Where to Eat in Lyon, France: Must-Try Foods and Unique Spots

It is easy to find delicious food in Lyon. It is called the “World Capital of Gastronomy” for a reason. More likely than not, the place you discover on a whim will be delicious when in Lyon. 

Where and What to Eat in Lyon, France

In this list we’ve curated (with the help of a Lyon local), we have options for fine dining as well as smaller restaurants if you’re looking for a more charming vibe. Stick to the very end to read all about one of the most famous places to go in Lyon.

Great food is only half the story of Lyon. To see the best of what France’s gastronomic capital has to offer beyond their cuisine, head over to our travel guide about “The Best Things to See and Do in Lyon” to fill out your itinerary.

Lyonnais Cuisine Worth Trying: 

• Quenelle de Brochet – a fish soufflé-like dumpling in a savory seafood broth, probably one of the more popular traditional dishes of Lyon.
• Saucisson Brioche – large cured pork sausage wrapped in a brioche bread.
• Pralines Roses (Pink pralines) – candied nuts – usually almonds or hazelnuts – that get their iconic pink from red food dye. You can find many desserts featuring rose pralines in Lyon. We mention the best spot to try some below.
• Salade Lyonnaise – a salad featuring frisée lettuce topped with bacon and a poached egg all with a warm vinaigrette drizzled over it.

Here are a few of the places we tried and highly recommend:

Brasserie Georges

Known as being the largest brasserie in France this establishment has been in business since 1836 and is an iconic landmark of Lyon. It is worth checking out just for this alone.

Being a brasserie, it of course serves traditional french food but also features some Lyon specialties such as quenelle and saucisson Lyonnais. They are known for serving delicious food at reasonable prices. In a brasserie, one does not necessarily go for the wine selection, Brasserie Georges is known instead for their craft beer. 

The restaurant lives up to its title of being the largest brasserie in the country with tons of tables all completely full throughout the day. 

The interior features an art deco style with vast ceilings and a mirrored wall that makes the space look and feel even larger.

It can get loud inside as the restaurant is packed to the brim with people enjoying their meals with friends and family. A good thing I noticed is that most people came in larger groups and the restaurant accommodated that quite well. 

Walking through each aisle can be difficult with how closely they have tables lined up next to one another in order to accommodate more people. The staff also sometimes have to take over the aisle when certain dishes are ordered since it is accompanied by tableside service or known in French as guéridon service.

Lines on the weekends wrap around the corner and it can take up to an hour or two before you’re seated. Fortunately, we went on a weekday and also went outside of tourist season so we had no wait when we arrived a little after noon. However, 30 minutes after we were seated, every table in the restaurant was pretty much full. 

The food overall was very good if you’re looking for authentic french cuisine. They serve local specialties as well as dishes you’d typically find in a French brasserie. Brasserie George’s specialty menu changes weekly with a particular item offered on different days of the week. They also have a separate menu to accommodate food allergies and sensitivities. 

We highly recommend trying the quenelle from here as your main dish if you had to choose one place to try it at. The seafood sauce on it was amazing. It was nice and savory but not fishy or briny. The fish used in quenelle is typically a freshwater fish such as pike. Some versions use veal or poultry instead. 

We had their fried calamari and foie gras as appetizers and steak frites and saucisson Lyonnais as our other main courses. Unfortunately on the day we went there, their saucisson brioche wasn’t available, which is another popular specialty of Lyon that we wanted to try. Overall, everything tasted great and it is definitely a good place to try at least once when in Lyon.    

Epona

If you’re staying at the InterContinental Lyon – Hotel Dieu, make sure to dine at its onsite restaurant, Epona. Located on the ground floor of the iconic Grand Hôtel-Dieu along the Rhône River, the restaurant is just steps from Place Bellecour, the heart of Lyon, making it both a memorable and convenient dining destination.

This charming restaurant is modern, open, and inviting. They are known for serving local dishes with a modern twist.

We were able to try their breakfast buffet as well as their à la carte dishes which they serve at lunch and dinner. 

Both times we dined there, the food was exceptional, and we were consistently impressed by both the flavor and quality of every dish. Breakfast was equally outstanding, not only was there an extensive selection, but the presentation and overall quality of the offerings were truly spectacular.

The buffet station was full of fresh local produce such as seasonal fruits and honey from the region as well as items made of local ingredients such as their breads and pastries.
Leave it to the French to serve amazing breakfast buffets with high quality and famous foods. The last time we had a breakfast spread as amazing was in Tahiti.

