Lyon is a born-and-bred gourmand and deciding where to dine in the city that has been lorded as France's gastronomic capital for decades can be challenging. Be it earthy street market or food truck, on-trend millennial neo-bistro or Michelin-starred haute-cuisine restaurant, the choice is rich. All budgets are well catered for too - most restaurants serve a cheaper lunchtime menu (fixed two- or three-course meal), making midi (midday) a prime time to indulge in an excellent-value meal. Sampling an iconic andouillette (tripe sausage) or other old-timer offal dish in a Lyonnais bouchon (bistro) is a Lyonnais rite of passage.
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With just 12 highly sought-after spots around a handful of tables (reserve as far in advance as possible) and a single enticing menu that changes each month, dining at this fashionista address in Fourvière promises an intimate table d'hôte experience. Sassy food and wine pairings reflect the creative partnership of Japanese owner-sommelier Shoko Hasegawa and chef Takafumi Kikuchi who gained their first Michelin star for their modern French kitchen in 2019. The springtime milk-fed roast lamb served with capers, thyme and green lentils from Berry in central France is sensational. Don't miss the house apéritif - a thrilling mix of fresh verbena, ginger and sparkling Crémant de Bourgogne.
Contact: la-sommeliere.net
Nearest metro: Vieux Lyon
Reservations: Essential
Prices: ££
Best table: Any on the people watching-perfect, summer terrace
Considered one of Lyon's most influential chefs right now, Nicolas Guilloton looks no further than 125 miles (200km) to source the seasonal produce for his highly sought after 'green cuisine'. Féra comes fresh from Lake Geneva fisherman Éric Jacquier; edible flowers arrive fresh from the foothills of the Vercors; and partridge, hare and hard-to-find game adds excitement to autumnal feasts. Perhaps most thrillingly of all, dining here is an epicurean surprise - there is no printed menu, simply a choice of two or three courses at lunch, four to six at dinner. Little wonder the Alsatian-born chef landed his first Michelin star in 2024.
Contact: latelierdesaugustins.com
Nearest metro: Hôtel de Ville
Reservations: Recommended
Best table: The chef's table, with its mesmerising view of the action.
With its soul-soaring vaulted stone ceiling, wood panelling and stained-glass windows, there is no mistaking where you are: in the heart and soul of Lyon's historic Grand Hôtel Dieu. In the medieval hospital's cavernous refectory, chef Marcel Ravin woos urban gourmets with a contemporary bistronomique cuisine that never quite forgets Lyon's extraordinary culinary roots: rigatoni with cheesy cervelle de canut that Lyonnais silk weavers ate for breakfast in the 19th century, the ritual end-of-meal espresso with a one-bite meringue slicked in pea-green Elixir de Chartreuse liqueur. Fixed two- and three-course lunch menus are particularly good-value.
Contact: legrandrefectoire.com
Nearest metro: Bellecourt
Best table: For solo diners, at the central-island bar - a glorious weep of polished vintage zinc with God-like view of the entire refectory.
Simply follow your nose to uncover this always-packed bouchon (old-school Lyonnais bistro) whose ravishing home-cooking smells fill the entire backstreet on which it hides. First-timers risk stumbling straight into the kitchen (the dark-red door on the street); instead swing through the unmarked wooden door into a dark shabby courtyard and follow the sound of clattering cutlery and wine-fuelled merriment into the old-school dining room. The no-frills décor is hardcore retro and the feast of hearty Lyonnais dishes tucked into around long, shared, red-and-white-check tables - boudin aux pommes (black pudding with apples), quenelles de brochet (fish-pike dumplings) and andouillette (tripe sausage) - is second-to-none.
Contact: 00 33 478 37 71 54
Opening times: Tue-Sat, 12pm-2pm and 7.30pm-9pm
Nearest metro: Cordeliers
Prices: £
In a city celebrated for its hearty offal and porky cuisine, this latest opening from the team behind organic neo-bistro Victoire et Thomas (right across the street) is a breath of gastronomic fresh air. As the city's first haute cuisine, vegetarian restaurant, Culina Hortus ('Kitchen Garden' in Latin) sources its flavoursome, seasonal produce - sun-filled fruit, veg, grains, herbs and edible flowers - from France's finest small producers: nutty quinoa from Madame Abbott's farm in the Loire Valley, hand-churned Breton Bordier butter, rare oils pressed from walnut and plum kernels. The lunchtime menu changes weekly, the sensational four- to seven-course evening menus monthly.
Contact: culinahortus.com
Nearest metro: Hotel de Ville
That a restaurant so illustrious fills most of its street with a romantic façade of cascading ivy, racing-green paintwork and leaded stained glass is only right and proper. Home for decades to legendary Lyonnais chef Jean-Paul Lacombe (who famously gave up his Michelin-star twinset in 2008 to turn the family restaurant into a brasserie), historic Léon de Lyon continues to lure a discerning local crowd. Fashionable soft-pink chairs and decorative gleaming-bronze cake moulds scream on-trend vintage glam. Menus offer a welcome choice of dining experiences - bistro, bar or restaurant - around scrumptious revisited classics like veal sweetbreads with aromatic truffle-laced mashed potato, creative roasts and sweet Grand Marnier-flambéed crêpes suzette.
