Le Floreal

If you happen to find yourself looking for a good spot to eat between the 11th and the 19th, Le Floreal is most certainly an option. Although it's actually located in the 10th (which would make some people say you kind of missed your target), they will serve you a very decent meal, not extravagant, but by the book. The place is large and lively, and the cocktails served in the bar might just as well also be the main reason for a visit. Informal and yet with classical style at the small tables in the restaurant section. The menu is basic and classical, but things are well prepared. Also the wines are good value for your money.

www.lefloreal.fr

Au Comptoir de Brice

Inside one of the covered market places of the 10th district in Paris, you'll find a crowded, long, wooden counter, covering up an open kitchen. Good things are happening here. The place is rather unusual, a French restaurant serving excellent food from 12 to 18 all week days - that is, no semi-fascistoid time constraints implemented with provoking rigor, with lunch being served only between 12.30 and 13.15 or something similar... well, anyway. Although considerably more sophisticated than a mere market place counter, the place has the local ambiance, the high standards of quality, and the charming feel-good cosiness that just makes you want to stick around for yet another round of excellent food. Although the menu is limited, it's good - from the tasty and juicy cheese burgers to the delicate and well cooked veal liver. A few, but well selected, good wines by the glass; and a small crowd of warm staff, running around, smiling, despite even the more busy weekend buzz. A perfect Saturday afternoon hideout.

www.aucomptoirdebrice.com

Le Severo

Le Severo is located in one of the more charming corners around the generally quite uninteresting Tour de Montparnasse area. The place is small and the tables close. Le patron is a little bit everywhere, and as a former butcher, he feels absolutely free to tell his guests to keep their voices down if their jokes are bad, or if he just does not feel they behave as they're supposed to. Very French in the somewhat funny way. Several wines are excellent, although you will also need to pay for them. The major force of this place is definitely the meat. It is just really, really good. 

Racines - Marchand de Vin

Racines - or roots - is an excellent restaurant located in yet another one of Paris' many charming passages. The old wine shop is modestly decorated; empty bottles greet you welcome in the windows and the kitchen is open, practically hidden behind the bar. The guests are couples, business people with a need to charm their clients, or simply wine enthusiastic friends. There is no wine menu as such. The wines for sale are show cased randomly at shelves around the restaurant, which unavoidably forces you interact with the other guests around the small tables. Unless of course, you take the easy short cut, and get some good advice from the open and warm guys running the place. The wines are mostly natural. The kitchen is unpretentious, focused; the food is very well prepared, and the products well selected. Not a place for a comprehensive menu, but the place where the two or three main dishes they serve a good. Comme il faut. A very nice and cosy place.

Coinstot

Coinstot is a crowded and always lively wine bar, located at the end of the charming Passage des Panoramas near the Grands Boulevards. The wines - mostly natural - are excellent and well selected. The choice of producers reflect that natural wines can and should be not only an ideological choice, but also and mainly about finding the good wines. And not necessarily from the more well know appellations. Also the food is well selected, from the oysters, the charcuterie plates to the well treated meat. It's all good. The prices are most certainly reasonable; this is a place where you can easily spend a good evening accompanied by a soul full kitchen. 

www.coinstot-vino.com

Marche Bastille

This is one of the bigger markets of Paris. And where Parisians from the eastern part of the city go Sunday morning. Fresh product, lots of fruit and vegetables, but in varying quality so know what you're buying. One very good cheese producer from Normandy, and two good oyster families are traveling every week in the season from Marenne-Oleron at the coast. I do not buy meat here, but several small producers of different stuff, ranging from honey to rillettes are to be found. When wild mushrooms are collected, this is usually also a good place to buy them.

Marche des enfants rouges

An good but small, partly covered market, where the bobos of Paris check each other out and hang out.  An excellent cheese shop, and an equally good butcher is just outside the market at Rue de Bretagne. Inside, there are several small wine bars and very good lunch restaurants. A bit expensive, but generally good quality products. 

In Champagne - Damien Wilmet in Reims

Located near the old market place (will the restoration ever end?) in a beautiful light butcher house, you'll find this elegant and sparkling bar, bistro and wine shop. Well carpentered wooden tables. An appropriate number of Champagnes on the glass. An unpretentious lunch kitchen serves exactly what you need. Everything is here. Just relax, sit down, and let it come to you. And hope that you have not planned any visites de cave within the short future.

Le Dorcia

Is is really named after the American Psycho restaurant, where reservations always required a bit more than usual? It is not clear. The decor is low lit, creamy elegant, as posh as wooden panels get. The kitchen is very classical, the menu is narrow but good, and the food is very well prepared. The servings are inventive, despite the classical point of departure. Good selection of wines. A bit too pricy though, but if not, most definitely a good meal.

www.ledorcia.fr

Point Bulles

At the Marche Saint Germain. An easy, light and delicate Champagne bar welcomes you: Point Bulles. The food is just as light and sparkling as you would expect. The tables outside are of course packed during the summer. Several very nice Champagnes can be found here, somewhat reasonably priced. Small elegant tasting dishes or larger plates to share. Although somewhat mixed and certainly not with the same sense of terroir as in the bottles. The food remains decent, and gain points on the ideas and the servings, rather than the preparation. And you simply just get delighted by sipping bubbles in this elegant part of Paris.

www.pointbulles.com

Le Bistrot du Sud-Ouest a Paris

A cuisine de terroir from the South. A traditional and not very Parisian place. The place to have well served duck and goose in all the ways you can imagine. An easy going restaurant, almost stagnant. With well-made duck...

www.sudestetcie.com

Closerie des Lilas - brasserie

A Boulevard institution. And the place does not seem to oxidate. You feel the vibe from when you enter. From the harmless mice running on the floor in the entrance to the drunk piano player with a craving for Elvis and Calvados. A bar, sharp and to the point. It's all there. And of course, a very decent kitchen, although today perhaps rather overpriced - also in the brasserie.

www.closeriedeslilas.fr

Bistrot Favart

A classical and very correct bistro; simple, based on good products; a so called cuisine du marche. With a more standard Parisian bar in the ground floor, the restaurant is on the first floor with the kitchen. Good wines. Friendly ambiance. Very reasonably priced.

www.bistrotfavart.com

Le Tambour

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

Aux Deux Amis

This place is a strange mix between a noisy bar and a classy neo-bistrot. For those who prefer things quiet and nicely wrapped in, this might be a bit to much. For the rest of us, the place is excellent for tasting a series of interesting and well prepared dishes. Although the noyeau is French, some twists of Mediterranean kitchen are to be expected. Excellent wines. Very much Oberkamf.