some Paris restaurant recs (even more!)

by Jay, San Diego, Tuesday, May 16, 2017, 08:21 (3220 days ago)
edited by Jay, Tuesday, May 16, 2017, 14:20

Bryan asked me for some ideas so I thought I'd go ahead and post them.

First off, website recommendation: Paris By Mouth, an online restaurant guide that is updated all the time. https://parisbymouth.com/

Another is La Fourchette, which also has an Open Table-like reservation portal. https://www.lafourchette.com/ville/paris/415144

I haven't found Yelp or Google Map recommendations very helpful in Paris.

On to the restaurants...

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L'EPI DUPIN: cozy bistro in the 6th, modern french menu that changes all the time. Not too dear but tables are limited and you probably need a reservation. 3-course prix fixe for 39 euros is the way to go. This is our current favorite place to eat dinner in Paris. We took GuinnessBob there last summer and had (another) great meal. The chef there runs some other swanky place in town but keeps this as sort of a test kitchen. Unpretentious, food is unbelievable.
http://www.epidupin.com/en/

A little lunch place that we discovered near the Places des Vosges is called LE SEVIGNE, located at the corner of Rue Payenne and Rue du Parc Royal. It serves great quiches and salads and the house wine is inexpensive.

The roof of the Printemps department store on Hausmann has a wonderful terrace with lounge chairs and a little self-service mart with snacks, beer, wine. The view is absolutely amazing, with a 360-degree panorama and amazing vistas to Sacre Coeur and all around. This is definitely worth a pre-dinner drink as the sun goes down.

If you’re interested in a pretty fancy and expensive meal, there's a restaurant L'ATELIER JOEL ROBUCHON located in the St. Germain du Pres area. It serves mainly small plates intended for sharing. This is an "affordable" version of haute cuisine. They are now open for lunch, if you want to splurge on a meal but don't want to deal with dinner crowds. If you don't make it in Paris, there's a Las Vegas location.

CHEZ PAUL - very traditional right bank French bistro right out of the 1950s, like walking into an antique shop. Try the bone marrow. They will carve a hock of lamb right at your table.

The MARCHE DES ENFANTS ROUGE for grazing, a market on the right bank with twenty or thirty different food stalls. Here's a rundown of the different eats you can get there, everything from sandwiches to fruit to couscous to sushi. https://parisbymouth.com/our-guide-to-the-marche-des-enfants-rouges/

LA PERLA - mexican/spanish bar and grill on the right bank. Best Margaritas in Paris. Great place for a pit stop while exploring.

LE FONTAINE DE MARS - Great staff, fabulous cuisine, perfect for lunch. A quiet Parisian icon. Obama ate there last year.

AUX CHARPENTIERS (Rue Mabillon): hole in the wall with outstanding French cuisine. Very affordable. Lovely for dinner.

To get to my office I had to walk down an alleyway between busy streets and one day noticed there was a restaurant about halfway down. There was only a tiny protruding sign, so even if you looked down the alley you'd never know it was there. This turned out to be AU FILS DES SAISONS and it was one of our favorite meals in Paris. It's an 8 or 9-table place, run by two guys (one's the chef, one's the maitre'd/server/sommelier/busboy). The menu, scribbled on a chalkboard, changes daily, and once they run out of an item they erase it. I don't know if I would make a trek across the city to find this spot, but if you are staying in the area it is definitely worth a dinner. http://www.restaurant-au-fil-des-saisons.fr/

There is a three-restaurant chain in Paris called RELAIS DE L’ENTRECOTE that serves ONLY Steak Frites and incredible ice cream/chocolate desert. That’s it. I don’t even think they have a menu—all you have to tell them is how you want it cooked. There are several locations located throughout Paris (it’s also just down the street from Brasserie Lipp, Deux Magots, etc).

There's a neat place in the Bastille area, one restaurant that actually spans two rooms across the street from each other, CAFE DE L'INDUSTRIE. It's a funky interior and very lively, sort of a hipster vibe but a traditional menu. Good spot for a drink and a snack and to see what les jeunes de Paris are up to.

Signature hot chocolate (the best in the city) and fancy pastries are at ANGELINA'S located along Rue de Rivoli by the Tuileries.

HARRY'S BAR is fun for a cocktail. It feels like you stepped back into the 1920s, with the wood interior and barkeeps in white aprons, surrounded by American college pennants. The Bloody Mary was supposedly invented here. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-15887142

If you're walking around Montmartre (and I recommend any walking tour you can pick up in the area, even a self-guided one), on the way back down Rue Lepic you can stop at LA RUGHETTA, which is a small Italian spot across the street from Van Gogh's old apartment building. Good pastas, pizzas, entrees and super friendly. I ate lunch here but I know the dinner is excellent as well.

Not far from the Bastille is LA BELLE EQUIPE, which terrorists shot up and killed 19 patrons the same night as the Bataclan attack down the street. It's been renovated and it reopened and worth a stop for lunch or a drink. Simple fare with a mediterranean spin. It is very much a locals' spot for the multicultural neighborhood, with jewish and arab patrons alike. https://www.eater.com/2016/11/14/13622754/la-belle-equipe-paris-terror-attacks

There's much, much more but those were the first places I thought of.

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