Restaurant in Deauville, France
Normandy-focused tasting menus, one Michelin star.
Maximin Hellio holds a 2024 Michelin star and is the strongest fine dining option in Deauville. Tasting menus are structured around Normandy's regional produce — Calvados country, Auge pasture lands, and the Channel coast — with intriguing food and wine pairings. Book well ahead; this is the kind of address that fills quickly on weekends, especially during race season.
If you have already eaten at Maximin Hellio once, the question on a return visit is not whether the kitchen still delivers — it is whether the menu architecture has moved on enough to justify coming back. The short answer: yes. The tasting menus here are built around Normandy's produce with enough seasonal rotation and enough structural ambition to reward repeat visits, and the 2024 Michelin star confirms the kitchen is operating at a level that makes the €€€€ price range defensible. For anyone visiting Deauville and willing to spend seriously on one meal, this is the address.
Maximin Hellio sits on Rue Gambetta, close to the centre of Deauville, with a modern frontage that signals intent before you step inside. A glazed section of the façade lets pedestrians see into the kitchen — a detail that reads less as theatre and more as confidence. The restaurant does not hide what it is doing.
The tasting menu format is the core of the experience here, and it is worth understanding how it is structured before you book. Chef Maximin Hellio has organised the menus around specific Normandy narrative threads: one framed around an immersion in the Calvados region, another tracing a path between the Auge pasture lands and the coastline. These are not just marketing names , they reflect a deliberate progression through the flavours and producers of the region, from inland dairy and apple country to the seafood-heavy Channel coast. For a food explorer who wants context with their courses, that architecture is the point.
What this means practically is that each menu moves through distinct registers: the richness of Norman dairy, the sharpness of apple-based reductions and Calvados, the brininess of coastal catch. The food and wine pairings , flagged by Michelin as intriguing , follow the same regional logic, pairing Norman and local French producers rather than defaulting to a generic Burgundy-and-Bordeaux formula. That specificity is worth paying for if regional coherence matters to you. If you want the greatest hits of classical French fine dining, the menu architecture here is not designed for that; consider L'Ambroisie in Paris for that register instead.
The Michelin recognition arrived in 2024, which means the kitchen is in the phase of early-star momentum , generally a good time to visit, when the team is sharp and the menus are still being refined rather than coasting. Google reviewers back this up: 4.3 from 419 reviews is a solid signal for a restaurant at this price point, where expectations are high and dissatisfied guests are vocal.
Service hours shape your visit as much as the menu does. Lunch runs from 12 PM to 1:30 PM Tuesday through Sunday, with dinner from 7 PM to 9 PM. Monday is closed. The narrow lunch window , just ninety minutes , means the kitchen runs a tight service. Dinner gives more breathing room, and for a multi-course tasting menu with pairings, the evening slot is the more natural choice. For a full exploration of the menu, book dinner.
Deauville itself adds useful context. This is a resort town with a wealthy, often Parisian, weekend clientele, which means the restaurant operates in an environment where the competition for high-end spend is real but the local dining scene has fewer dedicated fine dining options than Paris. L'Essentiel and Le Comptoir et la Table are among the other options in town, but neither operates at the same awards tier. For the complete picture of where to eat in the area, see our full Deauville restaurants guide.
For reference points elsewhere in France, the tasting menu approach here sits in productive comparison with Flocons de Sel in Megève or Bras in Laguiole , restaurants where a strong regional identity is built into the menu structure rather than bolted on. If you are travelling through Normandy as part of a broader French itinerary that includes starred restaurants, Assiette Champenoise in Reims and Auberge de l'Ill in Illhaeusern offer useful comparisons in terms of regional-produce-led cooking at the Michelin level. For a broader scan of France's top-tier addresses, Mirazur in Menton, Troisgros in Ouches, AM par Alexandre Mazzia in Marseille, and Paul Bocuse in Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or cover the range from creative to classical. And if you are curious how this style of tasting menu thinking translates outside France, Frantzén in Stockholm and FZN by Björn Frantzén in Dubai are worth knowing.
Booking is hard. This is a small modern restaurant in a resort town with a fresh Michelin star and a loyal Parisian weekend clientele. Reserve well in advance , especially for Friday and Saturday dinner, and for any visit coinciding with Deauville's racing calendar or film festival period. Online booking is available, and the menu selection happens at the time of reservation, which means you commit to your tasting menu choice before you arrive. That is not a drawback; it is how the kitchen prepares properly. Plan your visit using our full Deauville hotels guide if you are making a weekend of it, and see our bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide for the full picture.
Quick reference: 64 Rue Gambetta, Deauville , Michelin 1 Star (2024) , €€€€ tasting menus , Closed Monday , Lunch 12–1:30 PM, Dinner 7–9 PM , Book well in advance online.
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maximin Hellio | €€€€ | Hard | — |
| Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Kei | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| L'Ambroisie | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Le Cinq - Four Seasons Hôtel George V | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Mirazur | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
How Maximin Hellio stacks up against the competition.
Solo diners do well here. The glazed kitchen façade means there is genuine visual engagement even without a dining companion, and tasting menus are a format that suits solo pacing. At €€€€, the spend is high for one, but the Michelin-starred kitchen gives you clear value anchoring. Book in advance — seats are limited and the restaurant draws destination diners from Paris and beyond.
Small groups of two to four are the natural fit for a tasting menu format like this. Larger parties should check the venue's official channels before booking, as tasting menu services at this price point are typically structured for intimacy rather than event-scale seatings. The restaurant's online booking system lets you pre-select your menu, which helps with group coordination.
The modern frontage and sleek interior signal that this is a dressed restaurant, not a casual bistro. A Michelin-starred €€€€ venue in Deauville — a resort town with a well-heeled clientele — points to smart attire as the practical choice. There is no database-confirmed dress code, but trainers and beachwear will read as mismatched with the room.
Yes, if Normandy produce is your focus. The Michelin inspectors specifically cited creative craftsmanship and strong regional sourcing as the reason for the star, not just technical execution. The themed menus — including an Auge pasturelands and sea pairing — are structured around a clear culinary argument rather than generic luxury tasting fare. If you want à la carte flexibility, this is not your venue.
Within Deauville, the starred competition is thin, which makes Maximin Hellio the strongest formal dining option in the immediate area. For a higher-ceiling fine dining experience in Normandy, you would need to travel to Rouen or look at Paris options. If you are comparing on Michelin credibility within Deauville itself, Maximin Hellio is the reference point, not a fallback.
Yes, it is well-suited. A Michelin-starred tasting menu with wine pairings, a theatrically glazed kitchen, and a Deauville address gives a special occasion meal the structural weight it needs. Dinner service runs until 9 PM, which is the better choice over lunch for occasion dining — more time, more atmosphere. Book the menu with the wine pairing online when you reserve.
Dinner is the stronger choice for a first visit. Lunch runs 12–1:30 PM, which is a tight window for a tasting menu at this level. Dinner service opens at 7 PM and gives you considerably more room to pace through the courses. Lunch works if you are in Deauville for the day and need to fit dining into a schedule — but dinner is where the format breathes properly.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
