There is a difference between a “restaurant,” “bistrot,” “brasserie,” “bar à vin,” “café” and “salon de thé.” Mostly the guide consists of “restaurants” or “bistrots” which serve lunch and/or dinner during normal hours. Lunch is usually served between 12h30 (12:30 p.m.) and 14h30 (2:30 p.m.), dinner between 20h30 (8:30 p.m.) and 23h00 (11:00 p.m.). Some restaurants on the list classify differently, such as a “salon de thé,” which may be open only throughout the daytime and offer coffees, teas, desserts and light fare such as salads and quiches. If you don't want a full meal and/or you want to eat at an odd hour, a salon de thé or a “brasserie” or “café” may be a better choice than a restaurant—because in a restaurant in Paris you are expected to order a full meal—at least two courses, and don't serve at odd hours.

Many readers have asked me to provide information about the opening or closing of each restaurant during holidays or vacations, a well as special menus they might offer during these times, such as Christmas or New Year's. Because most of the restaurants in this guide are family-owned independent restaurants, it is impossible for this guide to provide this information in a timely way. Please call in advance to consult with each restaurant.

The restaurants are in order by arrondissement (district) and then alphabetically. Each listing contains the address, phone number, fax and Web address if available, closest Métro stations, hours and days of operation, the average cost per person, if it does not accept credit cards (assuming most restaurants do accept them) and a personal description of the restaurant. The average per person varies from the norm for a two-course meal without wine to a three-course meal with wine.

At the time of this writing, euros are stronger than dollars: €10 equal approximately $12. Prices in restaurants change frequently. The prices noted here may have changed since this writing, usually increasing of course, but not usually drastically. These fluctuations are not within our control or ability to be 100% accurate.

This document was formatted on U.S. 8 1/2 X 11 paper using the font Arial point size 10.

At the back of the guide, an index has been provided so that you can easily find the page number of any restaurant by name or by type of cuisine.

Make reservations whenever you can. Many of these restaurants are small, independent businesses owned by individuals. They likely take Sunday off, close the entire month of August or certainly fill up quickly, so call in advance to ensure the restaurant is open and can seat you. Cancel your reservations if you have a change in plans, as a courtesy to these small independently owned restaurants.

Parisians dine after 8 p.m., and most reservations are made for 9 p.m. If you do dine earlier, expect to be the first to arrive or to be dining with mostly Americans. Most restaurants will not be ready to serve until 8 p.m. or 8:30 p.m.!

Dress appropriately. We are not suggesting that you don your finest suit and tie or Sunday best, but dressing well is part of the French culture, so use your good judgment. I think you'll find that if you're dressed to fit in comfortably with the Parisians, that overall you'll be treated with much more respect. Parisians rarely will be seen wearing shorts even in very hot weather (unless involved in an athletic activity) and while jeans have become more accepted than in the past, reserve them for the more casual spots. This may apply to athletic shoes, too, which are normally reserved for the gym or the teens. True, you will see a more casual Paris these days than even just a few years ago, but if you don't look like a tourist, you won't be treated like one, and that can take you a long way.

Wait to be seated when entering a restaurant or bistrot. Someone will normally greet you and take your name if you have reserved or ask you “combien de personnes?” before seating you. In a brasserie, it is more customary to find a seat yourself, unless it is particularly crowded and you need assistance. That being said, as noted above, if you take the time to ask, you’ll likely be treated better.

Be polite and by all means, “flirt” with the waitperson. It has taken me years as an American who was taught to “get to the point” that doing just that gets you nowhere in France and even less from the service in any eating establishment. The general consensus for a long time among Americans was that the waiters in France were “surly,” when the truth is we just haven't learned the art of seduction. The French are taught to be “seduisant” (seductive or attractive) and to “flirt” in a non-sexual, but friendly way. If you learn this simple method, I can guarantee you great service every single time. Man or woman, waiter or waitress, establishing a rapport with the server first will insure you success. Say “bonjour.” Make eye contact. Smile. Take a deep breath. Apologize for bothering the waiter (“Excusez-moi de vous déranger ... “) or for your lack of French (“Excusez-moi, mais je ne parle pas beaucoup de français ... “) or if you have a question about the menu (S'il vous plaît, j'ai une petite question sur la carte ... “) and smile and be polite and always, always say “s'il vous plaît” and “merci beaucoup.” One final note—please, never shout “garçon!”

