One of the dining rooms at Les Grands Buffets Lyonnais, during the lunch service, in the city of Lyon, on May 24, 2025. GARISSE SOUDAN/LE PROGRES/MAXPPP
Back from her third trip to the buffet, Garance Zacharias decided to take a break with a bowl of onion soup before moving on to the next round. Would it be trout cooked only on one side, kebab meat marinated in raw cream and sumac, lemon risotto or a white sauce stew? “The advantage is you can try everything,” said Zacharias, a 22-year-old from the southern French city of Montpellier, who works in insurance. She was visiting Paris, and had been determined to eat at Envie Le Banquet, a restaurant that opened in September near Place de la République offering an all-you-can-eat buffet (€37 for lunch, €54 for dinner).
The concept was an instant hit on Instagram and TikTok. The restaurant’s chef, Eloi Spinnler, 31, knows how to work the social media platforms: He has hundreds of thousands of followers on his personal account. Always seen with his striking trout-skin knife roll, Spinnler has made a name for himself with the restaurants Orgueil and Colère, and embodies a new wave in gastronomy – a movement that is eco-conscious and respectful of human relations with kitchen staff. “The fact that there’s a ‘veggie’ option on the buffet is also what drew us in when we saw the videos,” said Géraldine and Martin, two Parisians in their twenties who sat at the next table over.
You have 88.01% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
Dining and Cooking