Restaurant in Colmar, France
Book months ahead or miss out.
JY'S holds two Michelin stars and is Colmar's most technically ambitious restaurant, with chef Julien Asseo's creative tasting menu backed by a 4.5 Google rating across 835 reviews and consistent La Liste recognition. At €€€€ pricing, it is the right choice for a serious special-occasion dinner in Alsace — but bookings are near impossible without two to three months' lead time.
JY'S earns its two Michelin stars and belongs in any serious conversation about fine dining in eastern France. Chef Julien Asseo's creative menu positions this Colmar address as the most technically ambitious restaurant in the city, a step above the regional French cooking that dominates the local scene. At €€€€ pricing, it is a commitment — but one that the awards record and a Google rating of 4.5 across 835 reviews consistently validate. If you are planning a special occasion dinner in Colmar and want the highest-ceiling meal the city offers, JY'S is the right call. The caveat: this is a near-impossible reservation to secure without significant advance planning, so treat the booking as the first task, not an afterthought.
JY'S sits at 3 Allée du Champ de Mars, a quieter address that separates it from the tourist-dense lanes of the old town. Visually, the dining room signals intention: this is not a rustic Alsatian inn or a wood-beamed winstub. The interior reads as contemporary and considered, providing the kind of calm, uncluttered visual register that frames a long tasting menu well. For a special occasion dinner , an anniversary, a significant birthday, a business meal where the setting needs to match the conversation , the room delivers the right atmosphere without the heritage-decoration excess you find elsewhere in Colmar. The distinction matters: you are not paying for candlelight and half-timbering here; you are paying for a focused, modern dining environment built around what arrives on the plate.
For guests who want more than a conventional table experience, counter or bar seating at JY'S changes the dynamic considerably. At this level of creative cooking, proximity to the kitchen translates directly into a richer meal: you observe the pacing of each course, the precision of plating, and the coordination of a kitchen working at Michelin two-star standard. Counter seats at restaurants of this calibre tend to be both the hardest to secure and the most rewarding once you are there. If you have the flexibility to request counter placement when booking, do so. It converts a formal dinner into something closer to a ringside view of the full creative process, which is a meaningful upgrade for anyone interested in understanding what separates this kitchen from the €€€ alternatives in the city. Confirm counter availability directly with the restaurant at the time of booking, as configuration details are not publicly documented.
JY'S operates as a creative restaurant under Julien Asseo, meaning the menu is driven by technique and invention rather than strict adherence to Alsatian tradition. Guests should expect a tasting menu format at this price point and award level , the kitchen is building a composed experience across multiple courses rather than offering a broad à la carte selection. For context within the French fine dining category, this is the same format you encounter at similarly decorated addresses such as Flocons de Sel in Megève or Bras in Laguiole. The La Liste scores (83 points in 2026, 85 in 2025) place JY'S in a credible tier of French regional fine dining, though below the three-star addresses such as Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen or Troisgros in Ouches. That positioning is fair and useful: JY'S is a serious two-star with genuine creative ambition, not a coasting legacy address.
On dietary restrictions: communicate these at the time of booking. Creative tasting menus at this level are typically constructed to accommodate restrictions with advance notice, but springing a significant dietary requirement on arrival at a two-star restaurant risks a diminished experience. The kitchen needs the information early to adjust the full sequence of courses rather than substituting on the fly.
The booking difficulty rating for JY'S is near impossible, which means this is not a restaurant you call the week before. Treat the reservation timeline the way you would for a three-star Paris address: begin the process at minimum two to three months ahead of your intended visit, and consider that peak Alsatian tourism periods (summer and the Christmas market season in December) compress availability further. If you are travelling to Colmar specifically for this meal, lock the date before booking accommodation. For broader trip planning, our full Colmar restaurants guide covers the complete dining spectrum so you can plan the rest of your stay around the JY'S booking window. Colmar's hotel options are detailed in our Colmar hotels guide, and if you want to build out the wider visit, bars, wineries, and experiences guides are also available.
