The highest-grossing restaurant in France is not a Michelin-starred bistro or a Parisian institution, but an all-you-can-eat buffet on the outskirts of Narbonne.
With a fixed price of 67.50 euros per person, Les Grands Buffets offers everything from traditional pressed duck to truffles, and has become a national obsession for lovers of French cuisine.
When I arrived at an ordinary parking lot in front of a McDonald’s in the south of France, I didn’t expect that within a few minutes I would witness one of the most sacred rituals of French culinary theater.
To the dramatic sounds of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, a waiter in a white shirt and black apron appeared, carrying a whole roast duck over an open flame, fixed vertically on a spit. He presented it to the customers like an Olympic torch. Then, a solemn voice announced:
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the ritual of canard au sang, a 19th-century tradition. The duck is roasted on a spit and then brought to the table, where the duck master uses a silver press to crush the carcass, extracting the blood and natural juices, which are incorporated into the sauce.”
The duck was filleted on a marble table; the bones were placed in a silver press and pressed. A dark liquid, no doubt blood, was flambéed and poured over the meat. As unusual as it seemed to me, it was clear that this was a great classic of French gastronomy, rarely prepared today, much less with this ceremony. In fact, only one restaurant in France serves pressed duck at every lunch and dinner: Les Grands Buffets.
Literally translated as “The Great Buffet,” the restaurant is exactly what its name suggests: a limitless buffet and the largest of its kind in the world. But it’s far from your average suburban buffet. There’s a seven-tiered lobster fountain, nine types of foie gras, over 50 desserts, and the world record for the largest number of cheeses on offer in a restaurant: a whopping 111 types. All for a fixed price of 67.50 euros.
Founded in 1989 by Louis and Jane Privat, Les Grands Buffets has become one of the most sought-after gastronomic experiences in France. Reservations are made months in advance and visitors travel specifically to Narbonne, a city of about 56,000 inhabitants near the Spanish border. The restaurant welcomes about 400,000 customers a year, 86% of them French, and receives about 3.5 million reservation requests each year. With revenues that reached 30 million euros in 2025, it holds the title of the restaurant with the highest turnover in France.
“At the time we opened, there was no all-you-can-eat buffet in France,” explains Louis Privat. “The idea was seen as financially impossible. But I believed in the formula and was convinced that the public would love it.”
The restaurant’s success is also linked to its culinary identity. Privat, strongly attached to traditional cuisine, requested that the menu focus on classic recipes. Over time, it became clear that most of them came from Le Guide Culinaire by Auguste Escoffier, considered the father of modern French cuisine.
In 2024, Privat and executive chef Philippe Munos were accepted as disciples of Escoffier by the Auguste Escoffier Foundation, which declared Les Grands Buffets a “world showcase of Escoffier cuisine.”
This inspiration is reflected in the menu. Last year, the restaurant added truffles, becoming the only all-you-can-eat buffet in the world to offer this expensive ingredient. Some 150 dishes are taken directly from Le Guide Culinaire, each accompanied by the original page number.
Beyond the food, the restaurant also pays attention to the art of table setting and ambiance. The rooms are decorated with precious collections of French culinary heritage, including a silver duck press from the legendary Parisian restaurant La Tour d’Argent and historic trolleys for preparing crêpes Suzette at the table.
An inevitable question is related to food waste. Privat says that everything is meticulously monitored: on average, waste is only 10 grams per person per day. Unused food is served to the staff, over 100 employees who eat in the restaurant every day.
Today, Les Grands Buffets is one of the main engines of tourism in Narbonne. Visitors stay an average of 3.5 days in the city, combining the gastronomic experience with the Roman heritage and the monumental Gothic cathedral.
“This restaurant could not be anywhere else,” says Carol Delga, president of the Occitanie Region. “Occitanie is the land of good eating.”
She adds that success lies in accessibility: the opportunity to try products that most people don’t encounter in their daily lives.
“And when a restaurant offers the world’s largest cheese plate, that’s enough to keep people coming back again and again.”
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Dining and Cooking