(Average prices are for dinner for two with a carafe/bottle of house wine. Lunch menus can be significantly less)

Cafe du Marché

Average price : 40 Euros

Steaks, fish, roast chicken, generous portions, wonderful chocolate souffle – simple bistro food in a laid-back setting just ten minutes walk from the Champs de Mars (near the Eiffel Tower). Tip : Even if there’s a table free outside, don’t sit down – ask for a table and they’ll find you one (no matter how busy it looks) – they have a system !

Les Philosophes

Average price : 70 Euros

Try the tomato tarte tatin, the duck with spicy honey or whatever the daily special is – you can’t go wrong. This restaurant is on a corner in the Marais, a young, buzzy area of Paris with lots of bars and places to hang out. Tip : if you want the apple tarte tatin for pudding, ask them to put it aside when you arrive – there’s never any left by the time you finish your meal ! Also make sure you don’t miss a trip to the gents/ladies for the best loos in Paris!

L’As du falafel

Average price : 4 Euros for a falafel

Take-away kebabs and falafel – the best in Paris, recommended by Lenny Kravitz. Ask for the « speciale » with hummous, aubergines, red cabbage, falafel, spicy sauce and more.

Le Verre Bouteille

Average price : 50 Euros

Try the excellent set menu including various wines by the glass, and note that this place serves food until about 2am, or even later, so it’s perfect if you arrive late on the Eurostar.  They also do platters of « variations on a theme » – salmon, goats cheese or even chocolate if you have a really sweet tooth.

Bistro de l'Ecole Militaire

Standard Paris bistro fare, with excellent steaks and very fresh seafood. On the corner at the Ecole Militaire, very near the Champs de Mars. It’s a traditional bistro with waiters in long aprons who never smile, but it’s worth a visit. Don’t try anything complex – stick to simple dishes and you can’t go wrong. Oysters the size of bathtubs!

Chez Hamadi

Average price : 40 Euros

In the Latin quarter full of tourists, turn down a side street and head for this little restaurant full of eclectic objects dangling from the walls and ceiling, where you can eat wonderful couscous – a bowl of steaming broth and vegetables, a plate of meat and a mound of buttery couscous, plus all the trimmings.

Cave de l’Os a Moelle

Average price : 50 Euros

Rustic setting, only three long tables, and you help yourself to every course, from the terrines, pates and homemade pickles spread out over the chunky wooden table, to the soup pot simmering on the stove in the corner, the selection of wines (from 5-500 Euros!) in the rack, the bread which you can go and cut, the cheese board or the dessert buffet. As close as you’ll get to having dinner at your French granny’s house. Two sittings – 7pm or 9pm, so take your pick but be there on time !

L’Os a Moelle

Average price : 100 Euros

Across the road from the above entry, a gastronomic treat with 7 courses, wonderful fresh produce and flavours. The chef makes most of the decisions, and there are only one or two choices on the menu, so it’s not for fussy eaters, though they do try to fulfill your requests. Surprising but judicious combinations, sophisticated presentation and ambitious French cuisine, combined with friendly service make this a real treat.

Cafe du Commerce

Average price : 50 Euros

A typical French bistro with tables in minstrel galleries overlooking a sunny atrium filled with plants. The service can be rushed at lunchtime, but the food is good and the prices reasonable, and it’s well off the tourist trail.

A la Biche au Bois

Average price : 50 Euros

Old fashioned coq-au-vin and bœuf bourguignon, cooked for hours in the oven and served up in Le Creuset pots (one each) make for a delicious meal. Don’t expect to find any lettuce leaves in here – it’s hearty fare and no matter how full you are, you won’t be able to resist the homemade chocolate mousse liberally covered in Grand Marnier.

Blue Elephant

Average price : 100 Euros (Sunday brunch 80 Euros)

Spectacular setting once you get past the rather dull looking street and entrance. Huge flower arrangements flown in from Thailand every day, incredible exotic fruit and displays and waitresses in traditional outfits, serving coconut cocktails in hollowed out coconuts and using the freshest ingredients to make wonderful dishes. The best time to go is for Sunday brunch, when you can try all kinds of different dishes, with soup and spring rolls made in front of you and a huge variety of things to try.

