Where To Eat In Paris
The Most-Requested List
Over the years, the questions I’ve been asked the most are where to get a first suit, how to get into fly fishing, what’s the best Oxford shirt and, more recently, about Paris. What to do there, but really where to eat.
Paris is a beloved city—my family’s gone there every year since I was in high school. If you really want to know what’s what then read my dad’s book, Paris in Winter. (DM him and he’ll sign a copy for you.) My parents are true experts and that book gives a real sense of smaller museums, bookstores, cafés and the texture of being in the city for weeks at a time.
But where to eat? I think visitors are looking for something they can’t quite find, something more, dare I say, authentique (sorry!). Paris exists, like all great cities, in the imagination and in real time. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to feel the old romance of the place. I mean, it’s Paris. But I struggle to advise people because they want different things. Some want romance and reassurance—the hits they way they remember them. Others want to discover the latest and greatest, they want to seek out something new. Then others want the secret bistro that only beautiful French people know about where the room is terrific, the food is great and not expensive. Oh right, that one, easy, no problem!
Paris is also hard because some people speak French passably, some speak it well, and some speak it…not at all. Some dress up, others do not. If you wander into Brasserie Lipp in a Yankees hat and address the maitre d’ in English then you will be deposited in the back next to the other people from New Rochelle.
So let’s get the caveats out of the way: These experiences are not uniform, as much as we would like them to be. Often restaurants have a few rooms and you might find yourself in one full of your countrymen. How to avoid this? I recently wrote about dining out abroad and hopefully that will help you have a better time.
Also: French restaurants can be seriously expensive. I mean serious. $100-for-an-appetizer serious. I beseech you, beseech you, to look at a menu before you go. Make sure you’re aligned with what they serve. Consider lunch, which is usually more reasonable. It’s no fun to be at a great restaurant while dreading the bill. If you’re feeling good and celebrating something big, then there's nothing like a serious meal in the place that invented them.
This reflects my preference for the 5th, 6th and 7th arrondissements and for reassuring places that feel like they’re in Paris.
Anyway: here’s the list. Now you have it and I can retire from Paris advice.