Contact: leondelyon.com
Prices: ££-£££
Best table: Outside on the street terrace, in the sun, is always a treat.
An essential foodie rendez-vous for culinary history aficionados, this elegant haute-cuisine address - still with Art Deco ceramic tilework and ornate lead windows - is where it all began. Mère (mother) of French cooking, Eugénie Brazier, opened the mythical restaurant in 1921 and, in 1933, became the first person in the world to obtain six Michelin stars (split between this restaurant and another outside the city)., retaining a trio of Michelin stars from 1933 until 1968. Her spirit lives on in Michelin-starred chef Mathieu Viannay who casts a modern spin on Mère Brazier's signature dishes, most notably poularde demi-deuil (poached chicken from Bourg-en-Bresse with black truffles decadently threaded between the meat and skin). Kudos for the sublime seaweed butter accompanying the bread and the dangerously lavish cheese trolley.
Contact: lamerebrazier.fr
Prices: £££
Lyonnais 'bobos', or French boho types, flock to this fashionable hilltop restaurant to gorge on tasty homemade cooking in an industrial interior with Formica tables, chipboard shelving and white Paris-metro tiling. A no-reservations policy means the queue snakes out the door and down the hill at weekends. Thirty-something Lyonnais owner/chef Marion Bohe previously worked in London and Shanghai, and her all-day breakfasts, brunches and lunches ooze world flavours. Coffee beans come from London's Climpson & Sons roastery, Kodama teas are Parisian and La Canute Lyonnaise craft beers are brewed locally. Order Marion's Israeli-inspired shakshuka (roast tomatoes, peppers and onions with spicy chorizo, fried eggs, yoghurt and fresh coriander) to become an instant groupie.
Contact: ledesjeuneur.com
Nearest metro: Croix-Rousse
Reservations: Walk-ins only
Best table: Any table by the window to be seen and/or people watch
Few dining experiences are so utterly, deliciously, wickedly French as an al fresco meal on the packed pavement terrace of this traditional bouchon (Lyonnais bistro). This said, the culinary curious might prefer a table in the beamed interior to watch the chefs at work through glass. Bistro tables are dressed in red-and-white checked tablecloths and the five-course tasting menu with wine pairings (Beaujolais AOC, Côtes du Rhone, Côteaux de l'Ardèche) stars notable classics like foie gras and sweetbread paté in a pastry crust, and Lyonnais pike-perch quenelles (dumplings) in crayfish sauce. Tripe lovers won't leave disappointed either.
Contact: danieletdenise.fr
Best table: Any on the lovely summer terrace
Wild herbs, flowers and other natural flavours of the Rhône region pack a powerful eco-punch punch at this nature-driven restaurant, in an eco-responsible building a block from the Rhône. Dining is around French oak tables, in an elegant space with earthy mustard-and-taupe palette and decorative green foliage. Chef Gaëtan Gentil matches his inventive dishes - each a surprise - with a bespoke piece of handcrafted earthenware, and head sommelier Céline Boinon is equally creative in her wine pairings. If you're seeking natural or organic wine, you won't find a finer choice than the 950 references in Prairial's cellar.
Contact: prairial-restaurant.fr
Nearest metro: Lyon Perrache
Best table: The private 'shared table' for 10, only by advanced reservation.
Cocktail-fueled dining at glamourous CoCo is all about hobnobbing with the city's A-listers - Paris Society, with several cool-cat addresses in the capital, masterminded this chic brasserie inside the former Gare de Brotteaux train station. The interior is a TikTok natural: soaring ceiling, palm trees, Napoleon III lacquered armchairs, velvet canapes and retro carpets screaming Art Deco chintz. On the menu: modern brasserie classics like beef fillet with fries, sole meunière, salads and a fabulous freshly-shucked-oysters brunch.
Contact: restaurant-coco.com
Nearest metro: Brotteaux
Prices: £-££
An absolute favourite when a break from feisty Lyonnais cuisine beckons (it happens), this sensational boutique restaurant in the 6e arrondissement is the epitome of contemporary French fusion. Japanese chef Takao Takano unveiled his minimalist black and white space on the Rhône's Left Bank in 2013 and is a master of the pure and simple, winning a second Michelin star in 2018 for his delicate dishes that play fresh seasonal products in inventive combos. His 'Envie' lunch menu - pairing pork from nearby Savoy with hazelnuts perhaps or rhubarb with rose and vanilla - is as desirable as its name suggests.
Contact: takaotakano.com
Nearest metro: Foch
Every restaurant in this curated list has been tried and tested by our destination expert, who has visited to provide you with their insider perspective. We cover a range of budgets, from neighbourhood favourites to Michelin-starred restaurants - to best suit every type of traveller's taste - and consider the food, service, best tables, atmosphere and price in our recommendations. We update this list regularly to keep up with the latest opening and provide up to date recommendations.
