Le Mary Celeste

A nice and cool spot. On a corner in the upper Marais, this seafood tapas bar is a good acquaintance. If you drop by during the afternoon, you will surely find pleasure enjoying the small sea food tastings in the large bar with a glass of wine. A couple of oysters. Some urchins. A healthy snack made on beets. Not really sophisticated, but very elegant and simply good. If you're still hanging out in the evening, or if you just happen to drop by later on, the place turns into a real restaurant with a bit more comprehensive menu. The somewhat narrow, but good selection of wines is mostly natural. Despite some reservations to natural wines, we only had rich and very beautifully harmonic wines. Excellent. Reasonable prices.

www.lemaryceleste.com

Cave Nansouty

A lively place that is much better than it looks from the outside. Sounds scary? well, just try it then... A very easy going classical no bullshit-bistro. Very good wines - selected to please rather than to show off. 

Evi Evane

If you really want to go out for Greek food when in Paris, where to go? Evi Evane is one of the places. Despite the very central location around Saint Germain and Mabillion, the place is very reasonably priced and things are good. Like in Greece: Not sophisticated or extravagant, just simple and well prepared. A very nice and cosy place. Challenge yourself and try the greek wine - it's actually quite decent. 

Huitres et Saumons de Passy

A really good place. As the name indicate, they serve oysters and salmon. Plain and simple. But good. No non-sense, simply just fresh seafood. In one of the small side streets from the bourgeois Passy area, you find this hole small place, practically not much more than a hole in the wall, a small serving kitchen behind a counter - and that's basically it. A perfect spot for a round of oysters or a fresh ceviche. Good and very reasonably priced wines.

www.huitres-et-saumons-de-passy.com

Marcel

This modern looking cafe serves well-prepared breakfast and brunch all days from 10 and throughout the day. A cool, young team, preparing and selling good stuff, creates an excellent vibe du quartier. On  a charming corner of the upper back side of Montmartre, the place has an ease and calm that would make you come back, also even if the Eggs Benedict were not irresistible (they are...).

www.marcelmarcel.fr 

Milord

Context is everything: Imagine that the sun is shining warmly on the first sunny spring day in Paris. You are wandering carelessly on the butte de Montmatre enjoying the weather, the people and the extraordinary places on your way. You feel like a brunch. This place appears in front of you, covering the pavement with uneven tables on the mounting street. People are passing by, saying hi, telling stories, passing by again, walking their dogs, their wives or even their mistresses. And you're enjoying your brunch. Very simple although overwhelming and not expensive (the word cheap doesn't really sound nice). So you can simply chill in the afternoon sun while enjoying the generous plates. Feels good.

Le Daily Syrien

Le Daily Syrien combines a small deli with a newspaper kiosk. With quite a large selection of interesting papers and magazines, it serves good, well-prepared Syrian food, such as hommos, taboule, shawarmas, falafels, and the likes. Not to forget, the mandatory the a la menthe. Simply good, and definitely more appetizing than similar offerings in the surrounding neighborhood. 

Le Tout Petit

In the heart of the friendly neighborhood around Batignolles, you'll find a small square, somewhat in between a little decorative parisian park and a white painted church. In the midst of all the cafes and bars generously welcoming its visitors, a tiny restaurant has been squeezed in between its neighbors, Le Tout Petit. The ambiance is cosy, it's almost always crowded, particularly outside during the summer time. The prices are very reasonable, or even, regardless of your pick, you can be almost sure that it's a good buy. The food is very decent, but simple; salads, plates with cheese or charcuterie, and a single hot dish of the day. It's not sophisticated, but the staff is very friendly and relaxed. A fair selection of wines too. 

Hope

Hope is a small organic, ex-surfer/skater hangout around the Lamarck-Caulaincourt. During summer you'll find sun on the pavement in front of you. Although the love and feel good ambience does not comes fully through in all the dishes, the place is a great weekend-hangout. Nice, chilled people all over. Excellent fruit and vegetable juices, and served just as you wish. For most of it, quite decent stuff, made with honest products.

www.hope-cafe.com

Le Tambour

Le Tambour is one of the few places in the Montorgueil area that is open late. As simple as that.

