would you recommend it? Was it helpful or did you just stumble upon places?

We bought the Cheap Eats and the Hamburger's Bistros book. You can use the books to compare/reference, but frankly we winged it with recommendations from this board and stumble-upon places. We were very happy with our stumble-upon places and places recommended by our apartment hosts. Did make reservations ahead of time for popular places like Altitude 95, etc.

I also look for recommendations on this board and "stumble upons". One of the problems with guide books is that they are last year's data.

On one trip to Paris recently we used the Hamburger book almost exclusively. It proved excellent and gave options throughout the city, not just in the inner touristed areas.

Hi
I am a big fan of Gustafson's books, I believe she changed the title to "Great Eats in..." as she did for "Great Sleeps in.."

Her recommendations are not always the rock bottom cheapest (see Rick Steves or others for that) but I have always found them to be good value, which may be why she changed the names of her books.

She chooses many well-established places that have been around for years, supplemented with new finds.

Two old favorites I got from her Paris restaurant book are still there, and are Lescure in the first, near Pl de la Concorde (still in her book) and Chez Julien, in the 4th near l'Hotel de Ville. The latter dropped out of her book after a couple of years because it wasn't so cheap anymore (moderate, imo) but it is still one of my favorites.

If you're going for more than just 3 or 4 days, the Zagat restaurant guide for Paris, with customer ratings, is a worthwhile investment imo.