My Favorite Paris Restaurants

I'm a creature of habit.  I wouldn't go to Paris without visiting at least two of these places:

Restaurant Les fêtes galantes
17, rue de l'école Polytechnique
75005 Paris

The restaurant is tiny, the walls plastered with souvenirs from visitors (business cards, money from every country on earth, even one wall with bras of all colors), and the chef has a sense of humor.  But most of all, Les fêtes galantes offers serious, delicious food.  It is refined French cuisine with the occasional North-African twist (tomato soup with a hint of mint; a cumin-scented sauce on crispy tender sea bream; chocolate cream puffs...).  The prices are so reasonable, and the welcome so warm and friendly, you will enjoy the food even more.

(I have no photo of this place and could not find one to poach; I shall correct this soon.)

Restaurant Perraudin
157, rue St-Jacques
75005 Paris

Traditional French cuisine, in a setting to match (red-and-white checked tablecloths).  It is family-style food, so there is nothing surprising here; it's simply excellent, Parisian comfort food.  I have never had a better salad than the assiette de crudités at Perraudin:  the French know their vinaigrette.  I always follow that with sole meunière, buttery and lemony and served with boiled potatoes and spinach...not everyone's taste, so if you don't share my sole addiction, try the lamb accompanied by creamy, garlicky gratin dauphinois, a house specialty and just about the best potato dish I’ve ever tasted.  The wine list is lengthy and excellent.   

Restaurant Georges
6th floor, Centre Pompidou
19, rue Beaubourg
75004 Paris

Gird your loins against the most ridiculous hipster snobisme (that of the staff, not of your fellow patrons), and take the elevator (as do those in the know... the escalator is for the uninitiated) up to the sixth floor of the Centre Pompidou.  Go late afternoon/early evening, before dinner, and nurse a €10 Perrier or glass of wine (and then have dinner elsewhere).  For all of these trials, your reward is a gorgeous, panoramic view of the city, from a cheeky yet almost bleakly chic space that continues the Dr.-Seuss-Minimalism of the rest of the building. 

Comments

[Bearden]

Sitting in bed, feeling nauseated due to a gastro bug, reading about French restaurants...don't ask me why...

A picture of Restaurant Les fêtes galantes:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/79315412@N00/149244525/

[Timberland Outlet]

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