CHEZ LA VIEILLE ADRIENNE

• Traditional French
• 1, rue Bailleul, Arrondissement 1
• Phone 01.42.60.15.78, Fax 01.42.33.85.71
• Métro Louvre-Rivoli
• Open Lunch Daily Monday – Friday and Thrusday Evening Except by Reservation for Parties of 15 or More
• €26 3-Course Fixed-Price Lunch, Dinner A La Carte, Average per Person €35 - €50

The friends of the original owner, “Adrienne,” continued the tradition of this tiny bistrot you'd easily walk past unnoticed. This is how it was 30 to 40 years ago in Paris…a family run establishment serving in a simple way, but home-cooking with heart. On the bar, the “chariot d'entrées et un farci” are lined up and when you order this (€14 A La Carte or included with the 3-course menu), you don't get one…you get them all! But, be sure to save room for the main courses—hearty portions of “Côtelettes d'agneau pôelées à la fleur de thym,” “Rognon de veau rôti entire bourguignonne,” “Boeuf braise aux carottes.” For dessert, choose from several “Adrienne” has prepared for you…”Mousse au chocolat,” “Pruneaux au vin,” etc., etc. This is an experience few restaurants in Paris can claim any more.

FOUJITA I

• Japanese
• 41, rue Saint Roch, Arrondissement 1
• Phone 01.42.61.42.93
• Métro Pyramides, Tuileries
• €11 - €13 Lunch Menu, Dinner A La Carte, Average per Person €25 - €30

This is THE neighborhood for Japanese restaurants but there are distinctive differences in quality – obvious by which have patrons and which don't. In fact, all of Paris is suddenly overrun with sushi/sashimi/Yakitori restaurants. This one is known by Parisians who developed the taste for sushi long before it was popular and it's still one of the best. In traditional style, the waiter will bring you a hot towel. At lunch, miso soup may come with your lunch special but at dinner it's à la carte. Order it anyway – it's the best, most flavorful I can ever remember having. If you like seaweed, there is a small seaweed and cucumber salad not on the menu, but there for the asking, and very refreshing. There are so many kinds of Japanese seafood dishes on the menu that it could be overwhelming, but an assortment of sushi of 13 pieces is as little as €15 and it is certainly enough for sushi-lovers like us.

... plus 9 more recommendations in the 1st arrondissement.

AU CRUS DE BOURGOGNE

• Traditional French
• 3, rue Bachaumont, Arrondissement 2
• Phone 01.42.33.48.24, Fax 01.40.26.66.41
• Métro Sentier, Etienne-Marcel
• Closed Saturday and Sunday
• A La Carte Menu: Average per Person €25 – 35

Just off the shopping street of rue Montorgueil, this is my idea of French bistrot heaven. Like an old fashioned lunchroom, with lace curtains, large palms, red check cloths, bentwood chairs, enormous wine bottles over the bar (Magnums, Jereboams, Rehoboams, etc.), Au Crus de Bourgogne is what Paris was then and still is now – charming. There are two private dining rooms should you have a gathering and a terrace in warm weather. If you get stuck on the French menu, they will supply you with an English translation. Lobster, foie gras and “Coq au Brouilly” are their specialties. Cuisine is cooked to perfection; exactly what you would expect as perfectly traditional French meal with no deviation.

Bill and Beth Colsher wrote: “Dinner here was a Parisian delight. A skate wing was perfectly cooked, and our son discovered he liked duck (the first of three duck breasts he was to devour). Crowded and friendly, Will also got quite a kick out of the cleavage displayed by the charming, energetic, (though, ahhh, “mature”) hostess. (Of course 17 year old boys are easily amused.).”

