The best French restaurants in SoHo, New York City — 3 ranked picks with ratings and must-try dishes.
3 picksSoHo has 3 French restaurants we would send anyone to, ranked here by rating and review depth. Le Coucou sits at the top with 4.7 stars. If you only order one thing, make it the roasted duckling at Le Coucou. This is a higher-spend list — plan accordingly. 2 of the 3 take online reservations, and the live availability badge on each card shows what is actually open tonight.
SoHo's restaurants trade on the room as much as the food, but the neighborhood's best kitchens hold their own against anywhere downtown.
James Beard–winning SoHo French restaurant with soaring ceilings and old-world grandeur — Daniel Rose's classic cooking is a love letter to Paris
Must-try: Roasted duckling, Le tout lapin (rabbit multiple ways), Poached sole with brown butter
📍 138 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10013
Keith McNally's grand SoHo brasserie — steak frites, oysters, and the energy of old Paris transplanted to Spring Street
Must-try: Plateau de fruits de mer, Steak frites, Eggs Benedict at brunch
📍 80 Spring St, New York, NY 10012
The SoHo bistro that has not changed since 1975 — steak au poivre, a tarot reader upstairs, and a burger only twelve people a night can order
Must-try: Steak au poivre, The bar burger (if you can get one), Anything off the chalkboard specials
📍 180 Prince St, New York, NY 10012
Le Coucou — 4.7 stars across 1,800 reviews, the highest on this list. James Beard–winning SoHo French restaurant with soaring ceilings and old-world grandeur — Daniel Rose's classic cooking is a love letter to Paris.
2 of the 3 book online — Le Coucou and Balthazar. The rest are walk-in or phone-only. Each card here shows live availability for tonight where the restaurant publishes it.
The roasted duckling at Le Coucou, the plateau de fruits de mer at Balthazar and the steak au poivre at Raoul's. Those are the dishes regulars point to first.
Ratings and review volume decide the order, but the list itself is drawn from restaurants people actually post about — 3 of the 3 here have a TikTok attached to their card. Every entry is checked as open before it ships.