Restaurant in Paris, France
Counter dining where French meets Japan. Book ahead.
ERH delivers Japanese-accented French cooking from a long counter facing the open kitchen, with sake pairings from the on-site sake shop adding a dimension most Paris fine dining rooms cannot match. Ranked in Opinionated About Dining's top 550 European restaurants for three consecutive years and rated 4.8 on Google across nearly 1,000 reviews, it is a strong booking for food-engaged diners who want counter proximity over grand-room formality.
If you are weighing ERH against Paris's other Japanese-inflected fine dining options, the comparison that matters most is Kei. Both sit at the €€€€ tier and both apply Japanese sensibility to French technique, but ERH operates on a fundamentally different premise: it shares its premises with a sake shop and whisky bar, runs a long counter in front of an open kitchen, and keeps service windows deliberately narrow. That configuration makes ERH the better choice if you want proximity to the cooking and a reason to explore sake pairings. Kei delivers a more conventional fine dining room experience. Your preference for counter intimacy versus formal table service should be the deciding factor.
ERH sits at 11 Rue Tiquetonne in the 2nd arrondissement, a short walk from the lively streets around Montorgueil. The name decodes as eau, riz, hommes — water, rice, men — which signals the venue's orientation before you have even looked at a menu. The space is defined by a large glass roof that floods the room with natural light during Friday and Saturday lunch service, and by the long counter that faces the open kitchen directly. In mood, this is not a hushed grand-salle restaurant. The energy is focused and present: you are watching a kitchen work, hearing the rhythm of preparation, and sitting close enough to the pass that the boundary between dining room and kitchen dissolves. For a food-engaged diner, that atmosphere is the point. If you want the insulated quiet of a classic Parisian dining room, this is the wrong room.
Chef Keita Kitamura's cooking is French in its foundations and Japanese in its accents , a distinction that matters when you are deciding whether to book. This is not fusion for its own sake. The vegetable work in particular has drawn attention: Opinionated About Dining, which ranked ERH at #529 in Europe in 2024 and #542 in 2025, noted that vegetables have a meaningful presence in the menu even if they have not yet taken a full leading role. The same source highlighted the food and sake pairings as something worth opting into , a logical move given that the venue shares its space with a sake shop. If you are coming primarily for wine, note that sake is the pairing the kitchen has built toward.
The glass roof and counter format give Friday and Saturday lunch a different feel from the dinner service. Natural light through a glass ceiling changes the read of plated food and the overall register of the room. If your schedule allows a choice, the lunch service on either of those days offers a version of ERH that the Tuesday-through-Thursday dinner-only format cannot replicate. That is a practical reason to prioritise a weekend booking if you can get one, not just a preference.
ERH has been on the Opinionated About Dining radar since being recommended as a leading new restaurant in Europe in 2023, appearing at #529 in 2024, and maintaining a ranked position at #542 in 2025. A Google rating of 4.8 across 952 reviews gives a further confidence signal. This is not a restaurant that has coasted on early buzz; the sustained ranking across three consecutive years suggests a kitchen that has stayed consistent. For the explorer diner who tracks these lists, ERH has a verifiable track record, not just a promising debut.
The counter is the room's primary asset and its most practical argument. Sitting at the counter at ERH means watching Kitamura's team work through service in real time, in the same way a ramen or sushi counter in Japan puts you directly in the chef's sightline. This is the editorial angle that defines the booking decision: if you book a table away from the counter, you are in a different restaurant. Request the counter. The sake shop connection gives you a second layer to work with , ask about the pairing options when you book, since the venue's sake program is not incidental to the food; it is architecturally part of the experience.
For broader Paris context, Frenchie nearby in the 2nd operates at a lower price point for a modern bistro format, while Nakatani offers another Japanese-French perspective in the 7th at a comparable level of ambition. Pilgrim and Lucas Carton round out the Paris contemporary French field if you are building an itinerary. For the wider French fine dining picture, Mirazur in Menton, Flocons de Sel in Megève, Troisgros in Ouches, Auberge de l'Ill in Illhaeusern, Bras in Laguiole, and Paul Bocuse in Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or cover the full range of the country's serious kitchens. Comparable contemporary French ambition in the region also appears at Ma Langue Sourit in Luxembourg and L'Arnsbourg in Baerenthal.
