La Tour d'Argent

La Tour d’Argent has the kind of address Paris keeps for itself: 15 Quai de la Tournelle, facing the Seine with Notre Dame in full view.  You come for the theatre as much as the cooking. The room was rebuilt and reopened in 2023 with architect Franklin Azzi giving it a contemporary sheen and a ceiling designed to glitter like metal. 

In the kitchen, Meilleur Ouvrier de France Yannick Franques runs the house with a classic compass and modern control.  The signature remains pressed duck, carved, pressed tableside, then finished into a sauce that tastes like a time machine with perfect manners.  There is also that delightfully obsessive ritual: ducks are numbered, and diners leave with the number like a small piece of Parisian folklore you can keep in your wallet.