Paris restaurant recommendations - $$

We will be in Paris for 3 nights in June with our three kids (ages 10-18). We are staying on the border of the 5th (Latin) and 6th (St Germain) on Saint Michels. I’m looking for restaurants either near our apartment OR near our last planned event for the day. I don’t want to spend 500 every night so thinking moderate range.

Day one we will likely end up at Montparnasse Tower.
Day two we will end at the Eiffel Tower.
Day three we will end near Arc De Triomphe.

Would love some recommendations. Thinking mostly French but open to other ideas. Also, if someone has lunch recommendations near the Louvre or in the 6th arr would also be helpful.

Thank you!

Welcome. Have you checked the recent topics here? There are plenty of discussions on the places you mentioned. I think it will be better if you have a list of restaurants so we know more your preferences.

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Do note that restaurants in Paris usually open for dinner service not before 7pm which may be later than you find yourselves finishing up your day’s adventure. You might plan to go back to your apartment and tuck you feet up for a brief spell before starting out, refreshed, for dinner.

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Thanks, I have read through several threads and saw some restaurants mentioned but it takes a long time to search them all and see where they were. I was hoping someone would be familiar with these landmarks. Last time we were in Paris we were there with French speaking friends and so they did all the planning and talking and I don’t remember where we ate :slight_smile:

Le Fumoir us just around the corner from the Louvre. It’s a bib gourmand place, so should fit your appetite. There’s a review on my blog. I think the Minipalais in the Grand Palais building should work for lunch, but dinner …
We had a very nice dinner at Au Petit Marguery not far from you on John Talbott’s recommendation some years ago, but nothing intuit are recently. we’re usually across the river and Marais-east more recently.

Mini-Palais is no more. The entire Grand Palais is closed for renovations for the 2024 Olympics.

I’m assuming you mean trad when you say French cuisine. In today’s Paris, French cuisine has quite a spectrum from old-fashioned cuisine bourgeoise that most foreign tourists mistakenly regard as typically parisian to an updated and lighter version “bistronomie”, and to very creative modern French cuisine that is often like “haute cuisine” at bistro prices.

On the borders of the 5th and 6th can sometimes be tourist trap territory, especially around place St Michel and the trashy Huchette quartier (a mini-Fisherman’s Wharf). Not knowing exactly where in the 2-km-long boulevard St Michel you will stay, I’ll suggest Hébé on rue Frédéric Sauton (lovely street) for Med-slanted French, quality of the cuisine, and vibe. If you get tired of French cuisine, Hébé’s younger sibling Ya Bayté on rue Grands Degrés does excellent Lebanese street food, including falafel. Or Café de la Nouvelle Mairie because of the setting on rue Fossés-St-Jacques near the Panthéon and for the continuous hours. In St Germain-des-Prés proper, Huguette on rue Seine comes with enthusiastic approval by all the teens in my extended family, most of their parents, and me… but will most suit if your kids like seafood. For crêpes (a natural with kids), Breizh Café Odéon (continuous hours and 7/7) which has the added bonus of being a 2-minute walk from very good Il Marchese del Gelato ice cream shop… or, smaller and perhaps more difficult with a party of 5, Little Breizh (meal times only) on rue Grégoire-de-Tours.

Near the Arc de Triomphe, my office is in this area and I know it can be a challenge to find restos with a good price/ quality ratio and suitable for families. I’d recommend dinner-only Le Hidé (opens at 6:30pm) on rue Général-Lanrezac for very good trad with a hint of Japanese sensibility (the owner is a French-trained Japanese chef) or, for more hipness that could appeal to the teenagers, Gabylou on rue d’Armaillé. If you want a quicker street-foodish meal, Micka on rue de l’Etoile for excellent Egytian falafel. If worse comes to worst, there is a branch of the family-resto chain Hippopatamus on avenue Wagram @ pl Ternes… steakhouse, quality ok, prices ok, open 7/7 and continuous hours so fine for an early meal (before 7:30) but ambiance is, well, chain restauranty and identikit assembly-line décor… if you were not a family of 5, I wouldn’t recommend it but sometimes these places are a good fit.

Near the Tour Eiffel, either Carette (which is really a pâtisserie-salon de thé but they also do meals) on the place Trocadéro or Les Marches on rue Manutention on the other side of the river next to the Palais de Tokyo for well-priced and very good trad. If you want to give your kids a sample of more contemporary French stylishness/ trendiness, Monsieur Bleu inside the Palais de Tokyo is not bad and has a great terrace with some views of the Tour Eiffel. BTW, the Palais de Tokyo (which includes a free modern art museum as well as artist workshops) is a pretty cool place and popular with the trendier sort of younger Parisians. There is also a very good and large Wed + Sat outdoor food market just outside the Palais de Tokyo on the avenue Président Wilson for a sampling of Parisian life and a respite from all the sightseeing.

For the Tour Montparnasse, either Chez Marcel or La Gentiane, both on the rue Stanislas, for trad French.

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This is a fabulous set of recommendations - I have been looking them up and they are checking out as great picks. I so appreciate your sharing your insight. Much appreciated.

Thanks for your appreciation. There are no one-size-fits-all restaurants but I did try to match what I think you are looking for.

Now for putting the jigsaw pieces together. Closing days and hours usually complicate the choices, especially if you are in Paris on Sat, Sun, & Mon.