Paris' Best Restaurants 2024: Where Chefs Eat

This film is about the best place to eat and drink in Paris. We've interviewed a bunch of the city's most exciting chefs and hospitality kingpins to find out where the industry locals love and where to avoid. To round off our 48 hours here, we are visiting our favourite restaurant in Paris. I'm Jesse, behind the camera is Will, and together we are Top Jaw. Stop number one. We've come to Le Marais to see a proper French bistro. We called Claude Bozy, our good friend, multiple Michelin star chef in London, and he said Parcelles was the best place in Paris to go and have lunch. Sarah, the owner, used to own a Michelin star restaurant, and that is all the information we needed. So 48 hours later, we are here. What is important in Parcelles for us as well is the massive wine list. But it isn't a stupid long wine list. It's just a very well-chosen, well-curated... No, it's quite stupid. Oh, it's quite stupid. So this is veal head carpaccio. They're served on a very warm plate so the fat melts. That's gorgeous. We're eating all parts of the animal, and there's some very traditional French old-school things to do. And when it's prepared like this, it's absolutely delicious. It's sweet bread with capers, brown butter, mashed potatoes. So I was going in for a little day-up. Yeah, bro. They thought it'd be a really good idea to open a restaurant during COVID. That kind of works in their favor because people were like, oh, something new. They really put their all behind it, and it's done well because of that. This is the beautiful sage and butter gnocchi. Is there any butter in this one? I reckon what's dripping off there is almost 100% butter. It's a good place to start the film, right? Yeah, I don't know what you're going to do about that massive smear. Yeah, sorry. Have you got some vanish? Voila. Thank you so much. On top or beside? On top. That's herbal, fragrant, rummy, and awesome. All right, time to check in at this wonderful little boutique hotel called Le Grand Begal. I put a le in there, but you know, some learning French. Cute. Is it a mirror or is it TV? What, this guy here? That's wardrobe. Ta-da! Welcome to my bathroom. This is my lovely shower room. Very nice. I like the tiled floor. I like it straight from my bathroom. Want to be in bed? Guess what, mate? I'm in the room next door, honey. That's nice. Cut! Right, bags dropped. The base of our hotel is Frenchy, owned by our friend Gregory Marchand. Brilliant French chef. We thought it would be rude not to stop by and have a beer and a couple of dishes, just to sort of pay our respects. Tell you what, this looks and smells ******* delish. Sweet, buttery, and loads of tart from the carrots and the beautiful lamb. That's nice. But you know, a lot of hotel restaurants are... However, when you've got someone like Gregory at the helm, it's good stuff. Right now, I'm going to tuck into our little trout tartare. Lunch here, two courses, 25 euros. Three courses, 30 euros. That's very affordable. Right, we're here at Chop Chop to meet Judy and Fam, drink some wine, have some food. They have a Mexican chef called Manu, and every day and evening, he cooks one thing. Well, it's a couple of things, but mainly one big pot of something beautiful. And this natural wine's going down real good. You missed the memo there, mate. Sorry? To wear black. This is Manu, lives in Paris 12 years. He's doing a little residency here for one week. So tonight, the food is... Chicken soup that he's been cooking for five days. By the way, my mic's here. That's why I'm... I feel like you're leading away from me, and I'm like, nah. You guys are a little bit weird. I was like... The concept of Chop Chop is that the chef changes all the time. Today, we have Manu. He has cooked his mom's Mexican soup. When Julian was in Mexico, he fell in love with it. Oh my god, the flavor. Manu's been working with us for five days. Apparently, in Mexico, where he's from, they'll have a soup going 24-7. Where are we going now, bro? We're going to what many, many, many, many people say is the best burger in Paris. I mean, Kayla, our wonderful producer, did say, Jesse, do you want to do a burger place in Paris? And I was like, no, come on. And now we're here. I wanted to try this place, Dumbo, for ages. Well, since it opened in 2019. Smash burgers, keeping it very simple and very, very tasty. And repped by a lot of chefs. Best burger. Oh, Dumbo. Best burger, I would say Dumbo. Dumbo. Dumbo burger, fantastic. Dumbo is a simple menu. Cheeseburger or earth burger, veggie edition. Fries, and if you want a Coke or beer or water. We're in one of two Dumbo locations in Paris. Look at that with the crispy edges. Oh my goodness. That's really good. I really like how soft this is though. Okay, so this is Sam, co-founder of Dumbo. He's come to meet and hang out. It's very kind. When we do these chef interviews, all the chefs have been saying that Dumbo is the best burger in Paris. Do you agree? I think so. I have to say what? Yes or no? I don't know. Thank you, Sam. Thank you. Thank you for visiting. Our final stop of the night at Bar Nouveau. Now we've got a bit of a history with these guys. We filmed with them at Abstract, their brand new bar in Lyon. We were super impressed because they don't just do cocktails. They do like molecular science. This is a Gustave. In here, we have ricea, which is a kind of wild tequila. Olive oil, olive vodka, and some chamomile. So this olive vodka is going to be super textural. That's why it feels a little bit