How to recognize a (truly) traditional French restaurant ?

My secret to find really good brasseries in Paris !

Bonjour, it’s Théo !

The French art de vivre (literally “art of living”) is famous everywhere in the world, and French people understood that pretty well.

When you come to Paris, you will find plenty of “French-traditional-authentic-bistro” type of restaurants. The decor, the menu’s typography, the uniform and the small arrogance of the French waiter can make say “Well, THAT is a true French restaurant”.

But you could be wrong about that…

Lots of “brasseries” are tourist traps, with overpriced €17 Croque-monsieur, and you could have to pay a lot of money for cheap frozen fries and a half-empty caesar salad.

Okay, you can still have a nice meal there. But it won’t be optimized for a real French food experience.

For example, the Café de Flore is an iconic café. The headquarters of French poets from the early 20th century.

But don’t get it wrong, it’s not a good “brasserie”. It’s really expensive for classic cuisine, and even if the place is cute, we can find better.

How to recognize a good brasserie ?

The brasserie (or bistrot) is the traditional type of French restaurant, usually open all-day-long. Some became just “restaurant”, and are only open for lunch and dinner times, but most of them are open from 8AM to 11PM.

The beautiful white tablecloths are for the old brasseries, the more “luxury” ones. And the traditional red & white checkered tablecloths are the symbol of the neighborhood bistrot, where workers used to go for lunch.

They serves a lot of classic French dishes : Entrecôte-Frites, Île Flottante, Oeufs Mayonnaise or even Lobster and seafood for bigger brasseries.

Okay, but where do I find them ?

The best brasseries aren’t usually around big touristic places. It’s not at the Trocadéro place, near the Tour Eiffel that you will find the best food. But just nearby, in a quieter street.

A brasserie gets famous by word of mouth. It’s known by neighbors, by regular customers coming there every week.

But when you are a tourist and you’re coming to Paris for only a few days, how do you recognize the good brasseries to try ?

Well, I’m here to help !

Here are 3 Brasseries restaurants you need to try in Paris.

The traditional one : Bofinger

Brasserie Bofinger : 5-7 Rue de la Bastille, 75004 Paris (Métro Bastille)

Bofinger is the typical example of the “luxury” brasserie. The prices can be a bit expensive, about €30-35 for a main course, but the place is fabulous.

The decor, the colored-glass roof, the tablecloths, the waiters, everything looks fancy. You can’t be wrong going there.

I recommend : the Vol-au-vent (puff pastry with sweetbread, chicken and seafood bisque) and the Île Flottante for the dessert.

The friendly one : Le Paris 16

Le Paris 16 : 18 Rue des Belles Feuilles, 75116 Paris (Métro Trocadéro)

This is the other type of bistrot : the friendly neighborhood place where regulars love to share a meal.

The staff is fantastic, very friendly and welcoming, and the menu is smaller than Bofinger, with more precise choices, and typical French dishes like Steak-Frites or Pâté-Croûte.

It’s one of my favorite restaurants in Paris, and I recommend the Ris-de-veau : it’s veal sweetbread with mushroom sauce, it’s a refined piece of meat and the texture is incredibly smooth.

The trendy one : Brasserie Rosie

Brasserie Rosie : 53 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, 75011 Paris (Métro Bastille)

Brasserie Rosie is one of the trendy places in Paris we see everywhere on Instagram. But it’s not the same type of brunch or fluffy pancakes places we can find all-day-long in our feeds.

Freshly open by a young team of food passionates, Brasserie Rosie revisits the classics with a new vibe. It’s refined and casual, the staff is welcoming and they have a lot of beautiful dishes that can make your meal unforgettable.

I recommend pretty much everything, but especially the desserts, like the Riz au lait (rice pudding) with hazelnut paste on top… I’ve got nothing more to say 😍

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That’s it, here are 3 of my coups-de-coeur, some brasseries that I absolutely love in Paris !

If you want to plan your trip easily, and find the best places to try, I have a Food guide of Paris you can get on my website ! I share with you all my tips and best places to experience the perfect trip without getting lost by all the choice you have in my city.

See you in Paris,

À bientôt 👋