The 2023 Fooding Guide announces its best restaurants in France

The 2023 Fooding Guide has announced the 15 restaurants to win across its varied categories, including the best ‘country pub’, best romantic restaurant, and best ‘village café’.

The awards recognised some of the lesser-known restaurants from across France (although some headed up by well-known chefs who first trained in Paris), with categories that also include the most sophisticated restaurant, best ‘fingerlicking’ food, and best ‘antidepressant’.

The sites are commended for their food, team spirit, quality of ingredients, originality, style, decor, and atmosphere. The awards were handed out on November 14, at the 80s-inspired Le Duplex in Paris (a mix of bowling alley, gay club, bar, and restaurant).

• Best table: Le Doyenné, Saint-Vrain – From Aussie chefs James Edward Henry and Shaun Kelly, in the Essonne countryside, using homegrown ingredients in their huge greenhouse

• Fooding loves: Oiseau Oiseau, Préaux-du-Perche (Orne) – From Sven Chartier and his partner Marianne, with front of house service from brother Nils, serving locally-grown produce
• Fooding loves: Jones, Paris - From Florent Ciccoli, Richardo Ferrante and Damien Lacour
• Best country pub: The Presbytère, Heugueville-sur-Sienne – Chef of ‘Neo-British’ food Edward Delling-Williams in his Manche outpost

• Best team spirit: Restaurant L’Idéal, Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) – A trattoria-style restaurant from Julia Sammut opposite her deli of the same name, from chef Aurélien Baron with Jérémy Nguyen out front
• Best village café: Jour de Fête, Valennes (Sarthe) – A ‘cool restaurant-deli-bakery’ by Raphaële Yon-Araud, where everything is organic and homemade
• Best ‘glutennerie’: Maison Arlot Cheng, Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) – A bakery from Chin-Jy Cheng and Pierre-Antoine Arlot, with a ‘canteen’ run by chef Louise Dumas

• Best ‘sophistroquet’ (sophisticate): Regain, Marseille – A convivial site run by friends Sarah Chougnet-Strudel and Lucien Salomon
• Best ‘fried’ style: Reyna, Paris – Filipino cuisine from chef Erica Paredes in a mini chateau
• Best bistrot: Bistrot des Tournelles, Paris – A traditional, nostalgia-filled bistrot run by Édouard Vermynck and Geoffroy Langella

• Best drinking place: Ritournelle, Dinard (Ille-et-Vilaine) – Beachside site with a great terrace, run by Miléna Cugny and Benjamin Joinville
• Best ‘antidepressant’: Soces, Paris – A site with an open-plan kitchen, with a varied menu from Marius de Ponfilly, run by Kevin Deulio

• Best winery to eat in: Chéri Bibi, Biarritz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) – Run by sommelier Augustine You and chef Adrien Witte
• Best fingerlicking food: Yegg, Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales) – A street-food style restaurant with tasty burgers and an option to eat standing up outdoors, from Alexandre Domerg, Thibault Reverdy, and Eva Fèvre.
• Best for little luxuries: Le Bistrot de Cancale, Cancale (Ille-et-Vilaine) – An Art-Deco style bistrot near the coast, with plates from Maxime Belloir, served by Chloé Guillemois

The full 2023 Fooding Guide, with 500 recommendations in total, can be pre-ordered online at the website’s shop, and in bookshops.

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