After working as chef to the head of the French Pacific Fleet and in the kitchen at Alain Passard’s Arpège, Pascal Barbot struck out on his own with one of the most consistently original and interesting restaurants. Barbot’s 21st-century French cooking is vivid, fresh, and healthy, with an obvious affection for vegetables, fruits, and flowers. His menu changes regularly but signature dishes like the “ravioli” of avocado slices filled with crabmeat dressed with almond oil and pigeon with bilberry chutney and quince confit highlight the chef’s nervy cooking style.

4 rue Beethoven, 16th; 01-40-50-84-40

Chef Raquel Carena’s terrific cooking—a very personal take on French bistro fare that finds inspiration all over the world, including her native Argentina—has made this vest-pocket bistro in Belleville a favorite of French chefs, including Olivier Roellinger, Yves Camdeborde, Pierre Hermé, Joël Robuchon, and Alain Ducasse. What gets these boys excited are heart-felt dishes like Carena’s red tuna tartare with black cherries, Maldon salt, miso-and-malt vinegar, veal with eggplant ribbons—she skins eggplants and roasts their skin until it’s terrifically brittle and crunchy. Her desserts are terrific, too, including a bread pudding made with dulce de leche.

3 rue Jouye-Rouve; 01-43-49-39-70

Tucked away in a quiet street in the rapidly gentrifying 9th arrondissement, this small dining room is casual chic and a perfect place for real French comfort food from talented and occasionally mercurial chef Olympe Versini. Her menu, including chestnut-flour galettes with coddled eggs, marinated sardines, roast shoulder of lamb and Paris-Brest, are a charming miniature dictionary of the reasons the world loves French food.

48 rue Saint Georges, 9th; 01-42-85-26-01

Housed in an old épicerie, this popular bistro clocks a bona-fide Paris frame of mind that's created by a hip, young crowd. We can't get enough of chef Inaki Aizpitarte's inventive modern bistro cooking. Aizpitarte's menu changes daily but runs to dazzling dishes like salmon teriyaki with red fruites, pigeon with pumpkin, hazelnuts and chestnuts, and a can't-miss boulette de lait caillé rose (rose sorbet with buttermilk ice cream).

129 avenue Parmentier, 11th; 01-43-57-45-95

Ever since bistro wizard Yves Camdeborde opened this thirties-vintage dining room in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, it has been packed to the rafters with an international crowd who've reserved tables a requisite month in advance. The prix-fixe single dinner menu changes regularly but expect dishes like the deboned, breaded pig's trotter, chicken soup with vin jaune and mousseron mushrooms, saddle of lamb with Basque style raviolis, and runny chocolate cake to be excellent all the time.

9 Carrefour de l'Odéon 6th; 01-44- 27-07-50

The third generation of the Dumonet family now run one of the last and best of Paris's old-fashioned bistros. A charming Left Bank address with its amber-colored walls, elaborate moldings, serious waiters, and a sophisticated crowd. Go there for an anthology of traditional French bistro dishes, many of which are served in half portions, including terrine de foie gras; lamb's lettuce, potato and black truffle salad; tournedos Rossini; andouillette; boeuf bourguignon; and Grand Marnier soufflé.

117 rue du Cherche Midi, 6th; 01-45-48-52-40

There's no bolder chef in Paris than Pierre Gagnaire, who compares himself to a jazz musician in search for extreme and off-beat harmonies. His stylish restaurant has the atmosphere of a quirky temple, too, since it attracts reverent gourmets from every corner of the globe to taste dishes that are as intricately constructed as a fine watch. The menu includes Tsarskaya oysters, culatello ham, broccoli and agria (potato) with smoked eel, and an astonishing riff on lamb—a rack poached with oregano, covered with a crust of herbs, and garnished with Swiss chard tossed in the lamb's cooking juice, roasted garlic and shallots, and eggplant with shrimp in prune eau de vie; grilled chops and a navarin (lamb stew) with zucchini flowers.

6 rue Balzac, 8th; 01-58-36-12-50

The late Jean-Claude Vrinat was one of the world’s greatest restaurateurs, and his elegant-but-cordial townhouse restaurant in a kid-glove corner of the 8th arrondissement is not only one of the longest-running power tables but one of the city’s very best restaurants. A master of classic French dishes such as veal sweetbreads en croûte with sorrel sauce, chef Alain Solivérés also has an imagination that’s as remarkable as his technical skills. His talents are on display in dishes like the recreation of a medieval dish by Guillaume Tirel, aka Taillevent—caillette de porcelet (patties of suckling pork in caul fat) with Málaga grapes, tiny pork chops, carmelized cabbage, and lentils du puy.

15 rue Lamennais, 8th; 01-44-95-15-01; taillevent.com

Okay, Alain Ducasse himself probably hasn't broken an egg in this kitchen in a decade, but this exquisite restaurant is a testament to his genius in having created an école Ducasse, or brigade of spectacularly talented and well-trained chefs who propigate his cooking style, which is summed up by his dictates, "fusion is confusion" and "never use more than four ingredients in a given dish." Examples of L'école Ducasse cooking by chef Christophe Moret include scallops in curried coconut milk; Limousin lamb with baby vegetables; sole with an emulsion of asparagus, fava beans, and baby peas; and ewe's milk flan with peppered caramel and strawberry-tree honey.

Hotel Plaza Athéneé, 25 avenue Montaigne, 8th; 01-53-67-65-00; alain-ducasse.com