Restaurant Dinner Opening Times in France
 

How late do restaurants open usually in France? I have been to France approximately 10 times, but that was 10-15 years ago, when I used to eat dinner quite early. I will be returning to Paris on holiday in a few months and was wondering what the dinner closing times are. Are restaurants open late like in Spain? When I was in Madrid, I was eating dinner around 22h00-00h00, so I was wondering if this would be possible in Paris?

Depends on the type of restaurant and to some extent its location. The brasserie and similar will likely be open late but some family-run traditional places will be more strict. IME it's easier to get a late reservation in a very popular/currently fashionable place but YMMV.

Most restaurants in Paris are open for dinner beginning at 19h. It shouldn't be hard at all to dine at 22h. Any later would be a bit hit and miss, but there should be a number of options til about 23h.

Michelin and Gault Millault have information on which Paris restaurants are open late, on Sunday, etc.

France is nowhere near as late as Spain for dinner hours. Most restaurants open for dinner at 8, reach their peak at 9-930, and do the last seating at 10 or 1030. After 1030 there will be only a scattered number of places with the opportunity to dine.

This is correct. 8pm is considered the early seating in most locations. If you show up at 7-7:30 you're likely eating with the restaurant staff (no kidding).

Summer months have Parisians a bit time-shifted to later dinner hours. In Paris dinner seatings can run to midnight at the more popular places particularly on Thursdays-Saturdays.

There are lots of online booking sites for Paris like http://www.lafourchette.com/ to help you out.

Myself and a friend walked from the Eiffel Tower, one evening, to the restaurant "Roger le Grenouille" where we had dinner. It was probably about 10:30pm by the time we even arrived, and they seemed quite happy to serve us.

On another note, I do recommend that restaurant simply for its delightful atmosphere (though there are of course numerous other reasons). :)

a major meal in france takes 4 hrs. i have most always been seated at 8pm 2000, to finish at 2400( midnite)

As others have said, in Paris you should not have a problem.

But be careful in more rural areas. I remember a long weekend in the Périgord during which we got "kitchen is closed" at 9pm in several restaurants - so we had to eat in a cheap pizza place. (Those that know the Périgord will realise the horror in this...:D)

As a contrast for dining hours, before Norway became a big tourist attraction, (since most people ended their work day at 4pm), restaurants opened at 4 pm and were (in general) closed by 6 pm. So if you wanted to dine at 6:30 pm, you were left with fast food places.

You can always finesse the issue by looking for "non-stop" restaurants, mostly on the casual side but not necessarily fast food joints. Major "places" (multi-avenue intersections) and railway station areas usually have big brasseries with extended hours.

in the smaller restaurants in smaller towns, one may even have to book in advance, as they only purchase enough for each diner. at these places, both lunch and dinner start at a specific time. do not come across these places often, but if you do, and you did not call, you end up at the restaurant in the train station.