Where to eat in Paris

Affordable places

Street food

Baguette Sandwich
You’ll find mobile kiosks with baguettes at every corner. The sandwich consists of a crispy bread crust, chicken, tuna or ham slices, tomatoes, cheese, and lettuce. All ingredients are always fresh. You can buy a baguette and have a picknick in the park overlooking the Eiffel Tower.

Falafel
Falafel is chick-pea balls served with sauces made from yogurt or paste with sesame powder. In the Marais district, the dish is cooked from old recipes, that were kept carefully by Eastern migrants’ descendants. According to bloggers’ and tourists’ reviews, the best Paris falafel restaurant is L’As du Fallafel.

Lunch at this cafe will cost you 7–9 EUR. You may stand in line for half an hour, but according to tripadvisor

users, it’s worth it.

Crêpes
Crepes are French pancakes. They are traditionally served with Nutella. You can also order crepes with honey and marmalade. The price starts at 2,20 EUR.

A tripadvisor user RamiR252 recommends La Droguerie that is located at 56 rue des Rosiers:

Crepes are all about the batter and the emmenthal and theirs are top notch. And they sprinkle the cheese generously outside the edge of the crepe so it browns on the cooking surface creating this scrumptious crispy mental brown around the crepe. A triangular piece of heaven!

And even kebabs!😲

They are also known as shawarmas and doners. It will be more expensive than crepes (you’ll pay from 5 to 9 EUR), but much more nutritious. They will put french fries and yogurt sauce called tzatziki into your kebab as well as ordinary meat and vegetables.

Fast food restaurants

They will help out in popular tourist locations: at Montmartre, near the Louvre, the Luxembourg Gardens, in the Latin Quarter.

“McChiken” sandwich in McDonald’s on the Champs-Elysees will cost you 7 EUR, while in Vesuvio pizza place you will only have a bottle of Perrier for the same money.

Market

There are more than 80 markets in Paris. These are most frequently mentioned by bloggers:

• Le marché d’Aligre. Here you will find fresh vegetables, fruits, seafood, cheese, and wines. There are indoor and outdoor counters. The outdoor part of the market is cheaper.

Nearby metro stations: Faidherbe Chaligny (8) and Ledru-Rollin (8).

Timetable: from Tuesday till Sunday from 07:30 till 13:30 and from 16:30 till 19:30.

• Le marché des Batignolles. Here you can buy organic food without pesticides.

Nearby metro station: Brochant (13)

Timetable: from Tuesday till Friday from 08:00 till 13:00 and from 15:30 till 20:00, on Tuesday — from 08:30 till 20:00, on Sunday — from 08:30 till 14:00.

• Le marché des Enfants Rouges.
  Don’t go here for shopping, but having lunch at the market is a good option. There are lots of cafes with national cuisines: Italian, Indian, Lebanese, Chinese. The food is tasty and cheap: Moroccan couscous will cost you 10–15 EUR.

Nearby metro stations: Saint-Sébastien — Froissart (8), Filles du Calvaire (8)

Timetable: from Tuesday till Saturday from 08:00 till 20:30, on Sunday — from 08:30 till 17:00.

• Le marché de Barbès. Locals know that everything is cheap here. Noon is the worst time to come — too many people walk back and forth.

Nearby metro stations: Barbès — Rochechouart (2, 4)

Timetable: on Wednesday and Saturday from 07:00 till 15:00.

David Lebovitz, the author of the youtube blog, tells the viewers what you can find and buy at a typical Paris market:

Hypermarkets

There are lots of hypermarket chains like Auchan, Carrefour, Monoprix, Casino in Paris.

tell the readers about prices in Paris supermarkets:

Compared to the high price of food at Parisian cafes and restaurants, Parisian supermarkets are actually quite reasonably priced! For example, you can purchase an entire loaf of fresh bread for about $2USD, a liter of juice for $1.50, or fresh ravioli for $2.50.

You can learn about the hypermarkets in Paris near your hotel/apartments in advance, so you don’t have to spend time on vacation. Use this link or that one.

Special shops

boulangerie – a bakery
pâtisserie – a candy shop
fromagerie – a cheese shop
boucherie – a butchery
charcuterie – a deli meat shop.

Food is fresher in these shops, and the range of goods is wider.

There may be more than 200 types of cheese in fromagerie. Recipes are passed from generation to generation. This is true for Chez Virginie cheese shop in Montmartre.

