March 23, 2019

Dining in Paris: Tour d’Argent

In preparation for Paris, I knew I wanted to dine at a Michelin starred French restaurant. I always try to travel on a budget, but I do plan ahead to splurge on a meal or two, and Paris was one place I was ready to do that. After some research and asking around, I settled on Tour d’Argent. The sommelier at The Kahala was the one who recommended Tour d’Argent, and since he knows his wine, food, and Paris, I trusted the recommendation! I made reservations online about a month in advance.

Founded in 1582, Tour d’Argent is an over 400-year-old restaurant known for its duck dishes and expansive wine list. They held 3 Michelin Stars until they lost one in the 90s, then lost another in the early 2000s. The restaurant has a gorgeous view of the Seine, Notre Dame, and Sacré-Coeur Basilica from its sixth floor dining room. This restaurant is said to be the inspiration of the restaurant in Ratatouille!

Lovely view from our table

If you are a wine enthusiast, their impressive over 450,000 bottle wine list alone is worth the visit; they claim it’s the best in France. The book was incredibly heavy, and it was so cool to peruse through its pages.

We wanted to splurge on a few meals throughout trip, and although this was one of those meals, I wasn’t ready to drop our money on their dinner prices. So we went for the lunch prix fixe, which was 105 euros per person, and bought a half bottle of wine.

The standout dish for me was actually the soup starter. The flavors of the duck dish were a little too all over the place for me; I didn’t think they complemented each other well.

We knew we were going to the restaurant, but we had plenty of touristy exploring to do after, so we were definitely a bit underdressed. They didn’t seem to mind though! The staff that greeted us the moment we stepped in the door, the elevator operator, the waiters, the chef, every employee we came in contact with was SO friendly. Despite the restaurants high-class reputation, luckily there was no snootiness.