25 Best Restaurants In France And Monaco Slideshow

At the three Michelin-star Epicure, chef Eric Frechon lives up to his reputation as one of the best chefs in town with dishes like langoustines and caviar with celeriac and Japanese lemon; stuffed macaroni with black truffle, artichoke, foie gras, and grated mature Parmigiano; line-caught whiting fish in a crust of bread with almonds; veal sweetbreads braised with amaretto and red onion confit; and gilded Nyangbo chocolate with liquid cocoa. In wintertime, the restaurant occupies a remodeled interior dining room lit by decadent gold chandeliers; in warmer weather, the action shifts to a salon enclosed with windows giving onto the hotel's French garden.

Mozza is easily the best Italian restaurant in Monaco — which, remember, is less than 10 miles from the Italian border. Though the restaurant, which features a terrace for dining outdoors in the summer months, is closing for renovation on Oct. 15, the most popular dishes on the menu are expected to remain. Patrons can order a selection of mozzarella campana to begin, which includes choices like bufala mozzarella, bufala ricotta, and burrata, or opt for the tirasugo with lobster, potatoes, cream, and leeks; the Mozza basket of arancino, panzerotti, and mozzarella in carrozza; or the fish of the day.

The original Feuillants were a group of moderate Jacobins during the French Revolution who congregated on the rue Saint-Honoré, near what is now Alain Dutournier's jewel box of a restaurant off the Place Vendôme. Dutournier's first Paris restaurant, Au Trou Gascon, celebrates the flavors and hearty specialties of his native Gascony. The cooking at Le Carré des Feuillants keeps an earthy richness but is more refined. Consider such creations as "half-cooked" wild salmon with marinated and smoked ceps, young partridge and truffle pie with foie gras and hazelnuts, roasted lamb with watercress and eggplant lasagna, and caramelized figs with ginger, walnut crisp, sheep's milk cheese, and lemon sorbet. There are those who think that this stylish restaurant deserves three Michelin stars (it currently has two), and we'd have no problem with that at all.

The chef behind this Parisian hot spot is Chicagoan Daniel Rose who creates seasonal three- and four-course prix fixe menus that change weekly. Among the offerings earlier this year were green peas with asparagus wrapped in Spanish ham in citrus sauce, crisp-skinned squab with foie gras, and Greek yogurt with crushed pistachios. Reservations are essential, though occasionally diners can walk in and get a table. When booking a table at Spring, which is just steps from the Louvre, request a wine tasting in the 16th-century wine cave prior to dinner.

Michel Guérard, one of the founders of nouvelle cuisine (and the founder of its low-cal cousin, cuisine minceur — thinning cuisine), moved from his restaurant in a Paris suburb to his wife's family's leafy spa estate in southwestern France in the mid-1970s, and soon established his restaurant there as one of the musts on any gastronomic pilgrimage. The location is supernally bucolic, the dining rooms are light and airy, and the food is elegant and sure-handed. Expect to feast on such specialties as foie gras en cocotte with Pomerol gelée and Asian spices, steamed crab with vegetable risotto, rack of lamb with sweet onions and white bean ragout, and garden strawberries with herb sorbet. And cheese lovers can't miss the selection of three different Roqueforts, sliced paper-thin at the table with intriguing guillotine-like contraptions.

Le Cinq's spacious dining room, awash in soft tones of gold and gray, from the sumptuously appointed fabric walls to the gold embossed velvet armchairs, exudes opulence. Refined French cuisine is served on white Philippe Deshoulières china bearing a reproduction of the emblematic cameo that adorns the top of each of the two-Michelin-starred restaurant's walls. Executive chef Eric Briffard and his team of 70 cooks create seasonal menus that include such delights as Brittany spider crab with caviar and fennel blanc mange, giant red shrimp with black rice and fava beans, teriyank-grilled Iberian pork loin with ginger-breaded pig's feet and mashed potatoes, and candied pink rhubarb with Fontainebleau cheese and raspberries. Award-winning wine director Eric Beaumard has compiled an impressive wine cellar with 40,000 bottles, nestled almost 50 feet below ground in what used to be an old stone quarry, used in part to build the Arc de Triomphe. Beaumard's oldest bottle is an 1850 Madeira.

You never know what you're going to sit down to eat at L'Astrance, and to a degree, neither will the chef (there's no set menu) until you note some of your own likes and dislikes. The discreet restaurant named for a flower that grows in the chef's native Auvergne (central France) and located not far from the Eiffel Tower, is the work of Christophe Rohat and Pascal Barbot, two former employees of three-Michelin-star chef Alain Passard (L'Arpège). Chef Barbot's modern French cuisine takes the form of some 15 tastes that are thought up based on the best products he can find, and what he learns of your own preferences. Think French omakase, and expect some beautiful creativity.

