20 tables near the museums, rankedBest restaurants in Paris
Where to eat in Paris before or after a museum: the 20 tables with a history within reach of them, the cafés of the writers, the great brasseries and the grand restaurants, in the order their customers rate them.
- 20
- Tables near the museums, ranked
- 1582
- The oldest: La Tour d'Argent
- 6
- Within 500 metres of a museum
- 4.6
- The highest rating: La Tour d'Argent
The ranking for Paris
Show
All 20
14.6
La Tour d'Argent
Grand restaurant, Quai de la Tournelle, facing Notre-Dame
A dining room on the top floor above the Seine, with Notre-Dame in the window and a numbered duck on the plate.
4.6
881 Google ratings
- Opened
- 1582, by its own account
- Nearest museum
- Sainte-Chapelle, 1.0 km
24.5
Le Procope
Historic restaurant, Odéon
The oldest café in Paris, founded in 1686, where Voltaire, Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin talked and the Revolution was plotted. Now a restaurant, in rooms dressed as the eighteenth century.
34.4
Au Pied de Cochon
Brasserie, Les Halles
The brasserie of the old market of Les Halles, famous for onion soup, oysters and the pig's trotter of its name. It was the first in Paris to serve through the night.
44.4
Le Train Bleu
Brasserie, Gare de Lyon
A railway station buffet decorated like a palace: gilding, chandeliers and forty-one paintings of the places the trains went. The most spectacular dining room in Paris.
54.4
Bofinger
Brasserie, Bastille, by Le Marais
The oldest Alsatian brasserie in Paris, under a dome of stained glass, a few minutes from the Place des Vosges. Choucroute and shellfish in an Art Nouveau room.
64.4
La Coupole
Brasserie, Montparnasse
The great Art Deco brasserie of Montparnasse, opened in 1927, where Picasso, Josephine Baker, Sartre and Hemingway all ate. One enormous room, with pillars painted by the artists of the quarter.
74.4
Le Jules Verne
Grand restaurant, Second floor of the Eiffel Tower
The restaurant on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower, reached by its own lift. Dinner inside the ironwork, with Paris 125 metres below.
84.4
Lapérouse
Grand restaurant, Quai des Grands-Augustins
An eighteenth-century house on the Seine, full of small private dining rooms whose mirrors are scratched with the diamonds of the women who dined in them. Across the river from the Sainte-Chapelle.
94.4
Le Grand Véfour
Grand restaurant, Palais-Royal
A restaurant under the arcades of the Palais-Royal since 1784, where Napoleon, Victor Hugo and Colette each had their table. One of the oldest restaurants in Paris, five minutes from the Louvre.
104.3
Angelina
Tea room, Rue de Rivoli, facing the Tuileries
The Belle Époque tea room under the arcades of the rue de Rivoli, famous for a hot chocolate so thick it is almost a pudding. Between the Louvre and the Orangerie.
114.3
Café de la Paix
Brasserie, Place de l'Opéra
The grand café of the Second Empire, at the corner of the Place de l'Opéra since 1862, with the Palais Garnier filling the view from its terrace.
124.2
Les Deux Magots
Café, Saint-Germain-des-Prés
The café of Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Hemingway and Picasso, on the square of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The most famous terrace on the Left Bank.
134.2
Brasserie Lipp
Brasserie, Saint-Germain-des-Prés
The brasserie of politicians and publishers, opposite the Flore and the Deux Magots, with tiled walls of the 1920s and a choucroute that Hemingway wrote about.
144.2
L'Escargot Montorgueil
Historic restaurant, Rue Montorgueil
The house of snails since 1832, under a gilded snail on the liveliest food street in Paris, with a painted ceiling that came from Sarah Bernhardt's dining room.
154.2
Le Grand Colbert
Brasserie, Rue Vivienne, by the Palais-Royal
A brasserie with walls six metres high, painted in the Pompeian manner, beside the Galerie Vivienne. Five minutes from the Louvre and far less crowded than anything nearer.
