Le Dôme Café, ParisLe Dôme Café
- Hours
- Today: 12:00 – 2:30 PM, 7:00 – 10:30 PM
- Getting there
- Boulevard du Montparnasse, on the border of the 6th and 14th arrondissements
Why it’s in the log
Le Dôme opened in 1898 and spent the early 20th century as a gathering point for the artists and writers who defined Montparnasse — Picasso, Hemingway and the rest of the interwar crowd all passed through it. Anthony Bourdain visited for the premiere episode of No Reservations' second season, "Why the French Don't Suck," calling it "an old classic — and I mean classic with a capital C." He kept recommending it for years afterward, once ranking it second only to the Eiffel Tower as a Paris must-visit.
It's a seafood brasserie in the classic register: raw bar, sole meunière, the kind of white-tablecloth room that hasn't chased a trend in over a century because it's never needed to. The prices reflect the location and the history in equal measure.
Book ahead for dinner — the room is small enough that the Montparnasse regulars fill it most nights on their own.
“An old Montparnasse brasserie that once sat Picasso and Hemingway — Bourdain kept sending people here for decades after he first filmed it.”
What people said recently
From Google reviews · see all 1,964 ↗
“It's really amazing experience in Le Dome, we really enjoyed nice meal and good service! Thanks Joseph! Bouillabaisse are really signature menu in this restaurant and white asparagus was also great starter. Dessert from the recommendation,…”
“Excellent late lunch. Starter was Smoked Scottish salmon; entree was Sole Meuniere. Both were perfect. Service was impeccable. The atmosphere was perfect.”
“Visited Le Dôme on 2 January during dinner service, and it was honestly one of the worst dining experiences I’ve had. The waiter who initially served us was polite, but after ordering, we waited 45 minutes to over an hour for our main…”
Also logged in Paris
All of Paris →
Café de Flore
Paris, FranceA Saint-Germain café since the 1880s whose regulars ran from Huysmans to Picasso — and whose most famous couple got a film named after it.
Le Pavillon de la Reine
Paris, FranceA 17th-century hôtel particulier tucked off Place des Vosges, built as the queen's own garden pavilion.
Mentioned alongside
Part of
The Best Bars and Cafés Where Writers Drank
Eleven rooms with a literary past — Pessoa in bronze outside his Lisbon café, Dylan Thomas's New York bar, Borges in a Buenos Aires basement, and the London pub that invented its Samuel Johnson.
Still Standing After a Century
Ten kitchens and bars that have been open, under the same name, for over a hundred years — the oldest since 1465.
Where Bourdain Ate
Ten restaurants Anthony Bourdain enjoyed.