Best Chef: Proud owner of five Michelin stars, Alain Ducasse, at the Restaurant Plaza Athénée, 25 av. Montaigne, 8e (tel. 01-53-67-65-00), has taken Paris by storm, dividing his time between his restaurant here and the one in Monte Carlo. He combines produce from every French region in a cuisine that's contemporary but not quite new, embracing the Mediterranean without abandoning France.

Best Haute Cuisine Restaurant: Named for a 14th-century chef who wrote one of the oldest known books on French cookery, Taillevent, 15 rue Lamennais, 8e (tel. 01-44-95-15-01), occupies a 19th-century town house off the Champs-Elysées. Though its owner likes to keep about 60% of the crowd French, you should still try for a reservation at Paris's most outstanding all-around restaurant.

Best Newcomer: Master chef Alain Ducasse has expanded his Parisian empire with the opening of 59 Poincaré, 59 av. Raymond-Poincaré, 16e (tel. 01-47-27-59-59), serving some of the best lobsters and most carefully selected beef in Paris.

Best Modern French Cuisine: A temple of gastronomy is found at Carré des Feuillants, 14 rue de Castiglione, 1e (tel. 01-42-86-82-82), near place Vendôme and the Tuileries. Alain Dutournier is one of the leading chefs of France, and he restored this 17th-century convent, turning it into a citadel of refined cuisine and mouthwatering specialties.

Best Provençal Cuisine: With Michelin's coveted two stars, Les Elysées du Vernet, 25 rue Vernet, 8e (tel. 01-44-31-98-98), is hosting tout Paris and the media. Montpellier-born chef Alain Solivérès has emerged as one of the greatest in Paris, challenging some big-name chefs. His Provençal cookery is the freshest and among the best in the whole country.

Best Old-Fashioned Bistro: Established in 1931 and bouncing back from a period of decline, Allard, 41 rue St-André-des-Arts, 6e (tel. 01-43-26-48-23), is better than ever, from its zinc bar to its repertoire of French classics -- escargots, frogs' legs, foie gras, boeuf à la mode, and cassoulet. This is a good bet for real Left Bank bistro ambience.

Best Underappreciated Restaurant: Henri Faugeron may no longer be the media darling he once was, but his Relais Gourmand Faugeron, 52 rue de Longchamp, 16e (tel. 01-47-04-24-53), is as stunning as ever, though the dishes may not be as "revolutionary" as he proclaims. The food is outstanding and uses only the freshest of ingredients, handled with skill by a stellar kitchen staff.

Best View: A penthouse restaurant, La Tour d'Argent, 15-17 quai de la Tournelle, 5e (tel. 01-43-54-23-31), is owned by ex-playboy Claude Terrail, who pays part of Notre-Dame's electric bill to illuminate the cathedral at night for his diners' pleasure. Dining here is a theatrical event.

Best Provincial Restaurant: The cuisine of the Auvergne in central France is showcased at Bath's, 9 rue de la Trémoille, 8e (tel. 01-40-70-01-09). In a cozy, elegant setting, you can dine on the best dishes of this province, including ravioli stuffed with Cantal cheese, and filet of beef with lentils.

Best for Stargazing: No, it's not Taillevent or even Alain Ducasse. On the see-and-be-seen circuit, the star is still the Buddha Bar, 8 rue Boissy d'Anglas, 8e (tel. 01-53-05-90-00). The crowd doesn't come for the cuisine, though its fusion of French and Pacific Rim is exceedingly well executed. If you don't want to eat, stop by the hip, lacquered bar across from the dining room.

Worst-Kept Secret: In the heart of the Latin Quarter, Perraudin, 157 rue St-Jacques, 5e (tel. 01-46-33-15-75), duplicates the allure of an early-1900s bistro. You get the feeling Emile Zola could walk in any minute. It offers great food and great value, an old-fashioned dining experience that's rapidly disappearing from the city.

Best Brasserie: Head for the Left Bank and the Brasserie Balzar, 49 rue des Ecoles, 5e (tel. 01-43-54-13-67), which opened in 1898. If you dine on the familiar French food here, you'll be following in the footsteps of Sartre and Camus and others. You can even have a complete dinner in the middle of the afternoon.

