Best Italian Restaurants in Paris 2026 — The Eight That Land
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Paris's most serious Italian kitchen is Passerini in the 12th arrondissement — Giovanni Passerini's hand-cut tortelli at €38 and a 24-seat dining room that has shipped at one Michelin star quality since 2015. Runners-up: Il Carpaccio at Le Royal Monceau, Daroco, Pulperia, RAP.
Fourteen Italian restaurants in Paris have opened since 2020 and only four of them have stayed serious. The market is now bimodal — the Big Mamma group expanding its trattoria template city-wide on one side, and a handful of single-chef rooms cooking pasta to Roman or Emilian standard on the other. The eight below sit on the right side of that line.
Giovanni Passerini left Rome in 2003, worked at Petrelluzzi and Rino in the 11th, then opened his own restaurant in the 12th in 2015 — and the room is now the most serious Italian kitchen in Paris by every measure the Michelin guide does not capture (no second seating, no English-language menu, no advertising in fifteen years). Il Carpaccio at Le Royal Monceau holds the only Michelin star in Italian Paris under Oliver Piras and Alessandra Del Favero since 2018. The Big Mamma group's six Paris sites — Daroco, East Mamma, Mamma Primi, Pink Mamma, Pizzeria Popolare and Ober Mamma — are not on this list as separate entries because they cook the same menu in different rooms; Daroco is the one we book. The rest of Italian Paris is bistro-Italian rather than Italian; you can taste the difference within the first fork.
Eight Italian Rooms in Paris Worth Booking
Giovanni Passerini opened the 24-seat room on rue Traversière in 2015 after fifteen years cooking in Paris kitchens — Petrelluzzi in the 5th, Rino in the 11th, the late Astair in the 17th — and the brief was narrow from day one. Pasta cooked to Roman standard rather than Paris-Italian standard, a tasting menu of four courses for €80 at lunch, and a wine list weighted Italian (Etna and Mount Vesuvius reds, Friulano whites) rather than the default Burgundy. The room books two months out and there is no second seating.
The tortelli with sheep's milk ricotta, Parmesan and brown butter at €38 is the dish to fly to Paris for. The pasta is hand-cut at the back-of-room marble table by Passerini himself, the filling is a 50/50 sheep ricotta from Lazio and Parmigiano-Reggiano 24 months, and the brown butter is finished with a single sage leaf clipped from the window box on the rue Traversière side. The whole-roasted lamb shoulder for two at €110 is the secondo to plan around. Camillo Benso, the pasta-only counter sibling opened in 2021, occupies the building next door and is the easier reservation.
Le Fooding Restaurant of the Year 2017, regular near-miss for a first Michelin star (closest in 2024). Bookings open 60 days out via Tock — the eight o'clock sittings Wednesday through Saturday go in the first day. Lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday is the under-booked window.
VerdictThe hand-cut sheep ricotta tortelli is the most serious pasta course in Paris, six years before any Michelin star — fly in once for the eight o'clock sitting.
Il Carpaccio sits on the ground floor of Le Royal Monceau Raffles on avenue Hoche, two blocks from the Arc de Triomphe — a 50-seat dining room with a Murano-glass chandelier program installed in 2014, all hand-blown shells covering one wall, and a Philippe Starck redesign that has aged better than the rest of the hotel's public rooms. It is the only Italian restaurant in Paris with a Michelin star, won in 2014 and retained through the 2025 guide.
Oliver Piras and Alessandra Del Favero are a married couple from the Dolomites who took over the kitchen in 2018 from Pasquale Tozzi. They previously ran Aga in San Vito di Cadore (one Michelin star, closed 2017) and brought the Alpine-Italian register with them. The signature winter risotto with Carnaroli rice, aged Castelmagno cheese and Piedmont white truffle at the €185 tasting menu is the dish; the seven-cheese tortellini in clear capon broth is the alternative for diners who do not want to do white truffle. The cheese trolley is the most serious in any Paris Italian — 32 cheeses, all DOP-protected, served with a tableside guide.
The wine list runs to 1,200 bins under head sommelier Manuel Peyrondet (the only Italian-trained MS in Paris) and leans heavily Barolo, Brunello and Etna reds. Reservations open 60 days out via the hotel website; the tasting menu is the only menu served at dinner.
VerdictItalian Paris's only Michelin star, white truffle risotto, the Murano chandelier wall — book it eight weeks ahead for an anniversary.
Daroco opened in 2017 in the former Jean Paul Gaultier flagship at 6 rue Vivienne — a 220-seat dining room across two floors of a 19th-century glass-roofed atrium that the designer had used for his couture shows for twenty years. Alexandre Giesbert kept most of the bones (the mezzanine, the showroom mirrors, the metal staircase) and installed a wood-fired pizza oven where the runway had been. The room is the loudest serious Italian in Paris and the most photogenic.
