How to book Kei

Kei is the Paris restaurant of Japanese chef Kei Kobayashi, on rue du Coq-Héron in the 1st arrondissement^1,4. Kobayashi left Japan in 1999 and cooked in French kitchens including Gilles Goujon's Auberge du Vieux Puits, Le Prieuré Baumanière and Le Cerf, then spent seven years at Alain Ducasse's restaurant at the Plaza Athénée¹. He opened Kei in 2011 with the help of Gérard Besson, whose restaurant had used the same room^1,7. Michelin gave it one star in 2012, a second in 2017 and a third in 2020¹, and the guide still lists it with three stars⁵.

The cooking is French, built around top ingredients; the Michelin inspectors say it "verges on perfection" and name lobster cooked over binchotan and aged Galician beef among its dishes⁵. The signature, on the menu since the opening, is a garden of crisp vegetables set over Scottish smoked salmon^6,7. Meals are set menus at lunch and dinner, from a Discovery menu served only at Friday and Saturday lunch to the Grand Horizon menu, at €195 to €580 according to the restaurant's site³. Dietary needs can be handled if they are given when booking³.

The restaurant sits on the ground floor of a Second Empire building. Kobayashi asked ATTA, the studio of architect Tsuyoshi Tane, to redesign it, work that began in 2019², and Kei reopened in 2021⁶. The new room uses marble and crystal under a Saint-Louis chandelier⁶, with mirrors and glass that play with the Paris light, and is split into three spaces: the Galerie des Glaces, the Grande Salle and the Petite Salle².

Tables open two months ahead, on the first Tuesday of each month at 9:30 am. The dress code is casual chic, children are welcome from age 12, and late cancellations are charged per missing guest⁴.