164.2
Maxim's
Grand restaurant, Rue Royale, by the Place de la Concorde
The most famous restaurant name in the world, in an Art Nouveau room of 1899 that is a listed monument. A few steps from the Place de la Concorde and the Orangerie.
174.1
Bouillon Chartier
Bouillon, Grands Boulevards
A vast Belle Époque dining hall where the waiter adds up your bill on the paper tablecloth. Plain French cooking at the lowest prices of any famous restaurant in Paris.
184.1
Le Restaurant du Musée d'Orsay
Museum restaurant, Inside the Musée d'Orsay
Lunch under painted ceilings and chandeliers, in the dining room of the grand hotel of 1900 that was part of the Orsay railway station. It is inside the museum.
193.9
Café de Flore
Café, Saint-Germain-des-Prés
The rival of the Deux Magots, a door away on the boulevard Saint-Germain: red banquettes, mahogany and mirrors, hardly touched since the war.
203.9
Le Café Marly
Café, Inside the Louvre
The café under the arcades of the Louvre itself, with a terrace that looks straight at the glass pyramid. The best seat in Paris for a coffee before or after the museum.
How long they have been open
Each bar runs from the year a restaurant opened to today. The oldest on the list opened 444 years ago, and 12 of the 20 were already open in 1900.
- La Tour d'Argent1582, by its own account
- Le Procope1686
- Lapérouse1766
- Le Grand Véfour1784
- L'Escargot Montorgueil1832
- Café de la Paix1862
- Bofinger1864
- Brasserie Lipp1880
- Les Deux Magots1884, as a café
- Café de FloreThe 1880s
- Maxim's1893
- Bouillon Chartier1896
- Le Grand Colbert1900
- Le Restaurant du Musée d'Orsay1900
- Le Train Bleu1901
- Angelina1903
- La Coupole1927
- Au Pied de Cochon1947
- Le Jules Verne1983
- Le Café Marly1994
How near they are to a museum
For each restaurant, the museum or sight it is nearest to, and how far it is in a straight line. Nearest first: the top of the list is where to go when you come out hungry.
- Le Jules VerneEiffel Tower, 0 m
- Le Restaurant du Musée d'OrsayMusée d'Orsay, 100 m
- Le Café MarlyLouvre Museum, 150 m
- LapérouseSainte-Chapelle, 250 m
- Maxim'sMusée de l'Orangerie, 400 m
- AngelinaMusée de l'Orangerie, 450 m
- Le ProcopeSainte-Chapelle, 550 m
- Au Pied de CochonLouvre Museum, 550 m
- Le Grand VéfourLouvre Museum, 600 m
- Le Grand ColbertLouvre Museum, 650 m
- L'Escargot MontorgueilLouvre Museum, 800 m
- Café de FloreMusée d'Orsay, 800 m
- Les Deux MagotsLouvre Museum, 800 m
- Brasserie LippMusée d'Orsay, 800 m
- La Tour d'ArgentSainte-Chapelle, 1.0 km
- Café de la PaixMusée de l'Orangerie, 1.0 km
- Bouillon ChartierLouvre Museum, 1.3 km
- BofingerSainte-Chapelle, 1.7 km
- La CoupoleMusée Rodin, 1.7 km
- Le Train BleuSainte-Chapelle, 2.4 km
The track is 3 kilometres long. A restaurant inside a museum or a monument has almost no bar at all.
What diners say
Each restaurant's overall rating on Google, and how many people have given one. The longer the bar, the more people have eaten there and said so.