Jaja

JaJa labels themselves as a restaurant of "sympathetic kitchen and wine". Located in the very heart of Marais, the place is most often crowded and lively, full of people. Although the crowd is often rather touristy, some locals also drop by to add to the authenticity. The place is designed to be unpretentiously good, and do deliver on this, somewhat, overall. The wines are good, but too expensive for the food. A small court yard terrace adds to the charm, both summer and winter.

www.jaja-resto.com

Le Comptoir des Petits Champs

A very charming place in the very heart of Paris. Nice ambiance and people are generally good company, despite a high tourist ratio. Although the place is well-priced the food is not overwhelmingly good. Appears a dating restaurant. Very straightforward decent menu, plain and simple.

www.lecomptoirdespetitschamps.fr

Dalva

This lively and charming street just behind Rue Montmartre in the Montorgeuil area is almost always worth a visit in the evenings. Dalva is one of the more easy going, chilled places. They serve decent wine and food, but the main issue is another: Who will get the couch? the couch that seems to have lived through a little bit of everything adorn the restaurant and grants the lucky few a particular seating from where one not is likely to move away. Warm staff.

Coffee Parisien

Coffee Parisien is a hangout for French US addicts and others as well. With some style elements from a US burger bar, the walls are covered with Elvis and JFK posters. The menu is simple, the prices are low, but the servings are decent. However, do not expect huge burgers american style - the sizes are considerably smaller. A nice bar desk is the place to hang out or to meet people. A place where you can stay for hours or just drop by for a quick burger.

Inaro

This is the local place where you drop by for a glass, for a good plate of charcuterie, for a talk, a coffee, or something else. Aside from the serving the bar and the tables in fresh light wood - which for some reason seems intended to look scandinavian, rather than savoyard - Inaro also sells its terroir products to go. Interesting products, good sausages, cheeses, all the necessary basics of the cold kitchen of a stable high quality. Despite the decor, the place is cosy and easy going.

www.inaro.fr

Chez Prune

Chez prune is basically one of the cafes or bistros that the life around the canals is turning around. They do actually serve very decent food. Classical bistro food, with no pretensions of being more. But of course, this is not why you come here. You come here for the vibe, because you're strolling around the canals. You come here for the lively ambiance, to have fun, and go out. Rightly.

Mood

A perfect recipe for a tourist ripoff: Big fancy restaurant in the upper end of the Champs. However, the place surprises positively. The concept is simple: Bar in the basement, and restaurant on the first floor. Nice looking waitresses and somewhat posh interior. But the food is overall ok. If the hunger is very strong, it might be a somewhat decent way out...

Hotel Amour

The 9th actually holds a number of good restaurants and lively bars. Hotel Amour is one of them, although it's less for the food than for the name, the ambiance and the fact that the kitchen is open untill 23. One main restaurant inside and a charming garden cultivated with cheerful people and good ambiance. Food and wine is ok.

www.hotelamourparis.fr‎

Le pas sage

First of all, hold on to your belongings when you're moving around in the sometimes hipster-slum'ish, sometimes just measly street of Rue Saint Denis, as you're staring at one of the few businesses older than serving food. This changes somewhat once you enter the small three meter something shelf of a restaurant, le pas sage. The place is locate in an old Parisian passage, not too far away from the quite different Montorgeuil, while the wording in French means something like "the wise step". The place is gifted with beautiful waitresses demonstrating the obvious limits of the outside business. The food is good, well prepared and the prices are absolutely reasonable. The deco is relaxed and their wines are unpretentious but well selected. A good juicy pork is worth a try.

De la Ville

If you happen to get back late from work and live in the area, De la Ville excels having an open kitchen until 1 am, which is rare in Paris. The food is decent and not too pricy, but gastronomic experiences should be searched for elsewhere. However, the place holds other values. It is particularly charming in the weekend when it is crowded, and the classic interior with its large halls and mirrors is reminiscence of another time. In the weekend evenings, the place turns into a more club'ish kind of place, with cocktails and dj's.

www.delavillecafe.com/index.php