AUX TROIS ELEPHANTS

• Thai
• 36, rue Tiquetonne, Arrondissement 2
• Phone 01.42.33.53.64
• Métro Etienne-Marcel
• A La Carte: Average Per Person €18 - €25

Aux Trois Eléphants may be listed in every gay guide to Paris, but the clientele is a mixed bag of Thai cuisine fans who know the three elephants will live up to their big reputation. Décor is elegant and more French than Asian. The traditional Thai dishes are spicy, sometimes mild, always beautifully perfumed and delicious. The Nems are served crispy and hot. Try the Yam Plameuk, a spicy salad of calamari and peppers with lime, or the Kaeng Khia Wan Kai, a chicken with green curry, coconut milk and spices. For dessert, have a fresh mango or ice creams of vanilla and nougat! And all this on a small budget. You won't be disappointed.

... plus 13 more recommendations in the 2nd arrondissement.

A 2 PAS DU 3 (FORMERLY A 2 PAS DU DOS)

• Traditional French
• 101, rue Vieille du Temple, Arrondissement 3
• Phone 01.42.77.10.52, Fax 01.42.71.40.59
• Métro Saint Sebastien-Froissart
• Closed Saturday and Sunday Lunch and Monday
• €17 3-Course Fixed-Price Lunch Menu with Wine, Average per Person €35 - €45 Dinner

Just a few years ago, owner of A 2 Pas du Dos sold off sister restaurant Le Dos de la Baleine on rue des Blanc-Manteaux and changed it’s name to “Au 2 Pas du 3!” But nothing else has changed here in this long, narrow, stone-walled bistrot run by Virginie Boulinière and Dan Assedou. Lunch is a particular bargain, but the cuisine is up to beyond par even at their dinner menu prices. One French friend remarked that the cuisine was amazingly “raffiné.” I quite agree! While the “foies de volailles” and the “oeuf cocotte” were both perfectly cooked for our salads, and the “demi coquelet” accompanied by small brown potatoes (still in their thin tasty skins) was light yet abundant and more than we could eat. The topper was the chocolate and orange mousse, creamy and delicious. If you're a chocolate lover, like me, then there is another dessert you might find amazing—a chocolate soufflé oozingly rich and perfect. You'll find the armchairs comfy and the cute, young, tall, thin, dressed-in-black waiters, pleasant and friendly and often amusing. Dining partner and well-known author of French or Foe, Polly Platt, was so impressed that she mentions it in her latest book, Savoir Flair. I believe you will, too (that is – be impressed).

Sister Restaurant: Le Trois, 3, rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie, 75004 Paris, Phone 01.42.74.71.52, Fax 01.42.71.40.59

AMBASSADE D'AUVERGNE

• Traditional Auvergnate French / Cuisine du Terroir
• 22 rue du Grenier Saint-Lazare, Arrondissement 3
• Phone 01.42.72.31.22
• Web: http://www.ambassade-auvergne.com/
• Email: info@ambassade-auvergne.com
• Métro Rambuteau
• Open 7 Days a Week
• A La Carte Menu: Average per Person €35 – €45

I don't often recommend a restaurant as well discovered as this one, but that's because it's an experience worth having at a price worth having it at. It's a large space made up of many cozy rooms, very personal, very countrified. Cuisine is typical of the Auvergne region, the very center of France which was once volcanic country and now rich in mineral springs and black volcanic ash from which yields a variety of fruits, vegetables and the raising of cattle. If you order a potato and cheese combination called “aligot,” your server will bring it to your table in a copper pot, then with a spoon, dip in and stretch it high in the air – what a performance, not to mention amazingly rich and delicious! Servings are absolutely enormous, so don't go if you don't have an appetite to match. “Salade tiède de lentilles vertes du Puy” comes in a terrine enough to feed everyone at your table. Other things to be sure to try: “Jambon cru ou cochonnailles de Parlan “ (I have never seen a slab of ham so large it folded three times on the plate!), “Cuisse de canard confit et sa truffade” ('truffade' is the most typical dish of Auvergne) and “Potée de porc fermier aux choux braisés” (soup with salt pork and cabbage), “Cassoulet aux lentilles de Puy” (dark and rich). I am often asked about restaurants which can accommodate private parties or those that are open on Sundays and Ambassade d'Auvergne fits the bill for both. There are air-conditioned private dining rooms that will serve 10 to 35 people, so if you want to have your next big birthday party in Paris and invite all your friends to come, this can be the perfect venue.

