Paris Restaurants

Paris is all about fine dining and rare wines - right? Wrong! Naturally, the city that invented gastronomy has an elegant sufficiency of Michelin-starred restaurants, places that only serve tasting menus and à la carte at eye-watering prices. But there is a wide variety of great food in Paris at all kinds of prices, in the outer arrondissements as well as in the first. In the centre of town you'll find the justly celebrated grand establishments, such as the historic Le Grand Véfour and Lapèrouse, and the innovative Le Dalí at Le Meurice. Even up the Eiffel Tower, there is a fine restaurant, Le Jules Verne, though the view might distract you from the food. Down in Montparnasse you'll find a different kind of tradition at the brasserie La Coupole, while the vast Le Bouillon Chartier near the Grands Boulevards has survived from the 19th century, and now offers its fast French traditional dishes to as many weary tourists as office workers. Montmartre's undoubted romance can sometimes be difficult to find amid the noisy coach trippers and school groups - restore the ambience at Le Moulin de la Galette - a last windmill on a hill once covered with them and painted by Renoir. Hidden away on the quaint streets of la Butte aux Cailles is Le Temps de Cerises, a typical neighbourhood bistrot, run as a workers' co-operative. While Hôtel du Nord, a simple restaurant trailing 1930s cinematic history has hamburgers on the menu - trendy with the bobos (bourgeois bohemians) who frequent the banks of the Canal Saint-Martin, a stroll away is Le Chateaubriand, serving up some of the most original dishes in town, on a tasting menu that changes daily. Image courtesy Le Boullion Chartier

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