At €€€€, JY'S is among the most expensive meals available in Colmar, and the honest answer to whether it is worth it depends on what you are comparing it against. Within Alsace, the closest peer at the same price level is Restaurant Girardin, also a creative €€€€ address. Between the two, the choice comes down to specific cooking style and counter availability rather than a clear quality hierarchy. Against the broader Alsatian benchmark, Auberge de l'Ill in Illhaeusern offers a three-star legacy experience at comparable price, which is a meaningful alternative for guests who want established institutional weight rather than contemporary creative cooking. Compared to two-star creative restaurants in other French cities , Arpège in Paris comes to mind , JY'S offers a quieter, less pressurised environment and a more accessible booking window at the same technical tier. For the price, you are getting two-star Michelin cooking in a city where the base comparison set is far more modest: if you have budgeted for this level and Colmar is your destination, JY'S is the right place to spend it.
See the comparison section below for a direct breakdown against Colmar's other dining options.
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JY'S | Creative | La Liste Top Restaurants (2026): 83pts; La Liste Top Restaurants (2025): 85pts; Michelin 2 Stars (2025); Michelin 2 Stars (2024) | Near Impossible | — |
| L'Atelier du Peintre | Modern Cuisine | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
| Restaurant Girardin | Creative | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
| Bord'eau | Modern Cuisine | Unknown | — | |
| La Maison des Têtes | French Provincial | Unknown | — | |
| La Maison Rouge | Traditional Cuisine | Unknown | — |
Comparing your options in Colmar for this tier.
At the two-Michelin-star level, creative kitchens under a named chef like Julien Asseo typically accommodate dietary restrictions when notified well in advance — this is standard practice at €€€€ tasting-menu restaurants. Contact JY'S directly at the time of booking to flag requirements; do not leave it to arrival. The more complex the restriction, the earlier you should communicate it.
Restaurant Girardin is the most direct alternative if you want Michelin-level cooking in the wider Alsace area. In Colmar itself, L'Atelier du Peintre and La Maison des Têtes offer serious cooking at a lower price point and with easier reservations. If you cannot secure a table at JY'S, L'Atelier du Peintre is the most practical fallback for creative cooking in the city.
JY'S runs as a creative tasting-menu restaurant under chef Julien Asseo, so ordering à la carte is not the format here. Commit to the tasting menu — that is the intended experience and what the two Michelin stars are awarded for. Attempting to order around the menu structure at this price tier (€€€€) is not how the kitchen is built to operate.
Yes, with caveats. Two Michelin stars, a quieter address away from Colmar's tourist corridors, and a chef-driven creative menu make JY'S a strong choice for a significant meal. The booking difficulty is near-impossible by short notice, so plan at minimum several months out. For a landmark occasion in Alsace, few restaurants in the region carry equivalent credentials.
Counter or bar seating at JY'S is available and changes the dynamic of the meal — at a two-Michelin-star creative kitchen, proximity to the pass gives you a materially different perspective on the cooking. If you value that format over a conventional table, request it specifically when booking. Availability is limited and should be treated as a preference to flag early, not an assumption.
At €€€€, JY'S is among the most expensive meals in Colmar, and the two Michelin stars held in both 2024 and 2025 provide the clearest external validation that the kitchen is delivering at that price. If creative tasting menus are your format, the answer is yes. If you prefer shorter, à la carte meals or are price-sensitive, L'Atelier du Peintre gives you a more accessible entry point into Colmar's serious dining scene.
For what it is — a two-Michelin-star creative restaurant in a mid-sized Alsatian city, awarded consecutively in 2024 and 2025 and listed in La Liste's top restaurants — JY'S is priced in line with its peer group, not above it. The question is fit: if you are travelling to Colmar specifically for serious food and can plan ahead, the price is justified. If fine dining is incidental to your trip, the €€€€ commitment is harder to defend.
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