Le Jules Verne – dinner at 125 metres on the Eiffel Tower

Le Jules Verne occupies the second floor of the Eiffel Tower, reached by a private lift from the South Pillar entrance on Allée des Refuzniks, 125 metres above the Champ-de-Mars. Since 2019 its kitchen has belonged to Frédéric Anton, a Meilleur Ouvrier de France who also runs the three-MICHELIN-starred Le Pré Catelan in the Bois de Boulogne, and who won the concession from Alain Ducasse after a very public tender battle backed by the Sodexo group. He succeeded a line of chefs running back through Ducasse (2007), Alain Reix (1992) and Louis Grondard (1983). The dining rooms were entirely rebuilt by architect Aline Asmar d'Amman, known for her work on the Hôtel de Crillon, and reopened in the summer of 2019. It holds Two MICHELIN Stars — the first awarded in January 2020, the second in March 2024 — placing it among the highest tables, literally, in French gastronomy.

01The room and the setting

Three rooms succeed one another along the curve of the tower, each framed on a different slice of the city: the Champ-de-Mars, the Quai Branly and the Trocadéro. Aline Asmar d'Amman, the Beirut-born architect who oversaw the Hôtel de Crillon renovation, expanded the seating and raised the central tables so that every cover looks straight out over Paris. Working alongside Frédéric Anton, she divided the restaurant into three distinct spaces — the counter, the alcove and the private lounge.

The room carries its own history: on 13 July 2017 it hosted a state dinner for Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron with Donald and Melania Trump, a measure of how central this address has long been to French official life.

02The chef

Frédéric Anton, born in Nancy in 1964, earned the Meilleur Ouvrier de France title in 2000 and has held three MICHELIN Stars at Le Pré Catelan since 2007. He arrived at the Eiffel Tower in 2019, winning the concession for Le Jules Verne and the first-floor brasserie — run with chef Thierry Marx — after a contested tender that saw off Alain Ducasse's bid for a second ten-year term.

Insider tip

Private lift from the South Pillar; jacket required for men; closed for dinner on 14 July.

On taking the kitchen, Anton set out his approach in plain terms: a cuisine built on one product, one season, one country — France. Gault&Millau named him Chef of the Year 2025, a distinction the house credits to the whole Jules Verne team.

03The cooking

The first star arrived in January 2020, only six months after the relaunch; the second followed on 18 March 2024. Anton's menu reinvents the grand classics of French cooking in his own register, built on unprocessed, noble ingredients — crab, prawns, free-range poultry, chocolate — paired so that each ingredient's own character carries the dish rather than being masked by it. On the plate, elements are finely cut and layered as a quiet homage to the tower's own lattice-work engineering.

04When to go and booking

The room is built for about a hundred covers and opens seven days a week, for lunch from 12.00 to 13.45 and dinner from 19.00 to 21.00; dinner service is suspended on 14 July. A jacket is required for men, and shorts or sportswear are not admitted. Reservations are taken by telephone, daily from 9.00 to 22.00, or by email.

05The neighbourhood

Guests reach the restaurant through its own private lift from Entrance 1 on the Allée des Refuzniks, on the tower's South Pillar, with valet parking included. The nearest Métro stop is Bir-Hakeim, with Trocadéro and École Militaire both a short walk across the Champ-de-Mars and the Pont d'Iéna, within sight of the Musée du Quai Branly.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.