Épicure – three MICHELIN Stars behind Le Bristol's secret garden

Épicure occupies the garden-facing dining room of Le Bristol Paris, the palace hotel that has stood on rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, a few steps from the Élysée Palace, since it opened in 1925. It holds three MICHELIN Stars, a distinction the kitchen has carried since 2009, through one of the most closely watched handovers in Paris gastronomy. Éric Frechon returned to Le Bristol's kitchens as head chef in 1999 and went on to win a second star in 2001 and the third eight years later; he ran the room for twenty-five years before leaving in March 2024. Since the following spring it has been Arnaud Faye, Meilleur Ouvrier de France, who sets the course, continuing the three-star tradition with a style built around nature and close ties to producers. The dining room itself, conceived by designer Pierre-Yves Rochon, is dressed in Baccarat glassware, Christofle silverware and Raynaud porcelain, and looks out through tall windows onto the largest private garden of any Paris palace.

01The room and the setting

Before it was Épicure, this was Le Restaurant Français, one of several names the room passed through on its way to one that simply states its subject. The Oetker family, who bought Le Bristol in 1978, rebuilt the dining room around Pierre-Yves Rochon's vision, down to the tableware: hand-cut Baccarat crystal, Christofle silver and bone-white Raynaud porcelain from Limoges.

Outside, the hotel's courtyard garden runs to 1,200 square metres, the largest private garden of any palace in Paris, replanted in 2020 by landscape architect Arabella Lennox-Boyd with hornbeam hedges and climbing roses, a country-garden informality rare so close to the Champs-Élysées. On fine days tables move out among roses, orange trees, azaleas and rhododendrons, white parasols up and fountains running in the background; six beehives on the hotel's roof supply honey that finds its way onto Épicure's menu.

02The chef

Arnaud Faye grew up in the Auvergne, and his training took him through kitchens built on produce and precision: under Antoine Westermann and Bernard Loiseau, then at the Ritz Paris and L'Auberge du Jeu de Paume, and in Èze, where he won two MICHELIN Stars at the Château de la Chèvre d'Or above the Mediterranean. He became Meilleur Ouvrier de France in 2019, and in spring 2024 moved to Le Bristol to succeed Éric Frechon as executive chef and head of the hotel's kitchens.

Insider tip

Jacket required; lunch and dinner Tuesday to Saturday; nearest Métro Miromesnil, 4 minutes on foot.

The stars held through the change; what shifted is the hand on the plate, now lighter and more seasonal than the richer classicism Frechon had refined since 1999 — the same chef who received the Légion d'Honneur in 2001, by which point Épicure already held its second star.

03The cooking

Faye's register puts the vegetable first: a carte built around colour, lightness and close collaboration with growers, rather than the reflexive luxury of foie gras and truffle for their own sake. The kitchen still runs at the scale of a palace address, with its own cheese room and cellar, but the plates lean toward brightness over weight.

At lunch and dinner, guests choose between the carte and six- or eight-course tasting menus; the eight-course version can be ordered up to 9pm for dinner, the six-course up to 1pm for lunch.

04What to order

To finish, vanilla Pompona from Peru, built around crisp gavottes and roasted vanilla ice cream, is priced at €53.

05Wine and drinks

Épicure's cellar is among the deepest of any Paris palace hotel, and Wine Spectator has recognised it with three glasses for Épicure and two for the hotel's one-star brasserie, 114 Faubourg. The sommelier team pours for both Burgundy obsessives and curious drinkers happy to be steered off the obvious bottle.

06When to go and booking

Épicure serves lunch and dinner Tuesday to Saturday only — lunch from midday to 1.30pm, dinner from 7.30pm to 9.30pm — with breakfast reserved for hotel guests between 7.30am and 10.30am. A jacket is required for gentlemen, and pets are not admitted to the dining room.

The nearest Métro is Miromesnil, about 300 metres and a four-minute walk away on lines 9 and 13; reservations run through the restaurant's own booking page on the Oetker Hotels website.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.