first dish leaves me so baffled I have to ask the waiter which bits I am supposed to eat. The only edible part, it turns out, is the tiny blob of brown foam, made from Amazonian chorizo, perched on top of a spiky bed of desiccated scales from the arapaima, one of the world's largest freshwater fish. Each the size of a credit card, the scales vaguely resemble prawn crackers; it's a shame, I think ruefully, that they are there purely for decoration. This is the first mouthful of a 14-course tasting menu at Maido, a restaurant in Lima's touristy Miraflores district (just a short walk from my home of the past 15 years) that specialises in Peruvian-Japanese cuisine, known as Nikkei. Even by the stellar standards of Peru's gastronomic boom, Maido is not just another high-end eatery. After years of bouncing around the top 10, in June 2025 it finally achieved the number-one spot at the World's 50 Best Restaurants awards. Never mind Michelin (which has yet to include South America in its star system) – the 50 Best, voted on by more than 1,000 industry insiders, is arguably the gold standard for international culinary excellence. Maido, hidden behind a cluster of Eucalyptus trunks on an otherwise nondescript street corner, can thus claim to offer the most superlative gourmet experience on planet earth. Its chef-owner, Mitsuharu 'Micha' Tsumura, is now the Leo Messi of gastronomy. And I am here to soak up his skills. The waiter recommends I pick up the hors d'oeuvre and down it in one. As I pop the foamy morsel into my mouth, it seems to simultaneously vaporise on my tongue and explode into improbably distinct flavours and textures. Seasoned with annatto (derived from the seeds of the achiote tree), Brazil nuts, the juice of a local mandarin-citron hybrid, sweet chilli peppers and yacón (a crisp tuber from the Andean foothills), the foam clearly delivers a porky flavour. But it also gives off subtle tones of smoke, citrus and fresh fruit, along with layers of umami and sweetness that feels familiar but which I cannot identify. Ethereally light, the jungle-inspired chorizo concoction somehow also manages to have a faint, satisfying crunch. What follows is a virtuoso voyage across Peru's dazzlingly diverse geography – without ever stepping out from beneath the forest of ropes that hangs over the dozen, highly-coveted tables in Maido's dining room. Although it is hard to make out, they portray the Hinomaru, the Japanese national flag. As new diners enter the dimly-lit space they are greeted by staff with a chorus of 'maido', meaning 'welcome' in the Osaka dialect of Tsumura's ancestors. Diners are then swept from the 1,500-mile Pacific coast over the soaring Andes and down into the endless rainforests of the Peruvian Amazon and their myriad exotic fruits. There are sea urchins and scallops served with basil oil, and a sauce made from another rare tuber – arracacia – blended with tumbo, an acidic fruit once used, before the Spanish brought citrus to the Americas, to make a precursor of ceviche. Then comes arapaima butifarra – slivers of a fishy cold cut in a diminutive bun, flavoured with an emulsion of sweet chilli peppers, karashi (a Japanese mustard) and honey. And Cuy San, or san guinea pig – Tsumura's haute-cuisine take on the fluffy (but, in this neck of the woods, very edible) Andean staple. A diminutive, delicately-battered leg is served with chilli peppers and greens; rodent never tasted so good. Towards the end of the marathon feast there is charqui, a kind of Andean beef jerky but made with wagyu and garnished with huacatay, a minty marigold used widely in Peruvian cooking. All of it is washed down with a New World wine pairing that runs from a semillon made from old vines in Argentine Patagonia, to two different sakes. The service is friendly and efficient but never fawning. Maido is actually the second Lima restaurant in three years to claim the top spot in the 50 Best, after Virgilio Martínez's Central in 2023 (now in the rankings's hall of fame and withdrawn from future consideration), also a 10-minute walk from my home, but in the other direction. The Nikkei emporium leads a cohort of four restaurants from the Peruvian capital in the 2025 list. London, by comparison, has just two in this year's 50 Best, the genre-defying Ikoyi at 15, and Kol, offering Mexican fusion, at 49. Like most top Peruvian restaurants, Maido achieves this at relatively competitive prices. My tasting menu with wine pairing came to 1880 Sols (roughly £390), including service. That's rather more than I am used to paying for lunch. But it's also hardly the arm and leg that many of Maido's international peers charge. The story of how Peru, a poster child for political corruption and underdevelopment, came to overshadow gastronomic powerhouses such as Paris, Tokyo and New York is rooted in a national food culture that is highly original and diverse, and genuinely includes Peruvians of all races and classes. That culture is itself the product of breathtaking geography as well as immigration from across the globe, and even, believe it or not, the brutal legacy of the Maoist terrorists of the Shining Path. Peru's natural pantry is unrivalled, thanks to its tropical location and the Andes's vast altitudinal variation. The country is home to just about every ecosystem, and therefore every crop, plant and game species on earth. Successive waves of immigrants, not all of them willing, from Spain, Italy, Africa, France, China and Japan, among others, have each left their stamp. So too distinct pre-Columbian traditions from the desert coast, mountains and jungle. No Peruvian kitchen, for example, would be complete without a wok or various uniquely local ajíes or chillies. Then a generation of young chefs, including Tsumura, trained in the 1990s at top culinary schools from San Francisco to Rome and Tokyo. Many did so to flee a national collapse partly triggered by the Shining Path's bloodletting. On their return, they began applying their new, cutting-edge techniques and ideas on Peru's extensive pantheon of home recipes. Adding some extra spice is the national propensity for breaking the rules. It's a trait that makes Peruvians both Latin America's worst drivers and best cooks. Mexico – whose wonderful food I do not underestimate, having lived there for four happy years – is a clear but distant second. Eventually, after three hours of what becomes a quickfire blur of dazzling delicacies, I emerge back into the grey light of Lima's overcast, southern winter. I'm satisfied full, there's no question, but it will take me days to fully process the experience, perhaps the way one might after visiting an exhibition by a truly great artist. The highlight dish? Tsumara's nuanced take on Peru's national dish, ceviche, titled Sea and Pistachios. Miniscule chunks of fortuno, a small local fish species, were served with diced squid and snails, floating with nuts and avocado pieces in a light, tangy chilled broth. And does Maido live up to its new reputation as the 'world's best restaurant'? I can't say. But the meal is one I will remember for the rest of my life – which is not a bad thing to say of your local.