See our full guides to Paris restaurants, Paris hotels, Paris bars, Paris wineries, and Paris experiences for planning context beyond this booking.
ERH is open Tuesday through Saturday only; Sunday and Monday are closed. Dinner service runs from 19:00 with a last booking at 20:30 on Tuesday through Saturday. Lunch runs Friday and Saturday only, from 12:00 with a last booking at 13:00. The address is 11 Rue Tiquetonne, 75002 Paris. Booking is rated easy relative to comparable €€€€ Paris venues, but the narrow service windows , two sittings per evening, lunch only twice a week , mean availability moves faster than the difficulty rating implies. Book ahead.
Quick reference: 11 Rue Tiquetonne, 75002 Paris | Tue–Sat dinner from 19:00, Fri–Sat lunch from 12:00 | €€€€ | Booking: Easy | Google: 4.8 (952 reviews) | OAD Europe 2025: #542
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| ERH | €€€€ | — |
| Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen | €€€€ | — |
| Kei | €€€€ | — |
| L'Ambroisie | €€€€ | — |
| Le Cinq - Four Seasons Hôtel George V | €€€€ | — |
| Pierre Gagnaire | €€€€ | — |
A quick look at how ERH measures up.
Lunch is the harder booking to get and only available Friday and Saturday (12:00 to 13:00 last seating), so it suits those with inflexible schedules. Dinner runs Tuesday through Saturday with last bookings at 20:30, giving you more date options. Neither service changes the counter-and-open-kitchen format, so the experience is structurally the same — choose based on availability rather than any quality difference.
At €€€€ pricing, ERH delivers a format where vegetables take a meaningful role alongside Keita Kitamura's French-Japanese combinations, which Michelin has noted approvingly. Opinionated About Dining ranked it #542 in Europe for 2025, down from #529 in 2024 — solid but not climbing. If you want a counter experience with sake pairing options in a space built around an open kitchen and glass roof, the format is coherent and the value is defensible. If you prefer a more classical French tasting experience, Kei is a closer comparison at a similar price tier.
ERH operates on a narrow window: Tuesday to Saturday only, with a single dinner seating (last booking 20:30) and weekend lunches capped at a 12:00 to 13:00 slot. The counter format limits covers, so booking 3 to 4 weeks ahead is a reasonable baseline for weekday dinners; weekend slots will go faster. There is no booking link or phone in the public record, so check their current reservation channel directly.
At €€€€, ERH sits in the same tier as destination fine dining in Paris, and it earns that positioning with a credentialed Japanese chef producing French cuisine with Japanese technique, sake pairing options, and a considered space shared with a sake shop and whisky bar. OAD has ranked it consistently in Europe's top 550 since 2023. Whether it clears the price bar depends on whether the Japanese-French counter format appeals — if you want grand dining room pageantry, it is not the right choice.
The name stands for eau, riz, hommes (water, rice, men) and the restaurant shares its premises with a sake shop and a whisky bar at 11 Rue Tiquetonne in the 2nd arrondissement. Seating is at a long counter in front of an open kitchen, which means you are watching the kitchen throughout service — similar to a Japanese counter format. Sake pairings are an option worth considering given the setting. Arrive knowing that Sunday and Monday are closed and last bookings are at 20:30 on all open evenings.
The counter format and the narrow seating windows (last booking 20:30, one service per session) suggest limited capacity. Large groups are likely a poor fit here — this is a venue built around intimate counter dining, not a private dining room operation. Parties of two or four at the counter are the practical sweet spot. For larger group bookings, check the venue's official channels to confirm whether any arrangement is possible.
Yes, with the right expectations. The counter in front of an open kitchen, glass roof, and sake pairing format make for a considered, atmosphere-forward evening, and the OAD Top 542 Europe ranking (2025) gives it credentialed standing. It suits a couple or a small group who want an engaged, chef-facing dinner rather than a grand room with tableside ceremony. If the occasion calls for a more formal, service-heavy setting, Le Cinq or L'Ambroisie would be a better fit.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
