Restaurant Paul Bocuse

The chefs and Paul Bocuse's signature dishes

Chefs Gilles Reinhardt and Olivier Couvin, both at the restaurant for more than 30 years, run the kitchen and keep the late Paul Bocuse's repertoire alive. The classics are blue lobster, lobster and pike-perch quenelles, red mullet in crispy potato scales and chicken cooked in a bladder (en vessie). The cooking is rich and generous, in the Lyonnaise tradition.

The green facade and traditional dining rooms

The green facade with red shutters is easy to spot from the road. Inside, the rooms feel like a grand traditional inn, with a tiled floor, paintings on the walls, formally dressed tables and polished service. The cellar holds around 35,000 bottles, and there are private rooms. Guests are asked to dress for the elegant setting, and a meal takes more than two hours. A taxi or car from central Lyon takes 15 to 20 minutes.

A century of the Bocuse family and its stars

The family has run the inn since 1924 and marked its centenary in 2024. Paul Bocuse won three MICHELIN stars in 1965 and kept them without a break until the 2020 guide, published on 27 January, which lowered the restaurant to two stars two years after his death at 91 in 2018. His best-known dish, a truffle soup, was first cooked in 1975 for a presidential dinner at the Élysée Palace and is still served as Soupe V.G.E., after Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. Benoit Charvet completes the kitchen leadership alongside Reinhardt and Couvin, and the team includes two Meilleurs Ouvriers de France. The kitchen and first-floor lounges were recently renovated.

Sources: Restaurant Paul Bocuse official site; The Caterer: Paul Bocuse restaurant loses third star. Facts checked November 2026.