Choosing a Restaurant

Paris: Where to Eat: Practicalities: Choosing a Restaurant

Paris has more than its fair share of the world’s top restaurants, but that doesn’t mean they’re all good. Some are even downright terrible. So when you’re wandering around in a jet-lagged fug and all of the restaurants start looking the same, how do you choose? Fortunately, French law requires restaurants to post their menus outside, so visitors have a chance to check the type of food served, specials of the day, prices, and whether there’s anything on the menu that Junior or the vegetarian in the group can eat. If the menu posted outside is translated into four languages and has accompanying photos, then that gives you an idea already of what you’re getting into.

The establishments listed in this guide were chosen for their good value. Sometimes the Price-Food-Atmosphere ratio weighs heavier in one category than another, but they all have something special, something memorable. The International section is a mere hint of the rich diversity a cosmopolitan city like Paris has to offer, from Moroccan tearooms and Italian trattorie to Scandinavian delis and Thai restaurants. There’s also a selection of sandwich and healthy takeout shops listed, so no one has to resort to the soulless fast-food chains.

This isn’t by any means meant to be an exhaustive list. Entire books have been written about Parisian restaurants! For the advice of a professional food critic, I recommend Patricia Wells’ Food Lover’s Guide to Paris. She’s been the Paris food journalist for L’Express and the International Herald Tribune for years, and updates her guides on a regular basis. For a different perspective, the annual Time Out Paris: Eating & Drinking comes in a handy magazine format, with an irreverent, edgy slant to their restaurant, café and bar reviews. There’s a list of basic dining vocabulary in the Glossary; if you absolutely need to know what every word on the menu means, try World Food France (part of the World Food Guides series), which describes every region’s specialties and wines, and includes a detailed, cross-referenced dictionary, or the Bon Appetit: French English Menu Dictionary by Judith White.

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