We’ve rated Le Grand Café as GOOD with two stars * *
You can find all our rankings in the Restaurant Index
And don’t miss our 50 Favorite Restaurants in Paris
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Le Grand Café is a gorgeous new restaurant inside the newly reopened Grand Palais - that iconic Art Nouveau building with the incredible glass and metal roof.
You can book Le Grand Café for lunch after an exhibit (Niki de Saint Phalle is there now), or anytime you want to dine in a room with soaring ceilings, a gleaming raw bar, and stunning floral displays.
It may surprise some of you to find this included among our current selection of 50 favorite restaurants. It’s not the sort of place (expensive, clubby) that I’m usually drawn to, and it’s not a neighborhood (near the Champs-Elysées) that I often frequent.
But I have fond memories of lunch here on the terrace back when it was called Le Mini Palais, and I can’t deny the charm of this beautiful space. It might not appeal to east side locals, but travelers are always asking me for something in this neighborhood.
But like many restaurants on this side of town (including its siblings Loulou and Girafe), Le Grand Café is expensive and hard to book. You’re here for the spectacle, and that doesn’t come cheap.
But how’s the food? I didn’t expect much from the menu (that’s not really why you go), but I was seduced by this soufflé with aged Comté and truffle (25€).
The roasted langoustines with ginger and lemongrass were also lovely, if you can ignore the price (58€).
And this Viennese schnitzel style veal chop was an indulgent treat (55€).
Seasons don’t exist for this kitchen, so you can order a summery carpaccio or a shaved artichoke salad even in the dead of winter. Both were a little bland.
But desserts were fun. We enjoyed their flaky millefeuille with praline, and the (beautiful to look at, hard to eat) affogato below.
Here’s another strong point (in addition to them being open every day) - Le Grand Café is full of grand tables for big groups. If you’re looking to gather a crowd and have a decent budget, this is an option to consider (here are some others).
To me, Le Grand Café feels like a wealthy New Yorker’s conception of a French restaurant. It exists for travelers, and for the set who love Le Voltaire, Le Duc & L’Ami Louis. If that’s you, and if you also love the Hemingway Bar, you’ll appreciate the long list of 30€ cocktails created by Colin Field.
Le Grand Café is stylish and beautiful - an ideal spot to relax after seeing an exhibition or the Christmas lights along the Champs-Elysées. If the prices concern you, you can look elsewhere for more interesting food. We have 49 other ideas here:
LE GRAND CAFÉ
1 Place Clemenceau, 75008
Open every day for lunch & dinner
Reservations online or at +33 1 85 09 40 50
classically French (ish)
hard to book
open Sunday
open Monday
big tables for big groups
great for seafood
STILL SEARCHING?
Our restaurant index organizes the restaurants we’ve anonymously visited since 2021 by location and ranks them all as:
GREAT * * *
GOOD * *
FINE *
NOT RECOMMENDED
Our Restaurant Index
On this page you’ll find a ranking of all the Paris restaurants that we’ve visited anonymously since the pandemic reopening (more than 260 at the latest count).
Thanks for this Meg. I’ve been wondering about the fate of Le Petit Palais space… a place I loved on warmer days because: that terrace! Sadly, your write up didn’t fill me with anticipation for the warmer months ahead and a leisurely lunch behind the trees, under the arches, with the sparrows and other well heeled folks. Then I looked at the menu! Oye! Tres cher! I used to be able to slide in for a late lunch: Tartare (with great frites & a tiny salad) a glass of nice wine & a coffee: about 30€. Not terrible, especially given the atmosphere (and despite iffy service) Now, that “same” lunch would run about 50€ by my calculation. Nope.
Le sigh.
Not my kind of restaurant so I fully appreciate your review. Find me a women that does not like desserts.