How to Book the Hardest Paris Restaurants: Pink Mamma, Girafe & the Eiffel Tower

Some of the best tables in Paris open their reservations exactly 30, 21 or 14 days ahead, at a precise minute, and are gone within the hour. Others take no online bookings at all and only answer a French phone call at 3pm. Here is how the tricky ones actually work, and how to get in without a local on the line.

Pink Mamma (and the Big Mamma group)

Pink Mamma does take reservations, and that is the way in: bookings open at 9am exactly 30 days ahead (37 days for groups of eight or more) through their website, which runs on the SevenRooms system, and the good evening slots vanish within minutes. Book the moment your window opens, and keep checking for cancellations, they reappear. Walk-ins are welcome whenever there is room, so arriving early, around 6:45pm for the 7pm service, or aiming for a late, off-peak lunch, is a solid backup. The other Big Mamma spots (East Mamma, Ober Mamma) book the same way.

Girafe

Girafe, with its Eiffel Tower view from the Palais de Chaillot, books up weeks ahead, and the window seats faster still. Reserve online the moment your dates are set, ask specifically for a terrace or window table in the notes, and have a backup time; lunch is far easier to land than a sunset dinner.

A table at the Eiffel Tower itself

Madame Brasserie (first floor) and the Jules Verne (second floor, Michelin) both book through their own sites, and both need weeks of lead time for dinner. The Jules Verne in particular releases tables on a rolling window; the earliest slots and the best window tables go immediately. If a date is sold out, keep checking, cancellations reappear.

The classics that reward a phone call

Plenty of wonderful Paris bistros still take bookings mainly by phone, in French, during Paris hours, and a few of the most loved keep tables back for walk-ins only, so it is easy to waste an evening by turning up on the wrong day. If you do not speak French or cannot call during Paris business hours, this is exactly where a local saves you.

How far ahead should you book?

As a rule: Michelin and view restaurants, 3 to 6 weeks; popular bistros, 1 to 2 weeks; everything else, a few days. Dietary needs (vegetarian, allergies) should be mentioned when you book, not on the night.

Or, let us book them for you

This is a large part of what we do. Tell us the tables you are dreaming of and we make the calls, catch the release windows, and confirm everything under your name with your dietary notes passed to the kitchen ahead of time. Our Paris concierge service handles the whole book, or start with our free Paris itinerary planner to shape the days first. You just show up hungry.