Marco Cervetti's pizza program is the reason to book — Neapolitan-style dough fermented 48 hours, San Marzano DOP tomatoes from Agro Sarnese-Nocerino, and the Pizza Daroco (mortadella di Bologna, Sicilian pistachio cream, buffalo burrata) at €26 that has been the bestseller since 2017. The vitello tonnato at €22 is the antipasto to start with — house-poached veal sliced thin, classic tonnata sauce, capers from Pantelleria. Skip the pasta — it lands on the right side of decent without justifying €32 against Passerini's €38 tortelli two arrondissements east.
Reservations open 30 days out via TheFork and the prime weekend slots go in the first week. The ground floor is the better room than the mezzanine. Sunday brunch is the under-booked window.
VerdictThe mortadella-pistachio pizza in the old Gaultier showroom, the loudest serious Italian room in Paris — try it once with four people on a Saturday night.
Pulperia sits on a quiet stretch of rue Richard Lenoir behind the Bastille — a 40-seat ground-floor dining room with an open kitchen that runs along the back wall and an Argentine-Italian charcoal grill at the centre. Marcos Forero (Argentine-Italian, ex-Anahi in the 3rd and ex-Septime under Bertrand Grébaut) opened it in 2019 with a brief that splits the difference between Buenos Aires parrilla and Roman trattoria.
The signature is the beef tartare with smoked anchovy from Cantabria and 12-year aged Modena balsamic at €18 — the cut is Aubrac topside, hand-chopped to order, dressed without egg yolk. The grilled octopus with Ratte potato and Calabrian peperoncino oil at €34 is the other order. The pasta program is short — three pastas, all made in-house, all under €28 — and the cacio e pepe with Tonnarelli is the one to order. Gault & Millau nominated Forero for Young Chef of the Year in 2022 and 2023.
Reservations open 30 days out via The Fork. The room is small enough to keep conversation at table level and the bar program is genuinely serious — twelve Italian amaros on rotation. Tuesday and Wednesday dinner are the easiest entry points.
VerdictThe Argentine-Italian crossover in the 11th, beef tartare with Cantabrian anchovy, the cacio e pepe is the under-the-radar order — book it for a second date.
RAP — short for Restaurant Alessandra Pierini — opened in 2010 on rue Fléchier in the 9th, in a 32-seat ground-floor room behind the épicerie of the same name that Pierini had run since 2007. The brief is southern Italian rather than the Roman or Emilian register most of Paris cooks: Sicilian, Calabrian, Pugliese ingredients, sourced through the same import network Pierini built for the shop next door.
The stuffed sardines Sicilian-style at €16 is the antipasto to order — five sardines per portion, filled with pine nut, sultana, breadcrumb and Pecorino Siciliano, fried then served at room temperature. The pasta alla Norma at €24 — Sicilian aubergine, San Marzano, salted ricotta from Ragusa, basil — is the most authentic version of the dish served in Paris. The Tropea onion focaccia from the épicerie is included with every meal at no charge.
Reservations open 21 days out by phone — the website booking system has not been reliable since 2022 and Pierini takes calls personally between 11am and 2pm. The room is closed Sundays and Mondays. The épicerie next door is the under-the-radar reason to walk past — Pierini imports a tomato passata from a single farm in Pachino that is the best supermarket-substitute jar in Paris.
VerdictSicilian and Pugliese cooking from Alessandra Pierini since 2010, the pasta Norma is the only true one in Paris — try it once for a Tuesday lunch.
Pizzeria Popolare is the 320-seat brick basilica that Big Mamma built on rue Réaumur in 2017 — vaulted ceilings, marble counters, a 60-seat bar program down the centre, and the loudest dining room in the 2nd arrondissement. The brief is Neapolitan pizza at trattoria prices. It is not the most serious Italian on this list; it is the most reliable Italian on this list at the under-€20 main course tier.
The Pizza Carbonara at €15 is the order — guanciale di Amatrice, aged Pecorino Romano DOP, raw egg yolk cracked at the table, fresh black pepper. The Pizza Daniela at €16 is the other order — taleggio, truffle-infused honey, candied walnut. The dough is 72-hour cold-fermented, the tomatoes are San Marzano DOP, and the mozzarella is fior di latte from Caserta. Walk-ins are taken at the bar between 6pm and 7.30pm; reservations open 28 days out via the Big Mamma app for tables of two to four.
Bib Gourmand 2019 (retained 2025). The room is too loud for first dates but works for a group of six on a Saturday night before going out. The bar program is honest about being secondary to the pizza.
