The book begins..."Paris's restaurants are institutions." I like this. It also refers to restaurants as "museums of gastronomy". The book has exquisite pictures and chapters on historic restaurants, brasseries, bistros, and contemporary restaurants. It's informative with a gourmet guidebook at the end. Since the book was originally published in 2005, I'm sure some of the restaurants have changed; however, since they're "institutions" probably not as frequently as ours do!