What is your favorite inexpensive Parisian restaurant?
 

Heading to Paris next week - what are the best affordable bistros & restaurants?

I don't mean to appear rude, Virginia, but this same question is asked over and over here. There is a current thread just down a few spaces "What is your favorite little Paris restaurant" or something like that. If you enter "inexpensive Paris restaurant" or "favorite Paris bistro" in the search function, you will be busy for the next five or six hours reading the exact same responses you're asking all those people to repeat.

Thank you,Patrick. I followed your advice but was unable to find many recent specific recommendations.....

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34433965

There should be something here for you~

My problem is my inexpensive and your inexpensive might be 2 different things. Under 60 E with wine to me is inexpensive...try chez Ferdinand on Rue Christine.. or for just a simple steak frites, L'relais d'entrecote.Bistrot de 7em, might work..there are loads of place with 18-25 e menus...if that is what you call affordable.

We enjoyed Auberge Nicolas Flamel on rue Montmorency in the 3eme, just north of the Pompidou Center.

The building is atmospheric and historic--Flamel was a medieval alchemist and the building is one of the oldest in Paris. It's dark and cozy with lots of beams and flowers.

Food was quite good, wine list is terrific, service was cordial and efficient, price was decent, probably about $100 euros for two people with wine, aperitifs, digestif, coffee.

We also like Chez Maitre Paul in the 6eme, not far from Odeon on rue Monsieur-le-Prince (convenient to the Latin Quarter, too). Food is in the style of the Jura region--chicken in vin jaune is a specialty.

If you'd like something in a particular section of Paris, please let us know where you're staying.

Virginia4, as for not finding "recent" recommendations, some of these favorite little bistros have been around for half century or more; they don't change that quickly, for the most part. There's also a thread that refers to a recent piece in NYT naming 5 or so recommended, inexpensive bistros.

Le Petit St Benoit, rue Benoit, 6th.
Neighborhood restaurant, small, crowded, very good food, excellent prices. It made it easy to pretend that we were just one of the locals ~

We are traveling with my 16 year old & my 18 year old, so meals for 4 add up quickly.....

Will they eat mussels? Leon of Brussels is excellent. Near the Odeon metro stop. Otherwise, try Polidor -- it's a couple hundred years old. cash only. Get a carafe of house red.

Try Creperie de Josselin located on
Rue du Montparnasse (14e). I think the kids will enjoy it and you won't break the bank.

uhoh busted, its funny you mention Polidor. Just this morning my father was telling me how he used to go there frequently (for 25 cent meals, he claims) when he lived in Paris 50-60 years ago. I will have to try it, for nostalgia if nothing else!

While serving a variety of mussel dishes, Leon de Bruxelles does also offer steak and some salads. Our teenage son enjoyed it.

In the Polidor vein--although Polidor's food is better--is Boullion Chartier. Very popular. Very cheap. Food is very ordinary, but fine. Atmosphere is wonderful--beautiful Belle Epoch decor and waiters who are charming characters. In the 9eme, on rue Montmartre, I believe.

Oh,and the more I think of it -- this would be a GREAT place for your teens -- They have one of the old fashioned WCs -- two footprints with a hole in the floor. (There also is a standard potty, but the other is the one they'll remember!)

There are some good, inexpensive creperies on rue St. Andre des Arts, in the 6th, but near Boulevard St. Michel.

I haven't heard about chartier's in eons - didn't realize it was still in business. Went there with my then beau on my first trip to Paris 20+ years ago. Even then the food was just OK but the place was a hoot - and very inexpensive.

Chartier is definitely still in business - still cheap, still hurried, still get the bill written on paper on the tablecloth. Decent food - very cheap.
There is also Le Croque au Sel on the rue Ste-Dominique in the 7me - bargain price for those who order before 8 pm. Nice place, good food, good bargain.

We finally went to Chartier last summer. It is sort of fun and very busy. But I agree that the food is only OK. I have this image of what the Parisian version of school cafeteria or hospital food would be like -- Chartier's matches that image.

oooooooooh, Patrick! What a vivid description! I think I'll stick to Polidor :)