hello, rio4ever. Yes, that is a very good area with a lot of restaurants, some expensive, but many that are not. I think you can find them just by walking around and looking at the menus that will be posted outside on the window or the door, and you can see the prices. Most of them will be French. There are some cheaper restaurants along rue de Buci and some other streets leading off bd St Germain to the north (towards the Seine). You can just wander around and find some, but maybe someone else can give you a specific name, I don't really stay in that area to know names very well.

Can't help about the quality of the hotel, although the lobby looks fine. But if you wanted to do all your eating exclusively on that street you would not have to repeat restaurants for about a week.

Bistro St Benoit is always reliable . We ate there again last wekk. Au pre au clerc on corner of rue jacob and rue bonaparte is always good.; Cafe Bonaparte enjoys the same views as Deux Magots amnd is nuch less expensive. If you don't maind standng in line Relais de Entrecote has good steak frites wir=th a salad. That's all they serve!. Petit Zinc has good seafood.

It's in the center of things and it's a good hotel, but small rooms. I stay a 15-minute walk from the hotel.

I've been inside the hotel, but many years ago, as I walked a close friend there while helping him find a room in Paris in the middle of summer. He had been living in Spain, as he did annually during the summer, and decided to take a short trip up to Paris and just happened to end up staying at the same hotel where I stayed annually. He said he walked around St.Germain and just happened to randomly walk into my hotel to see if they had a room available (Hotel de Seine).

I didn't even know that my friend was in Paris. I was getting on the elevator and he was coming out of the elevator when we noticed each other. There was only one room available for one night at my hotel, so he had to move on the next day. Thus, I walked him down to the Hotel Crystal. He liked it and I visited him there.

Happy Travels!