washed in your mouth. A little gold leaf. It's meant to sort of replicate the Gustave. Klimt painting, the kiss. It's got a big mouthfeel. It's boozy as hell. This is a finelo. Grape three ways. Cognac. Grape syrup and grape juice. A little bit of water. A little bit of sugar. It's forced carbonated drinks. A little bit like a champagne fizz. That's good. It is science as much as it is cocktails, all right? They do this serious. This is a Ramos. Ramos? Ramos. Got a little bit of vanilla yogurt, a bit of vodka, a bit of whiskey. So it's going to taste a bit like a smoky milkshake, right? There's a little bit of savoriness to it. Do you know what I mean? It's not... Oh, right. Love those drinks. And well done to these guys because last night, they just won the best bar in Paris according to timeout. Ooh la la. But who cares about timeout, eh? Right. See you in the morning, sunshine. Morning, bro. Morning, dude. So in our itinerary, we had a little bit of a section to be spontaneous. So we thought we'd fill it with Dreamin' Man. Best coffee spot. I would have to say Dreamin' Man. From Yushiro and his team, it's just amazing. Yushiro is a very cool Japanese guy. Lived in Paris for 10 years. I asked him why. He went, well, we wanted to live in New York, but couldn't get a visa. So Paris was choice number two. Why is it called Dreamin' Man? He loves Neil Young. He's focused on community and brilliant coffee to make sure his business prevails and keeps strong. His girlfriend's making some beautiful pastries. And I guess Yushiro was a Dreamin' Man when he first came to Paris. He didn't know anyone. He just opened up a little coffee shop. What have you gone for, bro? Thank you. Okay. We have some delicious coffee made by Yushiro. And these pastries are made by his girlfriend. Dream team at Dreamin' Man. Gonna have a little ride on this, if you don't mind. Oh, I can't believe it's been this long we haven't been to a boulangerie. It's time to change that. Well, how many bakeries do you reckon there are in Paris? Apparently it's 30,000. No. You must be wrong. Maybe it's in France. Let's fact check that. Anyway, it's hard to stand out. Like this place, Utopia, after opening 10 years ago, they quickly became known as one of the very best. Pansuisse? Oui. Deux. Et une. Oui. Ah. Deux. Mate, you didn't know you spoke French? Started by two friends. They set out to not just do good bread, but good pastries. We're in the 11th, which is like a trendy part of town. Very food focused. And there's a queue here pretty much all the time. They're open. These are roulettes. So we have a raisin roulette and a sesame one. Made black with activated charcoal. May I? That is smashing. I just hate what you do with your tongue when you do that. You can't get it wrong on the Pansuisse. I absolutely love Pansuisse. Go on then, let's have a bite. And we thought we'd go with a little sesame eclair. I feel like sesame's their thing. That's so much more interesting than chocolate. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Or if you're in Paris for just a few hours, like a layover or something, probably send you here. The Marché des Impromptus. And we're about to get shown around by Hélène Deroze, the super famous French chef with no less than six Michelin stars. And then we're about to go into this market. Yeah. What is it? It's one of the places to be in Paris. It's about good products for sure, but also you have a lot of little, little restaurants. When it's sunshine, it's incredible. So this restaurant within the market in particular is really popular with chefs. Why do you think that is? Yeah, it's not very complicated food. It's just the good products and they're very well cooked and very well done. Street food, but in a gastronomic way. Love that. I asked Michel if there was a pressure when Hélène comes to eat and he was like, of course. Yeah. Six. So we have some red tuna belly with some wild garlic with a bit of balsamic. How do you think the sort of the restaurant scene or the food scene in London and Paris differ? London was more eclectic. Paris was a little bit close to that, you know. Now it has changed a lot. With a new generation of chefs, now you can find very good Japanese restaurants, very good Vietnamese restaurants, Chinese. And that is very interesting. Do you want me to explain the dish? Okay. So from what I understood, they are morels from Normandy stuffed with black pudding and then cooked with a little bit of vin jaune, yellow wine and chicken stock. And then you go with the… Funny food for a market stall. I don't understand why they don't give one star to this place. So Michel, if you're listening, pick up the phone. Okay, this is candied foie gras with eel, hazelnut, beetroot mash. This is like a signature dish. Crazy to be market stall food. So interesting, huh? Wow. Thank you to you. Thank you for a little tour and the information and hanging out. Yeah. This is a bit of an unplanned stop, but we can't have one more person say, oh, have you been to Cambridge Public House? So we've come. Want a drink at the bar? I'm from Cambridge. It's got nothing to do with Cambridge. It's not that much to do with a pub, really. It's a cocktail bar. And it's so good, in fact, this is one of the world's 50 best cocktail bars. We often get asked for even more recommendations than the places we feature in our films. We have a map for that. By downloading Step Your World and subscribing to Top Jaw, you get exclusive access to our like 3,000 pins all over the world. There's never excuse to get stuck