Au Petit Riche
  • 20
  • Dec
  • 2009

No,that’s not Flaubert or Balzac walking through the door, but should they miraculously return, the decor of old Paris, with the original gas lamps adn time-mellowed paneling, will make them feel at home.

The place openend in 1865 as the restaurant associated with the very large and then-solvent Café Riche next door. After Café Riche  burned down, the restaurant continued to attract lawyers, set designers and machinist from the nearby Opéra Garnier, eventually becoming a well-known restaurant. 

Expect a impressive choice of Loire Valley wines and food that combines. The house is famous for its Gillardeau oysters. Expect classic French cuisine.

Au Petit Riche, 25 Rue Le Peletier, 75009 Paris, Tel 01 47 70 68 68, M° Richelieu-Drouot or take a nice walk down rue Rochechouart, and continue to the right. It takes 15 min from the Montmartre Studio Loft.

Ice cream or chocolat chaud at Berthillon
  • 16
  • Dec
  • 2009

A landmark on Ile St-Louis after more than 3 dozen years in business, the salon de thé Berthillon offers the world’s best selection of ice cream.

Try gingerbread, bitter chocolate mousse, rhubarb, melon, kumquat, black currant and any fresh fruit in season. There are moren than 70 flavors and nothing artificial. 

Parisians flock here in such numbers that gendarmes have been called out to direct the traffic of ice cream aficionados. 

In wintertime it’s more calm and you can warm yourself over a nice cup of hot chocolat that comes in a silver can.

Berthillon, 31, Rue St-Louis-e,-l’Ile, 75004 Paris, tel 01 43 54 31 61, M° Pont Marie

Pinxo
  • 13
  • Dec
  • 2009

Most of the megachefs in Paris nowadays have little brasseries apart from their expensive restaurant, so also Alain Dutournier of Carré des Feuillants. His is on a nearby street. 

Within Pinxo a good-looking waitstaff encourages clients to share their starters and platters with their tablemates. This becomes relatively easy because anytime something appears on a plate, it’s replicated, sometimes with variations, three times.

The setting manages to elevate kitchen drudgery to a high and high-tech art form. 

Expect a wooden floor, white walls and views that extend directly into an all-black open kitchen-cum-theater. Most foods here are grilled or at least prepared with heart-healthy cooking oils.

Pinxo ( in the Plaza-Paris-Vendôme Hotel) 9 Rue d’ Algier, 75001 Paris, tel 01 40 20 72 00, M° Tuileries

Au Pied de Cochon
  • 08
  • Dec
  • 2009

Their famous onion soup and namesake speciality ( grilled pigs’ feet with béarnaise sauce) still lure visitors and where in Paris can you get such a good meal at 3 am ? It’s our favourite when we come to Paris very late . It’s always very crowded but the service is very efficient.

As the name of the restaurant says most of the porc dishes are excellent.

At the street outside, you can buy some of the freshest oysters in town.

Au Pied de Cochon, 6, Rue Coquillière, 75001 Paris, tel 01 40 13 77 00, M° Les Halles or Louvre, reservations recommended