The All-You-Can-Eat Buffet That Became France’s Favorite Restaurant

France's highest-grossing restaurant is not a storied Parisian bistro with three Michelin stars. It is not a Riviera hotspot with celebrity clientele. It is Les Grands Buffets, an all-you-can-eat temple of gastronomy on the outskirts of Narbonne, a modest city of 56,000 near the Spanish border.

Here, for a fixed price of €67.50 ($79.17), diners embark on a four-hour culinary pilgrimage. They feast on nine varieties of foie gras, pluck oysters from an ice mountain, witness the dramatic, Wagner-scored ritual of pressed duck (canard au sang), and choose from 111 French cheeses—a world record. They do so with a reverence that defies the "buffet" stereotype, queueing politely for made-to-order dishes like truffle-laden scrambled eggs and tournedos Rossini.

"We opened in 1989, and there wasn't a single all-you-can-eat buffet in France. The concept just didn't exist," founder Louis Privat told CNN. An accountant by training, Privat was inspired by Club Med's popular buffets and believed the French public, lovers of both all-inclusive value and their own cuisine, would embrace it.

He was right. Les Grands Buffets now welcomes 400,000 diners a year—86% of them French—and fields 3.5 million reservation requests annually. With 2025 revenue of €30 million, it out-earns any other restaurant in France.

Escoffier's Spirit in a Seven-Tiered Lobster Fountain

What began as a novel dining concept has evolved into a serious guardian of French culinary heritage. Privat realized that the classic dishes his chefs were preparing—tripes à la mode de Caen, Provençal daube, escargots—all shared a source: Auguste Escoffier's legendary 1903 reference work, Le Guide Culinaire.

"We are deeply attached to traditional cuisine," Privat said. This dedication led the Auguste Escoffier Foundation to induct Privat and executive chef Philippe Munos as "disciples" and to designate the restaurant a "Global Showcase for Auguste Escoffier's Cuisine" in 2024.

"The restaurant is genuinely done in the spirit of Auguste Escoffier," said Michel Escoffier, the chef's great-grandson and honorary foundation chairman.

This spirit manifests in staggering displays: a seven-tiered lobster fountain, a dedicated truffle station (making it the world's only all-you-can-eat buffet to offer the fungus), and approximately 150 dishes annotated with their original page numbers from Escoffier's guide.

Theater, Refinement, and a Silver Duck Press

The experience is crafted as much for the eyes as the palate. Dining rooms are staged with white linen, crystal, and artwork, including a sculpture by British artist Ann Carrington made from cutlery. The ritualistic service is paramount.

The pressed duck ceremony is the apex. A server presents a whole roasted duck over a flame "like the Olympic torch," before a "duck master" uses a silver press—a €40,000 Christofle piece bought from Paris's legendary La Tour d'Argent—to crush the carcass, extracting blood and juices for the sauce.

Despite the unlimited format, the atmosphere is one of civilized restraint. "There were no elbows out at the lobster fountain," observed CNN's reporter. "People queued patiently." Privat's data-driven approach minimizes waste; leftovers feed the 100-strong staff, and only about 10 grams of food per person is thrown away daily.

A Pilgrimage Destination

Les Grands Buffets has become a major tourism engine for Narbonne, with visitors planning multi-day trips around their reservation. "Les Grands Buffets couldn't be anywhere else," said Carol Delga, president of the Occitanie region. "Occitanie is the land of eating well... And when a restaurant offers the world's largest cheese platter, it's enough to make anyone want to visit."

Now, Privat is investing millions in a Napoléon III-style expansion with architect Jacques Garcia, confident that the restaurant's location and unique formula are the keys to its unparalleled success.

"We couldn't afford to be increasing in size if we were in Paris," he said. In an unassuming parking lot opposite a McDonald's, France's most profitable restaurant continues to serve history, theater, and endless cheese, one reverent guest at a time.