Here is a review by Gayot of his top 10 French Bistros - and I have always liked Balthazar, which has good French Onion soup and a bakery with good take out. It's also where some of the celebs still hang out. Another cute one was Jubilee - which has complimentary champagne/wine with their reasonably priced brunch. http://www.jubileeny.net/

But again, there are many good French Bistros/restaurants in NYC, and if you want the fine dining options - you can't go wrong starting with Daniel Bouloud's places. http://www.danielnyc.com/

http://www.gayot.com/restaurants/bes...istro_1ny.html

Although the curiously tiny bakery of Balthazar makes spectacular bread, the restaurant is truly over rated. As far celebrities are concerned Woody Allen and others went to Elaine's on a regular basis where the food was one step below a seventh grade cooking class. Elaine's closed quickly after she died.