Paris restaurant suggestions for April 2026

Regional Dining Discussions France
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This is my first time posting, even though I’ve been lurking for quite awhile. My family and I are going to be in Paris for the first week of April. April 1-4 is all four of us (hubby, myself, teen son, and tween daughter) and April 4-8 is just my 12-year-old daughter and me. We are staying near the 3rd/11th with the whole family and then my daughter and I are staying in the 6th from April 4-8. This is our third trip to Paris as a family and my kids really enjoy all the food, from pastries to baguette sandwiches to Michelin star restaurants. We all love seafood and my son loves lamb and a nice steak. My daughter loves tea time. We probably can’t eat more than one nicer meal per day (our stomachs can’t handle it), so I am trying to alternate between casual, lighter fare with the multi-coursed restaurants.

Here is my tentative plan for restaurant reservations, based on browsing the posts here and other suggestions:

Wednesday (we arrive) lunch: walk to somewhere near our hotel, probably Les enfants du marche or sandwiches nearby or Chez Janou? Open to suggestions.
Wednesday dinner: Eunoe or Bistrot Instinct? Parcelles?
Thursday (we will be in the 1st/2nd arr. area) lunch: Empreinte
Thursday dinner: Frenchie Bar a Vins or something back in the Marais
Friday lunch: open
Friday dinner (last dinner together as a family so wanted to do something nice): Gemellus?
Saturday (daughter and I move to Pavilion Faubourg St. Germain) lunch: Cafe des Ministeres? Or somewhere in the 6th?
Saturday dinner: Baillotte
Sunday lunch (Easter): thinking of taking her to Galerie Dior so lunch is open and then Le Bristol for afternoon tea (last seating is 5pm) - maybe super light dinner afterwards? Not sure what is open Easter Sunday?
Monday lunch: open [maybe get sandwiches at le petit vendome?]
Monday dinner: figure we could eat at Les Parisiens since it’s at our hotel and there are limited Monday dinner options
Tuesday lunch: Akabeko
Tuesday dinner: Oktobre [or vice versa with Akabeko]

When it’s just my daughter and me, we prefer to go to dinner that’s walking distance from our hotel in the 6th. These are just my initial brainstorm. I would really welcome your thoughts and suggestions, please! (For more context, here are some restaurants we have enjoyed in our past 2 visits to Paris, some of them based on suggestions from this board: Alliance, Qui plume la lune, Benoit, L’Assiette, Le Train Bleu, Chez Dumonet, Les Botanistes, Pianovins.)

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I think you have a great plan! We were not impressed with Akabeko at all. Monday dinner or Tuesday lunch maybe consider return to Alliance. Some of our favorites have been La Condesa, Pages, Montee, or Sola. Also, Pierre Sang restaurants are open Sundays. Perception could be a fun dinner for your group. Love Galerie Dior ( they also have a restaurant).

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Ooh, thank you for mentioning lunch at Galerie Dior. We might just do that. I will look into another option for Tuesday lunch. We are planning to visit Musee d’Orsay that morning and it is just a walk down the street from there but I will look into the other ones you mentioned. I loved Alliance but really want to try new places since our time is so limited.

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Maybe Café des Ministères for lunch after d’orsay since it is close by, and maybe Montee for lunch on Sat

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My son would really like to eat lamb during our visit. Do you have any recommendations for where to get good lamb? Maybe in the Marais or the 11th which is near where we will be staying?

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Eunoé in the 11e had a fabulous roasted lamb dish at dinner. I think it is one of their signatures. Great value place, too. Highly recommended.

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Thank you for the recommendation!

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Géméllus is by far my highest recommendation. It’s surely great for dinner, too, but we have not yet made it there for dinner since the lunch value is such a steal.

When you go to Les Parisiens, make sure to order the fish mains. They are much better than the others. Desserts are also usually great.

I second beam’s suggestion about Pierre Sang Oberkampf (slightly better than Gambey IMO), and we usually go there on Sundays ourselves. This one place you should go for dinner, not lunch, for the full experience. Tip: Do not get the wine pairings here; not great value and not particularly interesting wines. Order a bottle of bubbles instead. Tip 2: you need to pay in advance online or they may cancel your reservation if you don’t reconfirm a few days before.

While by no means the only place to get it, we usually do steak at the very touristy, no reservations Relais de l’Entrecôte in the 6e. It’s just about the only touristy place we do go, but we enjoy the experience and the food.

We very much liked Akabeko for lunch, but I do agree with beam if one is only going to do one “special” lunch, I’d choose Alliance as well.

Cafe des Ministeres is very rich, somewhat heavy traditional food, so make sure that’s what you want if you go (it is indeed very good at it). It’s also not that easy to book last I checked, so you’ll want to be online to make the reservations right when they open them up.

I fully support your idea of sandwiches at/from Le Petit Vendôme.

Panurge in 2e is about a half hour walk from your hotel, so not sure you’d count that as walkable, but I’d recommend that too.

After Géméllus, the place we most enjoyed last year - not walkable - is Brion in the 9e.

I hope you and your family enjoy your trip!
As it happens, we will be arriving in Paris on April 3rd ourselves this year, also staying in the 11e.

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There are two places that come to mind for great lamb in Paris. One is Le Train Bleu in the Gare de Lyon which serves a roast leg of lamb. I actually prefer Le Train Bleu for lunch when the light really makes the colors come alive. The other is La Grande Brasserie near Bastille that serves a lamb shoulder to share with two or three people. I haven’t had the lamb at Eunoé.

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Second the lamb at Grande Brasserie. It was surprisingly good but while the menu says for 2 it was easily enough for 3+

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Another source of lamb you may want to consider would be any of the couscous restaurants, where a lamb tagine will be on the menu, but with many other choices for the lamb-adverse members of your group. In the past I have favored l’Atlas in the Fifth.

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Re Le Train Bleu: We split an order of the lovely tableside carved lamb at dinner a couple weeks ago. (We consulted with our waiter and then constructed our own little tasting menu — splitting four courses, including cheese before dessert.) We asked how many legs of lamb are prepared each night just for dinner. The answer: A bit more than 50!

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Hi Nao

Hopefully I can help with providing feedback on restaurants I visited last July you have on your list.

  1. Bistro Instinct - a big no from me, this was a disaster from start to finish. Flavour and ingredient combinations that made no sense whatsoever and it was not pleasant. I rated it a 3/10.
  2. Gemellus - I had a fabulous 5-course lunch there and highly recommend, 9/10.
  3. Akabeko - Solid choice, I had the 7-course degustation (dinner), 8/10

Looking at what others have posted, I would echo Alliance, easily the best restaurant I visited, 10/10. I would also suggest Le Petite Chaise in the 7th a short walk from Pavillion Faubourg (I stayed there last year; it is a wonderful hotel in a great location). If you daughter loves ice cream, I would suggest Le Bac à Glaces in the 7th, a great range of high-quality ice creams made on the premises (850 metres from your hotel). Ze Kitchen Galerie in the 6th (about a 15-minute walk from your hotel), thoroughly enjoyable, with great flavour combinations, number 2 in my top 5 restaurant list, 9/10.

You can find all my reviews here:

Paris Trip - List of restaurants (booked and not booked) for discussion (feedback is greatly appreciated) - #40 by Michelle_T

Enjoy your holiday!!!

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Thank you for your feedback and these great suggestions!