Eating out for cheap(ish) in Paris -any ideas?
 

I'm off to Paris next week for 4 days. With the Euro/GBP being as it is, I know restaurants and Brasseries are going to be very expensive compared to the other times we have been to Paris.
Can anyone recommend cafes with good rustic food please?

This is a much-discussed subject here, including at http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34965189

FLUNCH cafeterias are all over Paris and offer perhaps the cheapest restaurant meals anywhere - though not a Michelin-starred restaurants they serve down-home typical French food - and you get all you can eat veggies and side dishes so you do not leave the place hungry as i am want to do in some fancy Parisian restaurants. Most Americans seem to disdain FLUNCH, as per previous discussions, but the French love them anyway. About 10 euros for all i think

We ate at the les Halles Flunch twice a few years ago, kind of 'cafeteria' style. I think there are 3 locations unless more have opened.

Sometimes we do a 'room picnic' (if the hotel isn't particular about you bringing food to your room). We buy some cheese, crackers, fruit, baguette or pastries, beer/wine etc. We eat at inexpensive Italian restaurants, Asian 'deli's, or neighborhood 'brasserie' where you can just buy a plate of something (roast chicken/frites, or moules/frites...). You can do your 'restaurant' dining for lunch and eat lighter for dinner.

Had a wonderful cod with dill sauce at Le Fleur en Ile right by the bridge on Saint Louis en Ile.

I don't remember the exact price, but it was moderate compared to others.

Also, Au Bougnat at 26 rue Channoinesse. It's a very small room, maybe 10 tables or so, but excellent food at very good prices.

It's about 2 blocks from Notre Dame.

Last month, we ate at Parnasse 138
(138, Boulevard du Montparnasse, 75014; Metro Vavin). It has 2-course menus starting at €15. Food was solidly good.

The exchange rate has improved a lot lately.

I don't know if this meets your requirement of a "cafe with good rustic food," but we had two very good lunches last week at Paul, a chain specializing in bread, pastries and sandwiches. Every Paul we passed (and ate at) had lines out the door for carry-out service. We opted to eat at a table (inside at the Avenue de l'Opera location and outside on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees). My husband ordered a sandwich both times but one time I ordered off the menu, which offered lots of plated choices, and the other time I had a sandwich. Besides being very good, the food was very reasonably priced.

Not sit-down cafes but I love the premade sandwiches offered at many bakeries, and the crepe stands on the corner. Also had the most fabulous "hot dog" of my life in Paris.

L'Epicerie
30, rue Montorgueil

Suze, you are so right. My DH and I always make it over to a sandwich stand behind the Pompidou for the BEST ham & cheese on baguette. They press it in the heater until it all melts together. Put a little dijon mustard in it and, wow, it's something we can't wait to have on our upcoming trip. Talk about high-brow eating--NOT!

book marking

> They press it in the heater until it all melts together.

Melj, it sounds like Pannini, Italian hot sandwich we see all over Europe (sorry, maybe a bit of exagreration ?) nowadays. Was it really with baguette, not whitish bread used for Pannini?

Hey C,

>I know restaurants and Brasseries are going to be very expensive compared to the other times we have been to Paris.<

The E is under $1.30.

Paris will be a lot cheaper than the last time.

((I))

Ira,

The OP wrote:
<i>With the Euro/GBP being as it is,</i>

which I take it the OP is from the UK and hence the Euro/USD conversion rate doesn't appply to her.