Chez Gladines

Average price : 25 Euros

Fantastic salads served in huge mixing bowls! Sit on a bench at a long table surrounded by noisy rugby players from Toulouse and see if you can finish a whole salad full of cheese, cold meats, fried eggs, potatoes etc (and lots of lettuce and tomato of course). Don't bother with the main dishes - not as good as they sound, but do try the Basque wine.

Nos Ancetres Les Gauloises

Average price : 70 Euros

Nos Ancetres is a bit wacky. High beamed ceilings, stone walls and floors, horns and swords and axes and animal heads on the walls. On the wooden tables there are huge baskets of vegetables--cucumbers, radishes, turnips peppers, carrots, etc.--and a bowl of hard-boiled eggs. This is your salad--make it to your own taste, and bon appetit! Then you head off to the huge sideboard for the "buffet", where you slice off all the sausage and salami you can eat from several varieties. Main dishes are rather conventionally brought to your table (I recommend the lamb chops), and then you have a choice of desserts or cheese board. (And that cheese board is a meal in itself!) All the while, you're refilling your glass from the bottomless cask of red wine. 

Ty Breiz

Average price : 40 Euros

This place is very near Montparnasse (one of the places from which there is a direct train to where we live), and has tasty Breton crepes with all kinds of sweet and savoury fillings. The French always drink cider with them, but of course you can have wine too.

Berthillon

Just for ice-cream – incredible variety and wonderful flavours, from cinnamon to wild strawberry to marron glacé or agenoise (prunes marinated in rum). Even in March, if the sun is shining there will be a queue outside. There are several other shops serving Berthillon ice-cream on the same street which are open much later. 

Chez Toinette  

Average price : 70 Euros

This little restaurant is between Montmartre and the Moulin Rouge – a pretty touristy/seedy part of town, but still fun to explore if you don’t know the area (never been to the « Erotic museum » myself, but who knows !) and the view from the Sacre Cœur is always nice. Good, dependable, traditional food in a cosy setting, with friendly English-speaking service. Beware of tourists as it's in the Time out guide, and do reserve even on weekdays.

Chez Ginette

70 Euros

Bistrot with outdoor tables not far from Montmarte (walk down behind the Sacre Cœur, going past the vineyards). Good steaks, gratin dauphinoise, wide selection of wines, and the sort of place where you keep looking at the plates going by, thinking « I wish I’d ordered that » !

Le Fourmi Ailee   

A recent discovery of ours, near Notre Dame and the Shakespeare bookshop, surprisingly untouristy, with book-lined walls, eclectic decorations and vegetarian specials as well as salads and home-made cakes. Very good for lunch. Comfy seats tucked just inside the windows and a few tables outside.

Le Montagnard, Bistro St. Emilion 

According to Mike, you can never eat too much melted cheese, and if that’s your approach to life you can’t go wrong in this place. Huge pans of fondue, or slabs of raclette to melt under a heatlamp then drizzle (or pile) over boiled potatoes and plates of charcuterie (cold meats). It’s in the Latin Quarter, so pretty touristy, but the portions are big, it’s very near Notre Dame and the Pont Neuf, and the prices are reasonable.

Cafe de la Mosquee de Paris

Enjoy sweet mint tea and flaky pastries laced with honey in an authentic Moorish-style cafe on the grounds of the Paris mosque. (You can also go in the evening and eat couscous.).

Picnic

OK, I’m optimistic and we’re talking about March, but you never know. Take a stroll down Rue Mouffetard, one of the oldest streets in Paris. The variety and quality of food you can purchase at the open air markets is astonishing. Buy a picnic lunch- cheese, bread, olives, pastries and a bottle of wine and walk over to the nearby Arene de Lutece- the remains of an old Roman arena, the original centre of Paris,- to eat your lunch.