Best French Restaurants in University Village

Since opening in 2011, pastry chef Dominique Ansel’s original SoHo bakery has drawn daily lines for inventive French pastries from the Cronut to the DKA. It functions as both a neighborhood coffee stop and a destination dessert shop, trading table-service comforts for creativity and a constant stream of limited-run sweets.

A SoHo fixture since the 1970s, Raoul’s is a dim, classic French bistro known for peppery steak au poivre, escargots, and a small but coveted bar burger. Regulars lean on it for late-night dates, celebratory dinners, and a transportive room that still channels old downtown energy.

Opened in 2025 by the team behind Libertine, Chateau Royale is a bi-level Greenwich Village townhouse serving updated French classics like duck à l’orange, lobster thermidor, and caviar-stuffed beggar’s purses. Critics and early regulars treat it as a modern special-occasion spot, anchored by theatrical martini carts and a plush, vintage-leaning dining room upstairs.

Chef Paul Denamiel’s Little Prince has operated on Prince Street since 2013, serving a tight menu of bistro dishes in a compact, plant-framed room. It’s a neighborhood choice for steak frites, the much-talked-about French onion soup burger, and cozy brunches that feel more like a local hang than a destination spot.