... plus 15 more recommendations in the 3rd arrondissement.

CARUSO

• Italian
• 3, rue de Turenne, 4th Arrondissement
• Phone 01.42.77.06.98, Fax 01.48.87.47.74
• Métro Saint-Paul
• €38 3- Course Fixed-Price Menu with Wine and Coffee, Average per Person €35 - €40

If you're in the mood for pasta, this is another great Italian restaurant in close proximity to Gli Angeli in the 3rd, very near the beautifully symmetrical Places des Vosges, and even better, but with a decidedly different atmosphere. A step up in elegance and a little more refined, Caruso is what every Italian restaurant should be. Try the “Rucola e parmigiano,” “Penne alla Caruso,” the “Bucatini Amatriciana,” “Fusilli della Nonna” or if like to try the more exotic dishes like me, have the “Spaghetti al nero di seppia” – rich black-sauce-coated thin noodles with curled cooked morsels of squid on looped and mounded on large white round plate. For me, the sight of the black noodles on their white china a work of art and every bit as delicious as it looks. The Valpolicella Classico is their least expensive wine, but perfectly acceptable. Waiters are Italian, and friendly, portions are copious – all very authentically Italian, including many of its clients, very authentically Italian, too. Thanks to Walter and Shirley Pappas, long-time fans of the guide and friends, who introduced me to this restaurant right here in my own neighborhood.

CREPERIES BEAUBOURG

• Crêperie
• Place Igor Stravinsky
• 2 rue Brisemiche, Arrondissement 4
• Phone 01.42.77.63.62
• Métro Hôtel de Ville
• Average per Person €12 - €18

Along the side of the Igor Stravinsky fountain next to the Centre George Pompidou, there are numerous cafés and now this contemporary crêperie serving up very good galettes and sweet crêpes at very reasonable prices. If you sit at a window seat, you can watch the creations by artists Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely go round and round or spit water in their whimsical forms while downing a ham and cheese galette and cider from Bretagne. This is one of my favorite spots in Paris and finally there is good dining to be had with this view.

... plus 18 more recommendations in the 4th arrondissement.

• African
• American
• Argentinian
• Asian
• Bar à vin
• Belgian
• Bistrot à Vins
• Brasserie / Bistrot
• Cafeteria
• Caribbean
• Chinese
• Continental
• Corsican
• Crêperie
• Cypriot / Greek
• East Indian / Pakistani
• French Provençale
• Greek
• Grill
• Indian
• Indian / Pakistani
• Indian / Tandoori
• Italian
• Italian / Pizzeria
• Italian Wine Bar
• Japanese
• Korean
• Mexican
• Middle Eastern
• Morrocan
• North African
• Portugese
• Salon de Thé
• Seafood
• South American
• Southwest French
• Spanish
• Steakhouse
• Thai
• Traditional French
• Traditional Auvergnate French / Cuisine du Terroir
• Traditional French / Québecoise
• Traditional French / Specialités Lyonnaises
• Traditional French Lyonnais
• Traditional French, Bar à Vin
• Traditional French, Café / Bar
• Traditional French, Soufflés Specialist
• Traditional French, Spécialités Bourguignonnes
• Traditional French/Italian
• Traditional French/North African
• Traditonal Périgourdine French / Cuisine du Terroir
• Tradtitional French, Provençale
• Untraditional French
• Vegetarian
• Vietnamese