- Bouillon Chartier4.133,480 Google ratings
- Le Procope4.528,968 Google ratings
- Au Pied de Cochon4.425,030 Google ratings
- Le Train Bleu4.419,305 Google ratings
- Angelina4.318,808 Google ratings
- Bofinger4.417,817 Google ratings
- La Coupole4.416,695 Google ratings
- Café de Flore3.914,530 Google ratings
- Le Café Marly3.912,495 Google ratings
- Les Deux Magots4.212,317 Google ratings
- Brasserie Lipp4.28,300 Google ratings
- L'Escargot Montorgueil4.27,921 Google ratings
- Café de la Paix4.37,800 Google ratings
- Le Jules Verne4.43,689 Google ratings
- Le Grand Colbert4.23,452 Google ratings
- Lapérouse4.42,209 Google ratings
- Maxim's4.22,115 Google ratings
- Le Grand Véfour4.41,541 Google ratings
- Le Restaurant du Musée d'Orsay4.11,378 Google ratings
- La Tour d'Argent4.6881 Google ratings
Read on Google Maps. A famous café is rated by a great many visitors who came for the name, which is why the best known are not the best rated. Ratings change, and so will this.
Where they are
Each number is a restaurant, by its place in the ranking. The yellow squares are the museums and sights this site has a guide to. The blue band is the river, the green blocks the parks, and each square of the grid is one kilometre.
- 1La Tour d'Argent
- 2Le Procope
- 3Au Pied de Cochon
- 4Le Train Bleu
- 5Bofinger
- 6La Coupole
- 7Le Jules Verne
- 8Lapérouse
- 9Le Grand Véfour
- 10Angelina
- 11Café de la Paix
- 12Les Deux Magots
- 13Brasserie Lipp
- 14L'Escargot Montorgueil
- 15Le Grand Colbert
- 16Maxim's
- 17Bouillon Chartier
- 18Le Restaurant du Musée d'Orsay
- 19Café de Flore
- 20Le Café Marly
River and green areas: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Where to eat in Paris: common questions
- Which is the best restaurant in Paris?
- Of the 20 on this list, La Tour d'Argent: 4.6 out of 5 from 881 ratings on Google. Le Procope and Au Pied de Cochon come next. The order on this page follows that rating and nothing else.
- Where can you eat near the Louvre?
- Le Café Marly, 150 m away; Au Pied de Cochon, 550 m away; Le Grand Véfour, 600 m away; Le Grand Colbert, 650 m away. Distances are in a straight line.
- Which restaurants are inside a museum or a monument in Paris?
- Le Jules Verne (the Eiffel Tower), Le Restaurant du Musée d'Orsay (the Musée d'Orsay) and Le Café Marly (the Louvre).
- Which is the oldest restaurant in Paris?
- Of those on this list, La Tour d'Argent, which dates itself to 1582, by its own account.
- Which are the famous cafés of Paris?
- Angelina, Les Deux Magots, Café de Flore and Le Café Marly are the cafés and tea rooms on this list.
- How is the list made?
- The restaurants are chosen by this site: famous tables with a history, within reach of the museums. Their order is not chosen. It follows each one's overall rating on Google, and where two are level, the one more people have rated comes first. No restaurant pays to be listed or to be higher.
Things to do in Paris
- 1Go up the Eiffel TowerChamp de MarsMonument, 2 to 3 hours, ticket
- 2See the Mona Lisa at the Louvre1st arrondissementMuseum, 3 to 4 hours, ticket
- 3Cruise the SeineThe river, from the Eiffel Tower to Notre-DameOn the water, 1 hour, ticket
- 4Climb Montmartre to Sacré-CœurMontmartreWalk, 2 to 3 hours, free, ticket for the dome
Where to stay in Paris
- Four Seasons Hotel George V4.8Five-star hotel, Palace, Avenue George V, off the Champs-Élysées
- La Réserve Paris4.8Five-star hotel, Palace, Avenue Gabriel, by the Champs-Élysées gardens
- The Peninsula Paris4.7Five-star hotel, Palace, Avenue Kléber, by the Arc de Triomphe
- Hôtel de Crillon4.7Five-star hotel, Palace, Place de la Concorde
How the ranking is made
Which restaurants are on the list is this site's choice: famous tables with a history, within reach of the museums. Their order is not. It follows each one's overall rating on Google, highest first, and where two are level, the one more people have rated comes first. No restaurant has paid to be here or to be higher.
No prices are given, because they change, and no stars, for the same reason. The button on each restaurant's page leads to its own site, where the menu and the bookings are.