Often called the greatest French chef of the late 20th century, Joël Robuchon "retired" from his celebrated three-star restaurant years ago — and ever since has been busier than ever. The original Paris location (there are now two) of his casual sushi-bar-style L'Atelier — one of eight in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. (the New York outpost closed earlier this year) — was so popular when it opened that no reservations were taken and there was no exterior door handle: You got in only if the door was opened from the inside, and that might be after waiting an hour or two on the sidewalk. Things have calmed down a little, but it's obvious from the crowds that fill the counters here that this style of eating has lost none of its appeal. Some of the food is tapas-like (Robuchon has a summer home in Spain), like first-class Spanish bellota ham (from acorn-fed pigs) or simple
anchovies with grilled red peppers; other dishes are more elegant, like clams stuffed with pink garlic and mushrooms or chicken in bouillon with foie gras ravioli. Everything is straightforward and based on the best raw materials, and the camaraderie of the informal service makes a meal here a casual delight.

The 14th-century French chef Guillaume Tirel was nicknamed Taillevent — "wind slicer" — supposedly in reference to his prominent beak. When André Vrinat opened his restaurant in Paris in 1946, he borrowed the name to suggest a connection with ancient Gallic gastronomy. His son, Jean-Claude, inherited the place 26 years later and established it as arguably the most perfectly run restaurant in France. The younger Vrinat died in 2008 and the restaurant has new owners (and only two Michelin stars instead of the three it long held), but it's as good as ever: The dining room is clubby and warm, the service is beyond accomplished, the wine list offers surprising bargains (including irresistible prices on a wide range of Raveneau chablis), and the cuisine of chef Alain Solivérès — "tradition continually renewed," which translates to such fare as spelt risotto with frogs' legs, sole with almond mousseline and verbena juice, and veal cheeks en blanquette with baby vegetables — is irreproachable.

With its striking architectural profile — glass and steel, granite and slate — jutting out of a mountainside near the famous knife town of Laguiole (pronounced "layole"), Bras makes a dramatic statement: that it is both contemporary and firmly attached to the local countryside. The same is true of the cuisine of Michel Bras and now his son, Sébastien. Bras père et fils use obscure native plants, local Aubrac beef and Laguiole cheese, and local wines (principally Marcillac, based on cabernet franc and sauvignon and a regional variety called fer servadou) to produce imaginative presentations like sautéed foie gras with strawberry-Marcillac preserves, garden cress, strawberries, and green onions or saddle of lamb with sweet almonds and "all the sprouts of springtime." Not to be missed is the restaurant's most famous dish, the ever-changing gargouillou, a dish of perfectly cooked baby vegetables, grains, and herbs.

When Alain Ducasse opened Le Louis XV, Prince Rainier III of Monaco set him a challenge: turn the restaurant into the first in the principality to be awarded three Michelin stars, and do it within four years. Ducasse succeeded after only three. This opulent Versailles-inspired dining room, replete with frescos, chandeliers, and velvet accents, one of three Ducasse restaurants to make The Daily Meal's 101 Best Hotel Restaurants Around the World, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with a special menu prepared by chefs Franck Cerutti and Dominique Lory. Included are San Remo gamberoni with delicate rock fish gelée and caviar; a Haute-Provence small spelt, morels, and spring vegetables; snapper and trombetta zucchini with condiments; suckling lamb roasted in the fireplace with peas, spring onions, green garlic, and pommes grenaille; a selection of regional goat's cheese; bitter citrus fruit with lemon jelly and grapefruit/Campari sorbet; and warm Piedmont hazelnut soufflé.

Since re-opening in 2000, Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée at the Plaza Athénée Hotel in Paris has garnered the renowned Alain Ducasse three more Michelin stars to add to his list of culinary honors. Beneath a chandelier starburst of 10,000 dangling, illuminated crystal pendants is a space designed by Patrick Jouin that evokes fine dining in opulent Louis XIV style. The restaurant serves the finest seasonal contemporary French on tableware by Pierre Tachon and Shinishiro Ogata. The haute cuisine includes guinea-fowl tourte, John Dory with artichokes and arugula, sweetbreads with olives and asparagus, and fresh sheep's milk cheese with caramel and pepper. "We must let the flavors express their strength and their delicacy," said Ducasse. "The technique is there to reveal the natural taste."