For lunch, we ordered the octopus and salmon dishes, and both were delicious, prepared with exceptional attention to quality and presentation. The staff were also incredibly attentive and accommodating, which further elevated the overall dining experience.

We highly recommend you make a reservation if you want to dine here. Being one of Lyon’s fine-dining restaurants, it is a great place to go to for special occasions.

Ikône – Bar à Chocolat

Close to Place des Terreaux is a brunch and chocolate fondue bar, Ikone. They serve brunch on one side and through another set of doors is the chocolate bar for the ultimate chocolate desserts. 

Here you can customize various desserts with all kinds of chocolate sauces and sweet toppings to choose from. 

They have options such as homemade cheesecakes to french fondant cakes. From there you choose the chocolate of your choice to be poured all over it as well as many toppings as you like from their list of options. 

Unique flavors of chocolate include their dulcey (caramelized white chocolate) to dark chocolate orange. Toppings include the likes of nuts, cookies, and various candies. 

Between our party members, we tried their french hot chocolate, house made cheesecake, fondant, and seasonal fruit platter. We all chose a variety of chocolate to top our desserts off with so it was nice to be able to try them all. 

There is something for everyone’s palate here, unless they don’t like chocolate. 

Nearby, I saw a guest with a stack of pancakes dowsed in chocolate and topped with more chocolate. The pancakes were even stacked together with chocolate. It was quite the sight. 

Ikône doesn’t use just any chocolate either, they use premium chocolates, including Valrhona, a world-renowned French chocolate produced in nearby Tain-l’Hermitage and favored by many high-end pastry chefs and dessert makers around the world.

Litani Mezza Bar

This Lebanese restaurant came highly recommended by our local source for best places to eat in Lyon and it really lived up to the hype. It used to be a Mediterranean buffet bar but has since switched over to an a la carte menu. 

Despite that, we still loved what we ordered. The dishes were huge and came with some of the best Mediterranean sauces I’ve ever had. Each dish came with at least 2 different sauces including a toum and a tahini sauce and that does not include the sauces that came with our appetizers. 

Their falafels were also our favorite items from there. We accidentally ordered two orders of falafels but we did not regret it one bit once we took a bite of it. It was crispy on the outside and piping hot and moist on the inside with the perfect mild creamy sauce to go with it. 

Chocolaterie Pralus

This is a French chocolate shop that you must not miss out on when in Lyon. It was one of my personal favorite spots in all of Lyon.

Not only do they make some of the best dark chocolates we’ve ever had but they are also famous for their Praline brioche. This brioche is soft and buttery and contains within it the rose praline chips that Lyon is famous for. 

However, Pralus’ pralines are a bit more special. These pralines are made with high-quality hazelnuts and almonds, all coated in candied red sugar. I read that they use Piedmont hazelnuts and Valencia almonds, two regions especially known for producing some of the best of each. It’s the kind of detail that makes it clear Maison Pralus takes its ingredients seriously.

Other than the praline brioche, the only flavor available is dark chocolate chip — and it’s absolutely delicious too.

Lines are usually weaving outside their doors for their brioches but we came during off season to Lyon so never really had a line the two times we went to their shops. Throughout all of Lyon you will see people carrying the Maison Pralus shopping bag with its iconic colors. 

If you are a dark chocolate lover, then you will also love this shop for their high quality dark chocolates sourced from all over the world. Although they are famous for their brioches, this shop is after all still a chocolaterie so they do make some amazing chocolates. 

Pralus offers many different varieties of dark chocolate and they come in various sets for you to choose from. That way you can try many kinds of what they have to offer. These variety packs also make great souvenirs to bring home for friends and family. 

If you prefer milk chocolate though, they do offer a few items but the options are more limited. We’ve received their dark chocolates as gifts on many occasions now and they are always such a treat when we eat them once we’re back in the United States. The quality of European chocolate is still unmatched for us.

The Delicious Cuisine of Lyon

From traditional bouchons serving hearty cuisine Lyonnaise to elegant patisseries and world-renowned chocolatiers, this is only a small taste of what Lyon has to offer. And while this guide covers some of the must-try spots, the real beauty of this city is that there’s always more to discover. 

We fell in love with Lyon and cannot wait to go back and discover more of the excellent restaurants (especially les bouchons lyonnais) and street food the culinary capital of France has to offer.