VerdictThe Pizza Carbonara with raw egg yolk cracked tableside is the most reliable €15 pizza in Paris — book a six-top for a casual Saturday.
Caffè Stern occupies the 1834 Stern engraving workshop in Passage des Panoramas, a covered arcade behind rue Vivienne in the 2nd. The Alajmo family from Padua took it over in 2014 — Massimiliano Alajmo holds three Michelin stars at Le Calandre in Sarmeola — and kept the original chestnut wood panelling, the brass display cases, the workshop tools mounted as wall decoration. The dining room seats 45 and the windows face into the passage rather than the street.
Simone Tondo (Sardinian, formerly of Roseval in the 20th) took over the kitchen in 2020 and the cooking shifted from Veneto-leaning to Roman-leaning. The cacio e pepe with hand-cut Tonnarelli pasta at €28 is the dish — Pecorino Romano DOP from Lazio, no butter, no cream, just black pepper toasted in the pan before the pasta water goes in. The vitello al forno at €38 — roasted veal loin, marsala jus, salt-baked turnip — is the secondo. The wine list leans Alajmo-family vineyards (Brunello, Etna).
Reservations open 30 days out via TheFork. The passage location means walk-by traffic is minimal and the room stays at conversation level even on Saturday night.
VerdictThe Alajmo family's Paris outpost in a 19th-century engraving workshop, Tondo's cacio e pepe is the city's most disciplined version — try it once for a quiet Friday.
Loulou occupies the south-facing terrace of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs on the Tuileries side, 100 metres west of the Louvre Pyramid. Gilbert Costes opened it in 2015 as a Riviera-Italian concept — wicker chairs, white linen, the Louvre on one side and the Tuileries gardens on the other, and a covered indoor dining room for the winter months. The view is the brief; the cooking is competent rather than serious.
Benoît Dargère runs the kitchen and the spaghetti alla bottarga at €32 is the order — De Cecco spaghetti, Sardinian grey-mullet bottarga (cured for six months), Ligurian olive oil, no garlic. The whole turbot for two at €124 grilled over charcoal is the alternative. Skip the pizza and the antipasto plate; the kitchen is calibrated for the pasta and the seafood, not the rest. Lunch on the terrace from April to October is the only sitting that justifies the booking.
Reservations open 60 days out via the website. The terrace tables go first; the indoor room is acceptable in November and December but no better than €40 pasta in the 7th. Dress code is smart casual but the location pulls a louder lunch crowd than is ideal for a serious midday meeting.
VerdictThe Tuileries-facing terrace with spaghetti alla bottarga and a Louvre view — pencil it in for an April Saturday lunch.
Who This Guide Isn't For
Skip the Big Mamma group for a first-tier Italian meal. Daroco and Pizzeria Popolare are on this list because they are the two sites of the six that justify a booking. East Mamma, Mamma Primi, Pink Mamma, Ober Mamma — all are competent, all cook the same group menu, none are the reason to be in Paris. If you want serious Italian cooking, the four single-chef rooms above (Passerini, Pulperia, Caffè Stern, RAP) sit two tiers above any Big Mamma site.
Skip Loulou after 8pm. The terrace lighting goes flat at sundown, the room shifts to a louder bar-leaning register, and the kitchen leaves the bottarga station to second cooks. Lunch from 12.30pm to 3pm is the only sitting that earns the booking.
Skip Il Carpaccio if you are doing one Michelin meal in Paris. The room is serious, the chefs are serious, the white truffle risotto is excellent — but if you are choosing between one Italian Michelin star in Paris and one French Michelin star in Paris, the French-three-star rooms (Plénitude, Arpège, Le Cinq) are doing more interesting work at the same price. Use Il Carpaccio for the second or third Michelin meal of a trip, not the first.
How to Pick the Right Room for Your Evening
Passerini for the sheep ricotta tortelli, Caffè Stern for the Tonnarelli cacio e pepe, Pulperia for the under-the-radar Argentine-Italian register.
Il Carpaccio at Le Royal Monceau is the only option, and it earns the booking for the winter white-truffle risotto and the cheese trolley.
Daroco for the mortadella pizza in the Gaultier showroom, Pizzeria Popolare for the Carbonara pizza at €15.
Loulou's Tuileries terrace from April through October — the only Italian terrace in the 1st worth booking specifically for the room.
Il Carpaccio opens 60 days out via the hotel website. Passerini opens 60 days out via Tock and goes fast for Wednesday-Saturday dinner. Daroco, Pulperia, Caffè Stern open 30 days out via TheFork. Pizzeria Popolare 28 days via the Big Mamma app. RAP by phone only, 21 days out. Loulou opens 60 days out.