Below, you’ll find all the information you need about enjoying great food and drinks in Paris:
Restaurants
You can also participate in these activities:
- Pastry and Chocolate Tasting in Paris
- Professional Cooking Workshop: Learn to Make Authentic Croissants
- Dining in Paris with a Wine Pairing
- The Marais Walking Food Tour
- Lunch at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant
- Dining at Hard Rock Café Paris
- Wine Tasting in Paris
- Pub Crawl Through Paris
Restaurants in Paris
With over 30,000 restaurants in Paris, it’s impossible to pick just a few to recommend. Therefore, use internet restaurant sites to find one to your liking.
You’ll find all types of restaurants in Paris—from incredibly affordable to extravagantly expensive, from burger joints to star-rated establishments, and from Vietnamese to Lebanese cuisine. When choosing a restaurant, here’s what to consider:
- Bistro: A simple, often family-run restaurant featuring traditional, home-style dishes. You can stop by for lunch or dinner. The increasingly popular neo-bistro offers a modern twist on traditional meals, displayed daily on a chalkboard menu, or “ardoise.”
- Brasserie: A large restaurant with continuous service (sometimes 24 hours a day), offering an extensive menu from salads and sandwiches to full lunch or dinner options. Despite their size, brasseries usually have a casual atmosphere. With their Alsacian origins, it’s common to find dishes like sauerkraut with sausage (choucroute) and seafood platters or onion soup.
- Wine Bar: Primarily focused on wine, these bars offer a wide selection and the possibility to order numerous individual glasses of wine. Some wine bars serve small dishes like a charcuterie board, cheeses, paté, or appetizers, while others offer full meals.
New Trends: Food Trucks in Paris
A relatively new phenomenon on the streets of Paris, inspired by American culture, is the food truck. These mobile kitchens set up shop in popular areas or at events to sell freshly made (sometimes pre-prepared) street food. Ingredients are sourced locally wherever possible. The menu often includes gourmet burgers, sandwiches, pizza, mozzarella, dim sum, tex-mex, ice cream, as well as fish & chips, pasta dishes, and even duck. Their locations vary daily, but can be tracked via Facebook or the EasyFoodTruck app.
Finding a Restaurant in Paris
Some helpful websites include:
Ten Tips for Dining Out in Paris
Here are some tips to ensure a pleasant dining experience in Paris:
- It’s polite to consult with the waiter about where to sit upon entering.
- Address the waiter as “monsieur” for a man or “madame” for a woman, not “garçon.” Catch their attention by raising your hand and saying “Monsieur (or Madame), s’il vous plaît.”
- The menu is called “la carte,” and a set meal is known as a “menu” and may include two, three, four, or more courses for a set price. A “formule” typically includes a two-course meal (starter + main or main + dessert), and a “plat du jour” is the dish of the day.
- You can always request a carafe of tap water (“une carafe d’eau”). For bottled water, ask for “eau plate” (still) or “eau gazeuse” or “eau pétillante” (sparkling).
- If you prefer not to purchase an expensive bottle of wine, ask for a more affordable carafe of house wine (“un pichet”), or a glass of wine (“un verre de vin”). A “pichet” can usually be ordered in sizes of a quarter-liter (“un quart”), a half-liter (“un demi”), or a full liter (“un grand”).
- Pace yourself with the bread before the meal. The French typically start eating it with their meal.
- The bill is referred to as “l’addition” or “la note.” So, say: “L’addition, s’il vous plaît” or “La note, s’il vous plaît.”
- Tipping isn’t necessary since service is included in the price, but leaving a small amount on the table if you are satisfied is customary.
- If a restaurant doesn’t operate continuously, lunch is usually available from 12 PM to 2:30 PM and dinner from 7 PM. To avoid dining in an empty restaurant, consider arriving after 8 PM or later. Restaurants that welcome children often open earlier than 7 PM.
- If you don’t speak French, you’ll find that English is widely understood in restaurants.
Cafés and Tea Rooms
In a café or bar, you can grab a drink and something to eat. The offerings are typically simple and traditional: salads, sandwiches, soups, or a croque-monsieur (a type of grilled cheese sandwich). Sandwiches might include a half baguette with butter and filled with ham (“jambon beurre” or “parisien”), cheese (“fromage”), ham and cheese (“jambon fromage”), with or without veggies (“crudités”), dry sausage (“saucisson sec”), camembert or brie, or other fillings like tuna and chicken. Some cafés also serve full meals, either à la carte or as a set menu. They are open throughout the day, even for breakfast, offering an alternative to hotel breakfast rooms.
During colder months, many Parisian cafés feature a covered and heated terrace. Keep in mind that enjoying a drink on the terrace is pricier than inside. The most economical option is to drink your coffee or glass of wine standing at the bar (“au comptoir”). Sitting inside at a table (“en salle”) is slightly more expensive but still more affordable than sitting outside (“en terrasse”). Make sure not to occupy a table set for lunch or dinner if you’re just there for a coffee.
In a tea room (“salon de thé”), you can naturally drink tea accompanied by a pastry, a cream puff, or a macaron. These venues also serve lunch options like salads, quiches, or omelets, but usually close before dinner time.
Picnicking in Paris
Paris offers numerous delightful spots for picnicking in the spring, summer, and autumn—whether in a park, on the banks of the Seine, under a tree in a square, on a bridge over the Seine, or with views of the river or the Eiffel Tower, among statues, flowers, or ponds. In some parks, sitting on the grass is not permitted, indicated by signs like “Pelouse au repos” (grass at rest) or the opposite, inviting you to relax on the grass. However, there are always benches or chairs available. Parisians often bring their own chairs and tables.
For a picnic, you can buy food from a supermarket (like Monoprix), or get sandwiches from a bakery or sandwich shop. Don’t forget water, juice, or wine and some plastic cups. Or, you can shop at one of the Parisian markets for French cheese, charcuterie, paté, bread, and fruit. For dessert, pick up a pastry from a patisserie. Remember to bring a corkscrew and something to sit on.
Suggested Picnic Locations
Parks and Gardens:
- Parc des Buttes-Chaumont
- Parc Georges-Brassens
- Parc de la Villette
- Champ de Mars
- Promenade Plantée
- Parc Montsouris
- Jardin Atlantique
- Jardin du Luxembourg
- Place des Vosges
- Jardin Villemin near Canal Saint-Martin
- Parc de Belleville
- Cité Universitaire
- Jardin Atlantique
Near the Water:
- Pont des Arts (busy)
- Jardin Tino Rossi
- Berges de Seine (between Pont de l’Alma and Pont Royal)
- Square du Vert Galant (busy)
- Seine banks at Ile Saint-Louis (busy)
- Seine banks near quai de l’Hôtel de Ville
- Bassin de la Villette (quai de la Loire)
- Canal de l’Ourcq
- Canal Saint-Martin (busy)
Glossary
| English | Frans |
| breakfast | petit déjeuner |
| lunch | déjeuner |
| dinner | dîner |
| waiter | monsieur, madame |
| we are a party of two/three/four | nous sommes deux/trois/quatre |
| the menu | la carte |
| fixed-price meal with two or more courses | le menu, la formule |
| the wine list | la carte des vins |
| appetizer or starter | entrée |
| main course | plat |
| dessert | dessert |
| carafe (half carafe) of white wine | un pichet (un demi-pichet) de vin blanc |
| carafe (half carafe) of red wine | un pichet (un demi-pichet) de rouge |
| the check, please | l’addition, s’il-vous-plaît, of: la note, s’il-vous-plaît |