1st Arrondissement Restaurants

The crown jewel of Cheval Blanc’s culinary program is three-Michelin-starred Plénitude. Chef Arnaud Donckele fuses classic French dishes from Normandy and Paris with Mediterranean inspiration. The meat and fish here are great, but the sauces, creams, and broths steal the show. Reservations are difficult to get and worth booking your whole trip around.

Saturday nights are for Hôtel Costes, when as many tables as possible are packed into the courtyard and it feels like every young hedonist in Paris is drinking spicy margaritas.

French-Asian cuisine is de rigueur in Paris right now, and Yam’Tcha easily knocks out half the competition. “Yam’Tcha” is Mandarin for “drink tea,” and this is a restaurant with an in-house Chinese tea sommelier—a pot of after-dinner silver needle is mandatory—and a full tea pairing with your meal is suggested (and yes, the wine is also abundant).

There's a certain sexiness to hotel restaurants, and Michelin-starred Pur' at the Park Hyatt oozes it. Chef Jean-François Rouquette has put together a menu of flawless interpretations of classic French dishes, served in the refined, many-columned dining room. For a blow-out, completely seasonal meal in Paris, Pur' delivers—drink your wine at the table and save a post-dinner digestif for the elegant Park Hyatt bar.

Loulou is what you get when you cross classic Italian food with French sensibility and arguably the most famous location in the world. Chef Diego Compagno to the first, chef Benoit Dargère to the second, and as for that location: "Loulou" is a cheeky play on "Louvre." The menu changes often but highlights include simple and perfect dishes like, raw purple artichokes with parmesan and olive oil or beef tagliata with black pepper infusion, arugula, and parmesan. Every course is simple and restrained and somehow light-but in a setting so regal, so historic, and so likely to make you feel like you deserve a noble rank, you'll hardly care.

The tiled, Belle Epoque interiors are enough to win you over at this small, traditional bistro. Steak frites are their classic go-to, though their seasonal veggie dishes don’t disappoint. An afternoon is also well-spent at their old-fashioned zinc bar with a perfect cocktail or kir royale.

This quaint little restaurant serves excellent French food—cassoulet, steak tartare, and chocolate cake—in an unstuffy Art Nouveau dining room. The adjoining shop, complete with ham hocks hanging from the rafters, has a killer selection of French wines, cheeses, and other specialty items.

This historic restaurant—it’s the oldest in Paris, actually—has taken up the same spot in the Palais-Royal since 1784. While it’s been thoroughly modernized, the majority of beautiful neoclassical embellishments are intact, and the tables are still marked with the names of literary legends (Victor Hugo, John Paul-Sartre, Voltaire) who frequented the spot way back when. The restaurant has lost all three of its Michelin stars, and chef Guy Martin pivoted to a more bistro-style menu, but we've heard it's still stellar.

After a week in Paris, when it’s time to lay off the butter and goose fat, we head here. It’s not the sort of restaurant that’s going to change your life, but their seaweed salad and sashimi is solidly decent. And with two sleek and spacious floors, there’s room enough for everyone. At night, when the lights get dimmer and the music louder, it can get a bit scene-y.

Situated on a charming side street in the 1st, marked by a sign that simply says Bio et Sain (healthy and organic), Fée Nature is a wonderfully warm and airy space where you can find all sorts of gluten-free fare (quinoa and carrot salads, tomato and feta tarts, butternut squash pasta) along with a range of fortifying teas.