Ryan Hall, a user of Google Reviews, tells the readers why visiting Chez Virginie is useful:

Super helpful service – educating us all about the cheeses and what we were selecting. What we left with was absolutely delicious!

Cafe

You can often see narrow streets with small cafes in French films. And you can also feel the atmosphere of your favorite Paris movies if you visit one of these places. But such cafes in Paris are very crowded: you have to be very attentive not to spill wine on somebody.

You can unlikely try authentic French cuisine in the Latin Quarter, but it’s possible to have a tasty lunch here. In Montmartre, if you turn into any alley instead of going to Sacre Coeur you’ll find lots of brasseries (buffets), cheap cafes, and Italian pizza restaurants.

Four things you should know about Paris cafes:

• don’t take a big table for four people if you’re only two.
• if there is a menu in several languages, food will be awful (tourists noticed it).
• a side dish is usually included in the price of the main dish.
• bread is always for free.

Here are some affordable places in the heart of Paris:

Steve, a user of Google Reviews, recommends La Guinguette D’Angèle near The Louvre as a perfect place for vegetarians and those who are concerned about their health:

I loved their gluten free lunch box! It was healthy and fresh, and a nice pick-me-up in the middle of the day. Also, the green juice was great! That sounds weird… but trust me.

Daiane_Szk, a tripadvisor user, recommends Flunch fast food cafeteria near The Centre Pompidou for money savers:

If you have a small budget, that’s definitely a good option since you basically pay for the meat and can have as much rice, vegetables or fries as you can take.

Peter S, a tripadvisor user, suggests visiting Au Pied de Cochon brasserie if you always complain about tiny portions:

The portions were almost beyond human capacity – for example, a French onion soup in a bowl large enough to be a main course, or the sides of fries.

Restaurants in Paris

Typical Paris Restaurants

If you want to brag: “Yeah, I’ve tried foie gras!”, go to some special place. Juilletdix, a user of chowhound, knows the best option:

Le Comptoir – get the foie on toasted brioche. Heaven!

Sophie Nadeau, the author of solosophie, recommends another tiny cute cafe Le Tambour in the center:

Out of every Paris café, this may well be my favourite! Looking slightly out of place at an intersection between rows of iconic Haussmann buildings, le Tambour café and restaurant has maintained all of its unique Parisian charm throughout the ages. Situated in the very heart of the 2e arrondissement of the city, the café is surrounded by boutique shops and quirky eateries.

Here’s one more interesting restaurant Le train bleu, located in The Gare de Lyon building. In this restaurant, you can travel back to Paris of 1920s.

Restaurants with a history

La Tour d’Argent is open since 1582. Sitting by the window with a glass of collection wine, you can admire The Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral. At the time, Charlie Chaplin and Jean-Paul Belmondo loved to have lunch here. They say that Cardinal Richelieu and Henry IV himself visited the place.

Famous Le Procope tracks its history back to 1686. You definitely know its regulars: Denis Diderot, Benjamin Franklin, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Victor Hugo, and other significant people. Restaurant owners keep Napoleon Bonaparte’s hat, that he left when he failed to pay for lunch. The trick won’t work with you, so prepare your money.

Le Grand Vefour has worked since 1784. Danton, Marat, Robespierre, and Balzac loved this place.

Most of them are closed on Saturdays and Sundays. You’d better book a table in advance on other days.

How to save money on food?

Dale47_11, a tripadvisor user, gives simple but useful advice:

Don’t pay for breakfast at your hotel. I suggest going to a nearby cafe – much cheaper. You can buy “sandwiches”, made of baguettes, not sliced bread, at a lot of shops/boulangeries (bakers).

Buy your wine (take a corkscrew even though most are screw top), soft drinks, etc. at your local supermarket. There are small ones which are a little more expensive than the big chain ones, but I just choose my closest one for convenience.

Restaurants often have a menu at lunch which might cover the choice of an entree, main, dessert and will be much cheaper than at night. All restaurants have their menus outside so you can check out the prices and choices.

If you stop at a bar for a drink, it is cheapest if you stand up at the bar. Cheaper is a table inside. Most expensive is out the front on the footpath.

Even if your budget is modest, you’ll be alright. You’ll probably have a dilemma: to fit into your favorite jeans after a vacation or visit that cool bakery again.