Arpège

Why it is on the list

Michelin gave Arpège three stars in 1996, and it holds three in the 2026 guide.¹² Since 21 July 2025 the kitchen cooks only from the plant world: vegetables, fruit, herbs, flowers and honey from the restaurant's own hives.³ The vegetables come from two gardens worked by Sylvain Picard and nine gardeners: more than 4 hectares of clay at the Domaine du Bois Giroult, between Dreux and Évreux in Normandy, and more than 3 hectares of sandy ground and greenhouses at the Château du Gros Chesnay, south of Le Mans.⁴ The menus may change with what the gardeners harvest.⁵

It is the wrong table for anyone who wants meat or fish; for that, look at Kei or Alléno Paris. It is also the wrong table for a weekend: the restaurant opens Monday to Friday only.³

How to get it

Book online through the restaurant's booking page, which takes parties of one to six and lets you choose the main dining room or the Salon François Lesage, a second room laid out as a vegetable greenhouse, hung with paintings of the chef's recipes embroidered by Maison Lesage.⁶ For seven to twelve guests, call +33 1 47 05 09 06; for a table by email, write to restaurant@alain-passard.com. The reception desk answers Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00.⁷⁶ The booking page offers lunch from 12:00 to 14:00 and dinner from 19:30 to 22:00; the lunch menu is not served on a booking from 14:00.⁶ How far ahead tables open is not published: ask the reception desk when you call.

An online booking is a request until the restaurant confirms it by email or text, and it takes a card number; the card is not charged at booking.⁸ The booking page lets you cancel or change free of charge up to 48 hours before; the terms allow changes up to two working days before.⁶⁸ A later cancellation, or a no-show, costs EUR 200 a guest at lunch and EUR 400 a guest at dinner, and each missing guest costs EUR 200.⁸

Lunch is a menu of eight courses at EUR 260 and dinner a menu of twelve at EUR 380, net, service included.⁹⁵¹⁰ On the autumn carte the vegetable dishes cost EUR 75 to EUR 120 each, or EUR 60 to EUR 95 as a tasting portion, and the desserts EUR 35 to EUR 65.¹¹ A gift voucher for either menu, or for a meal the restaurant composes, is valid twelve months from purchase and is booked by phone with its reference.¹⁰

Discretion

The Salon François Lesage is a separate room from the main dining room, chosen on the booking page like any table; whether it can be had for one party alone is not published, so ask restaurant@alain-passard.com.⁶ Requests meant for Alain Passard himself, events and press go to his office at bureau@alain-passard.com rather than to reservations.⁷