Paris is known for wonderful food, and for its cafés and bistros. Here are some descriptions of restaurant areas that should help you narrow your search.

Numbers in parentheses give the arrondissement:

Near Place St-Michel (5th)

Rue de la Huchette is lined with little restaurants serving a wide range of food, much of it at bargain prices. Facing the fountain in Place St-Michel (Métro: St-Michel), look to the left and spot the Café St-Severin. Beside this café is the beginning of Rue de la Huchette. Walk down this street and you'll have your choice of traditional French dishes, couscous, raclette, Greek food, Moroccan food, and more. A popular place for economy minded tourists, you can get a decent meal for a good price, relatively fast.

Just a few streets away, Rue de la Harpe offers typical sidewalk cafés in the heart of the Latin Quarter. Usually packed with tourists and locals, they're good for people watching and informal meals such as crêpes or sandwiches or salads. There's a great variety of food, from couscous to doner kebab to traditional French dishes like Coq au Vin or Escargots (snails). There are so many restaurants and so much competition that prices are moderate.

Rue de Buci/Rue St-André des Arts (6th)

The Rue de Buci is a short and lively street, also near the Place St-Michel and not far from the Boulevard St-Germain, that is lined with restaurants and cafés. It is a wonderful spot for people watching, having a drink, and/or enjoying a meal. Attracting both French people and tourists, the area is usually busy and interesting.

Off the nearby Rue St-André des Arts is the Cour du Commerce de St-André, a cobblestoned pedestrian passageway full of restaurants. Here you can sit outside (weather permitting) in a quiet setting with no cars and enjoy dinner or a drink. The food tends toward traditional French dishes and menus might include Boeuf Bourgignon (beef stew in burgundy sauce) or Cuisses de Grenouille (frog's legs).

Around the Boulevard Saint-Germain (6th)

A short stretch along the Boulevard Saint-Germain is home to some famous names from the literary history of Paris. Since the 1880s, the Café de Flore has been a preferred locale for writers and artists, including Guillaume Apollinaire, Oscar Wilde, André Malraux, and Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. At about the same time, the Brasserie Lipp opened across the street and became a literary and political center. On the other corner, Les Deux Magots started serving the literati in 1914.

You can visit any of these cafés today and enjoy a coffee, a beer, or a meal. You'll pay the price for the excellent service and romantic memories, but you're not likely to run into a modern Ernest Hemingway or André Gide.

Marché Saint-Germain/Saint Sulpice Area (6th)

The area around the Marché Saint-Germain, a historic market, today offers an upscale covered market and high-end boutiques. It is also the center of a great restaurant scene. On warm evenings crowds fill the restaurants and the streets in the area, enjoying a variety of excellent eateries including Coté Bergamote, known for its use of fresh herbs, and the Bistrot de la Grille Saint-Germain, a lively spot for delicious and plentiful dinners.

Market Streets

Streets with permanent markets also usually are home to many restaurants that take advantage to their access to fresh produce, meats, and fish. Here are a few to try:

Rue Mouffetard (5th)
Rue Mouffetard, near the Place Monge, offers a colorful display of food stands and shops of all types. The area is home to many restaurants offering reasonably priced prix-fixe meals. Many are on the colorfully-named Rue de Pot du Fer (Iron Pot Street).

Rue Cler (7th): Rue Cler shops include another wide array of food and flowers, and restaurants and boulangeries offer a variety of meals from sandwiches to multi-course feasts. Its proximity to the Eiffel Tower makes it a popular place for lunch after visiting that landmark.

Rue Montorgueil (2nd): Just north of Les Halles, the rue Montorgueil lets you feast your eyes on everything from fish to pastries to cheese to mushrooms. A number of cafés offer informal meals, or you can stock up for a picnic.

Near the Louvre (1st)

You've spent hours visiting the Louvre, you're hungry and tired. You could have lunch in the museum, which offers several options, including the Café Marly. Or you could walk up to the Rue St. Honoré and have a broad range of restaurants to choose from. For something more informal, try one of the outdoor restaurants in the Tuileries Gardens. And as you visit other museums, remember that most have at least one restaurant, and some offer several options.

Île Saint-Louis (4th)

The Île Saint-Louis is largely residential, but its main street, Rue St-Louis en l'Île, boasts a number of restaurants, many with elegant white tablecloths. Others, like La Taverne du Sergent Recruteur, have been there for a long time and have a traditional ambience. Not an area for a cheap meal, but a nice option for a night out.

For something less formal, check out the cafés at the tip of the island, just after you cross the bridge from Île de la Cité, or enjoy a delicious ice cream or sorbet from a Berthillon shop.

The Marais (3rd/4th)

The Marais is a wonderful place for caté sitting and eating. You'll find a half dozen restaurants just on the Place Bourg Tibourg (off the Rue de Rivoli). The Rue Vieille du Temple is lined with cafés that provide great people watching. And just around the corner is the Rue des Rosiers, home to several falafel restaurants where you can can a large, delicious, and inexpensive sandwich for a picnic. A little farther north, on the Rue de Bretagne, you'll find the Marché des Enfants Rouges, where you can try a variety of foods from French to Italian to Middle Eastern, in an informal and interesting setting in the middle of the oldest covered market in Paris.

Grands Boulevards/Opera (9th)

Where to eat if you're on the Boulevard Haussman or near the Palais Garnier? Try the Brasserie Printemps if you want to step back in time and eat in an elegant setting, or one of the more informal restaurants in the large department stores, Printemps or Galeries Lafayette. Or head to one of the famous Parisian Covered Passages, such as the Passage Jouffroy or the Passage des Panoramas and enjoy one of the restaurants there.

Rue de Montparnasse (6th)

There are crêperies all across Paris, though they tend to be clustered in certain areas. The Rue du Montparnasse, not far from the Gare Montparnasse, is one such street. There must be at least a dozen crêperies in one block on this street. It's no coincidence that trains from Brittany run to the Gare Montparnasse, making this an attractive location for Bretons and those who want to eat Breton food.

Montmartre (18th)

The heart of Montmartre is the Place du Tertre, the main square, which is encircled by restaurants and cafés. Catering largely to tourists, these bustling restaurants offer everything from sandwiches to complete meals. If you want to get away from the crowds a bit, head down the hill to Rue des Abbesses, which offers a variety of restaurants.

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