in a tourist trap or even somewhere bang average ever again. All killer, no filler. In Paris, there is a very large population of Lebanese. Well, it lacks high quality, kind of sexy Lebanese restaurants. However, Koubri is one of those. Sisters Ingrid and Mayfrid, they wanted to bring a bit of that joujou Lebanese food to Paris. And they have head chef Rita. It's a really lovely woman-led team. And they're doing their uplifted contemporary spin on Lebanese food. So we've gone for a big, beautiful monkfish as a main. And this rice is cooked in like a fish stock with shallots. Rita doesn't believe in garnish, so she says if it's on the dish, it's to be eaten. Believe me when I say the flavors here are no joke. I love hispy cabbage, but this looks like a real primo version. Paris is harsh on reviews, right? But these guys, it's hard to find a bad one. They've been open for about a year and a half. But locals, visitors, there's a lot of fandom around Koubri. Paris is a wine country, right? And for a long time, beer has kind of been forgotten about. You can get a pint of Heineken or 1664 anywhere. But for a few years, craft beer bars have been popping up in the city. And this is one of the very best. Started by a beer enthusiast called Benjamin. This is Labanuse. I've been saying Labanuse to French people, and they have no idea what I'm talking about. And then they go, oh, Labanuse. I'm like, that's just what I'm saying. Can I get one so thick that you could stand a spoon in it? Like a niper that's like really, really thick and hazy. That's what I like. Mango milk. Yeah? I'm so into that. Yes, please. Yeah. I think I'll start with a sour. Thank you very much. Common thing in Paris is the bars and pubs only really open in the evenings. Benuse, however, opens from 11 a.m. Benuse is a bar for the craft beer heads. They collaborate with breweries and get beers from all over the world. Like this. This is a Monkish. This is a double IPA, weighing in at eight and a half percent, which is a punchy boy. You may have seen him before. You'll definitely see him again. It's Benji Jackson, a.k.a. Roy, absolute hero on Top Jaw shoots, lugging kit, shooting, and generally helping us eat all the food. And drink all the beer. Now this is exciting. This is Reina. Filipino food, but with a real French root. Run by a lovely person called Erica. She literally traveled from the Philippines to Paris because she thought it was the home of cooking. Can you tell us what we're going to have? The Hainan Burrata, which is, if you know the Singapore chicken rice, with the three sauces. We're really known for that. And another is our fried chicken. Do you like spicy? Yes. Really spicy? Depends, right? It's really spicy. Okay. So this is kinilaw. It's like a Filipino ceviche. We usually use tuna or swordfish, but scallops are in season. Oh, that's good. This one is the adobo. Yes. Oh, that fry. It's very crisp, and it almost feels like it's coating the wing without being in the wing. So this is a very Filipino pork lechon. Oh, man. And so then this one is like the fish sauce. Oh, that's gorgeous. Yeah. I'm... Oh, God. It's a real saucy boy. This is the peanut tobo. Three kinds of chili. Mango habanero, chili oil, and fresh chilies. He's gone. I think it's okay. But I feel like... It was really tasty at the start, and now I feel like I've like... Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah, it's hot. It starts off like super tasty, and you're like, what's the problem? You fast forward a bit, and your mouth sort of like got a blowtorch in it. Perfect. I had a real good time. You were so doubtful. You were so dubious that I was going to do any good on that spicy wing, but see ya. When we last filmed a guide to Paris, we were in Terrabaravan, and I sat there and I was like, this is the one restaurant you need to come to when you go to Paris. If I had to send anybody to one restaurant in Paris, it would be here. However, I have never tried this big brother, the original Terra. Big plates, big cuts of meat. Nobody leaves here hungry, ever. At Terra, they always have four starters and three mains to choose from. So we got one of every starter, because you know, why not? I think we're getting two out of three mains, so we're going quite big. This is salt crust fish. They're like little works of art. It's brilliant. Okay, this is their steak tartare with sort of crispy potatoes on top. Whoever it is, who's the flavor master at Terra, really, I just really like them. Thanks, that's... This is Oeuf Parfait. It's like a deconstructed French sandwich. An egg ham, a little courgette. Are you loving it, bro? Yikes. Oh, wow, wow, wow. Artur, one of the owners of Terra, said that he wanted to do dinner party style food you'd never be able to recreate at home. And here we have three massive plates. Each one of these is a main for two. This is their katsu pork dish. Holy shit, look at that. This is sea bass. It's a black garlic sauce and Japanese mushroom. And here we have a huge, huge wagyu tomahawk. This is brownie with a white chocolate ganache, like Bailey's ice cream foam. Yellow or green? Green. Yellow or green, buddy? I'll go green. Artur, I'll get your ice cream right now. Tom-cho! Will, where's yours? Huh? No, it's all right. Fantastic. I knew I was going to love it. Really, do not know why, more people in Paris don't know about it. Just a fantastic restaurant. Just punching way above its pay grade. I had a pretty serious time. So, good night, William. Good night, bro. Oh, you sound husky, bro. I'm pretty pissed.