7 Restaurants to Try on Your Next Paris Trip

Last Updated:

7/10/2024

Paris is buzzing with visitors and locals savoring the upcoming Olympics, fine weather, convivial atmosphere and an amazing crop of new restaurants. It might have over 25,000 restaurants, but there’s always room for new innovative dining establishments in the City of Light. What’s more, many of the city’s new eateries are adopting modern philosophies regarding food sourcing, waste reduction, and uses of green energies – an approach we’re highly in favor. From romantic small-plate venues to cutting-edge neo-bistros, here are some new restaurants in Paris you should try this summer and beyond.

And don’t forget to check out our other picks, including our favorite places to eat in the Marais, restaurants near the Louvre, and the best places to eat near the Eiffel Tower.

La Baignoire

Nestled in a tiny hidden square in the 2nd arrondissement and with both small candlelit tables and a large group table in a vaulted cellar, La Baignoire gives you the feel of dining in a smaller French city. However, chef Cécile Lévy’s cuisine is anything but provincial. Breaking culinary “rules,” she audaciously combines surprising ingredients in her small plates of baby zucchini with honey, cinnamon and Sichuan pepper, squid and rhubarb with tangy ponzu and yuzu sauce, or matcha cream with white chocolate meringue and lime crumble. The palate tantalizing results, and excellent wines, left me eagerly awaiting a repeat dinner.

A starter of asparagus with a yellow sauce, garnished with some nuts served on a white plate. — La Bagnoire, photo by Lily Heise

Le Boréal

Escape the crowds and tourist traps of the top of Montmartre by venturing to this exceptional bistronomic restaurant in the more local area behind Paris’s most famous hill. Within a refreshed Art Nouveau decor and from their open kitchen, talented chefs Philippine Jaillet and Charles Neyers work culinary magic on their menu of exquisitely prepared contemporary cuisine. Changing with the seasons and organized in sections of “sea,” “turf,” and “vegetable,” Le Boréal’s menu might include mussels with chicory, creamy polenta and thyme, rack of lamb with white beans and homemade green harissa, or their signature vegetarian “wellington”. Come at lunchtime during the week for good-value menus at 25€ for two courses and 28€ for three.

A sea urchin garnished with dill on a white plate from Le Boreal restaurant in Paris. — Le Boréal restaurant, photo by Lily Heise

Dandelion

This neo-bistro set on a tranquil square in the 20th district has been making headway on the Parisian culinary scene since opening in May 2024. Dandelion, the new venture of sommelier Morgane Souris and chef Antoine Villard, formerly of Septime and Fulgurances, revolves around ingredients sourced directly from producers, like Les Trois Parcelles, a collective of farms in Ile-de-France and the Loiret. Villard beautifully transforms these into grilled sardine with spinach jus and sunflower seed chili paste and lobster bisque with fava beans, peas and mint and rocket raïta.

Halo

Found in the heart of the Montorgeuil area, Paris’s newest hip concept store is home to the restaurant of rising young chef Victor Blanchet. A contestant of France’s Top Chef 2023, Blanchet went on to train at restaurants in the US and under Michelin-starred Neso in Paris before taking on the reigns at Halo. Within an airy dining room beneath a glass atrium, sample his creative Basque Country meets Marseille dishes such as ravioli of txistorra (Basque sausage) fresh cheese and Espelette pepper or seared red mullet, with saffron potatoes, creamy rouille sauce and bouillabaisse jus. You can start or finish your meal with a craft cocktail in their futuristic basement bar.

A plate of spring greens with thinly sliced radishes served on white plate. — Halo, photo by Lily Heise

Bahar

Savor the flavors of the historic Silk Road at the imaginative small-plate restaurant of Babel, an eco-friendly and stylish boutique hotel in Belleville. You can opt to dine in the whimsically decorated dining room or on the large terrace on a pedestrian street. The fusion menu at Bahar blends spices and culinary influences extending from India to the Mediterranean in the menu’s sharing plates, all of which are incredibly tempting, but my favorite dishes when I went were the mantis, Central Asian dumplings stuffed with green onions and served with yogurt-mint sauce and mint oil and the taco-style Indian patties topped with roasted oyster mushrooms, pickled red onions and spicy peanut mayo. It also has a very reasonably priced weekday lunch menu at 18€ for two courses and 23€ for three.

Facette

Ideal for making the most of the Seine River on warm nights, this festive restaurant is on a barge in the up-and-coming Port de la Rapée area of the 12th. Facette has outdoor seating overlooking the river and the pretty métro bridge, le Viaduc d’Austerlitz, and in its spacious interior dining room with a Scandinavian feel. Chef Johan Barre has designed a menu of inventive small plates, perfect for sharing with friends and well paired with natural and biodynamic wines. The ambiance picks up on weekends when a DJ is spinning and you can carry on your night at the Mazette, a cool club occupying the other half of the barge.

Pristine

Located in South Pigalle, Pristine uses carefully sourced ingredients, emphasizing vegetables and striving to limit food waste. Its simple modern dining room allows the exceptional products they use to shine. The daily changing menu of creative small plates could feature mushroom tarts with hazelnut and tonka, salted trout with sumac and green emulsion and charred carrots, poached egg, buckwheat honey and tahini – which can be paired with natural wine and artisanal spirits.