Best Baby Bistro: A few years ago, several great French chefs realized the average visitor can't afford the haute cuisine served at their restaurants, so they created "baby bistros" to serve superb food at affordable prices. The best of these is a sideshow created by one of the grandest chefs, Jacques Cagna: La Rôtisserie d'Armaillé, 6 rue d'Armaillé, 17e (tel. 01-42-27-19-20), near place d'Etoile.

Best Seafood: The fattest lobsters and prawns in the Rungis market emerge on platters at Goumard, 9 rue Duphot, 1e (tel. 01-42-60-36-07), so chic that even the toilets are historic monuments. Nothing interferes with the taste of the sea: You'd have to fly to the Riviera to find a better bouillabaisse.

Best Cuisine Bourgeoise (Comfort Food): If Joyce, Verlaine, Valéry, and Hemingway rose from the grave today and strode into the Crémerie-Restaurant Polidor, 41 rue Monsieur-le-Prince, 6e (tel. 01-43-26-95-34), not only would they not notice any differences, not even on the menu, but they could ask for their napkins, which are locked in a cabinet in back with their names on them.

Best Atmosphere: A favorite of Colette and Cocteau, the world-famous Le Grand Véfour, 17 rue de Beaujolais, 1e (tel. 01-42-96-56-27), at the Palais-Royal, has an interior classified as a historic monument. Incidentally, it serves some of the most refined cuisine in Paris.

Best Lyonnais Cuisine: Lyon is hailed as France's gastronomic capital, and the best place in Paris to introduce yourself to its cuisine is Aux Lyonnais, 32 rue St-Marc, 2e (tel. 01-42-96-65-04). This fin de siècle bistro turns out the dishes for which Lyon is famous, from perfect pike dumplings to Lyonnais sausages -- all washed down, of course, with Beaujolais.

Best Kosher Food: If corned beef, pastrami, herring, and dill pickles thrill you, head to rue des Rosiers in the 4th arrondissement (Métro: St-Paul). John Russel wrote that rue des Rosiers is the "last sanctuary of certain ways of life; what you see there in miniature is Warsaw before the ghetto was razed." North African overtones reflect the long-ago arrival of Jews from Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria. The best time to go is Sunday morning: You can wander the streets eating as you go -- apple strudel, Jewish rye bread, pickled lemons, smoked salmon, and merguez, a spicy smoked sausage from Algeria. Many spots offer sit-down meals, like Chez Jo Goldenberg, 7 rue des Rosiers, 4e (tel. 01-48-87-20-16), where the carpe farcie (stuffed carp) is outstanding and beef goulash a fine runner-up.

Best American Cuisine: A Yankee outpost in Les Halles, Joe Allen, 30 rue Pierre-Lescot, 1e (tel. 01-42-36-70-13), serves the finest burgers in Paris. Desserts include New York cheesecake, pecan pie made with pecans imported from the United States, and an inspired cultural fusion of American brownies made with French chocolate.

Best Vegetarian Cuisine: One of the best-known veggie restaurants in the Marais is Aquarius, 54 rue Ste-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, 4e (tel. 01-48-87-48-71). Choose from the array of soups and salads, or have a mushroom tart or a galette of wheat with raw vegetables. In this rustic 17th-century setting, you can expect flavorful, wholesome, and generous meals.

Best Wine Cellar: At the elegant Lasserre, 17 av. Franklin D. Roosevelt, 8e (tel. 01-43-59-53-43), you'll find not only wonderful food but also one of the great wine cellars of France, with some 180,000 bottles.

Best for Cheese: Cheese is king at Androuët, 49 rue St-Roch, 1e (tel. 01-42-97-57-39). Many cheese lovers opt for a bottle of wine, a green salad, and all-you-can-eat choices from the most sophisticated dégustation de fromages in the world.

Best Late-Night Dining: There's no place better in Paris to get a good meal at 3am than Au Pied de Cochon, 6 rue Coquillière, 1e (tel. 01-40-13-77-00). Though everyone lauds its grilled pig's feet with béarnaise sauce, few have noticed you can also find some of the freshest oysters in town here.

Best Champagne Julep: While you wait for a table at Closerie des Lilas, 171 bd. du Montparnasse, 6e (tel. 01-40-51-34-50), savor the best champagne julep in the world at the bar.