Four great restaurant finds in Paris

Even if you’re the most enthusiastic gourmet you can’t eat in 3 star restaurants all the time. And for most of us the prices of Paris’s top restaurants simply put them out of reach. Here are four very varied alternatives, discovered by my husband, an assiduous researcher into places that are off the beaten track, which we ate in with great pleasure last week

Les Cocottes de Christian Constant
133 rue Saint-Dominique, Paris 7e (Metro: Ecole Militaire)
Tel: 01 45 50 10 28

Les Cocottes which refers to the cast iron casseroles in which many of the main course dishes are served is the fourth restaurant of Christian Constant, the former chef at the Crillon. His three others Le Violin d’Ingres, Cafe Constant and Les Fables de la Fontaine are conveniently in the same street which enables Constant to flit easily from one to the other (we spotted him casting his eagle eye over operations, wiping a terminal screen, pointing out a customer who was waiting to pay).

In comparison with his other restaurants it’s strikingly modern with a vivid lime green colour scheme and a zinc bar which runs the length of the restaurant. They don’t take bookings and it was packed but we only had to wait 10 minutes for a seat.

The menu is imaginative, interesting enough to have two or three courses, easy to be satisfied with one. Having had a big lunch we each picked one of the two ‘verrines’ (little glass jars layered with sweet or savoury ingredients). I had a classic crab cocktail on top of a layer of shredded iceberg lettuce, my husband a triple-layered jar of chopped tuna, caviar of aubergines and tomato jelly.

Despite the lunch I couldn’t resist ordering a cocotte of confit potatoes stuffed with pigs feet which mercifully was accompanied by a salad and wasn’t quite as heavy (or as delicious) as it sounded and a little bit salty. But the cocotte of ‘legumes du moment’ hit the spot perfectly - a selection of braised root vegetables and herbs - a comforting alternative to a soup.

We passed on the tempting-looking puds which included the inevitable crumble (about which the French are curiously obsessed) and finished with a verveine (lemon verbena) infusion, again served in a cast-iron pot.There’s a very short wine list but you’d be better off ordering by the glass or fillette (25cl bottle) of wine. We had a perfectly decent Macon Villages which I’m ashamed to say I didn’t note but which went very nicely with the crab.

All in all Les Cocottes which was voted ‘meilleur comptoir’ of 2007 by Figaroscope, is a clever, stylish idea and a fun place to go for a light supper.Price of our meal for 2: 69€

La Gazzetta
29 rue de Cotte, 12e
01 43 47 47 05

Over in the 12th, the other side of La Bastille and near one of Paris’s most colourful markets L’Aligr is La Gazzetta, another bistro moderne opened last year by Swedish chef Peter Nillsson who had two stars for his cooking in Uzs.

Although it’s one of Paris’s hottest tickets in the evening when the restaurant admittedly looks wonderfully glamourous it’s the lunchtime deal which is unmissable - a basic formule of 14€ for 3 mini starters and a main dish (with a supplement if you order fish or steak)

On the day we visited the starters included a dish of marinated sardines (one of Paris’s hot ingredients this spring) with red peppers and black-eye beans, a slice of cold pizza topped with goats cheese cream, wafer thin slices of raw beetroot and fennel (delicious) and an extraordinary shot of what was described as ‘creme de boudin' (black pudding) with a pear and ginger pure which tasted a bit like spicy Nutella. (I was sure it had chocolate in it but our waiter insisted it didn’t). It was a great deal nicer than it sounded anyway and a surprisingly reasonable match with a white La Clape (Chateau de la Negly Brise Marine 2005) from a short but well chosen list, served by the fillette.Main courses were more conventional. Some excellent roast chicken with rosemary and citron and a bavette steak (the latter 5€ extra) both served with some great potato puree topped with stir-fried chard and celery seasoned with mint, which kicked a slightly overoaked but tasty Mascarone 2003 Provencal red perfectly into touch.

In the interests of my forthcoming cheese book we finished with a fine slice of Bleu d’Auvergne served with a pear pure (maybe the same one as the earlier shot?) which interestingly was fine with the Mascarone.Service is unusually friendly for Paris and there’s a great buzz about the place but a tip. If you have a choice the front of the restaurant is much nicer than the back.Cost of our meal for 2: 73€

Le Cristal de Sel
13 rue Mademoiselle (Metro, 15e (Commerce or Felix Faur)
Tel: 01 42 50 35 29

Why would you head down to the 15th for dinner when there are so many great restaurants in central Paris? Because you can get some of the best cooking in Paris for a song, that’s why. And it’s not that far - five stops on the metro from Concorde - a bit like going to Fulham.

Your destination is a curious one. An uninviting brick building with just the blackboard outside to tell you it’s a restaurant. Inside what looks like a converted Italian trattoria of the 70s - all awkward corners and beans. While there’s slightly more space than Le Temps au Temps (which isn’t saying much) it’s hardly spacious.

At the back there's a tiny but classic kitchen full of copper pans and four busy chefs, immaculate in their whites and formal toques. The improbably young head chef Karil Lopez, who bears a passing resemblance to Harry Potter, came from the Bristol and has brought his old habits with him. It’s an incongrous sight in what is basically a bistro. A mini-Bristol.

There’s no menu. A short daily menu is chalked up on the blackboard with a couple of specials - their coups de coeur - which includes their best produce including Yves Camdeborde’s charcuterie and sardinas Ramon Pena which are served in their tin. We gave them both a try. The sardines, tiny and sweet came in their tin with a wedge of lemon and a couple of pats of homemade butter with seaweed and salt crystals. It was improbably good. The sardines seemed boneless, sweet and delicate and the butter and accompanying bread was heaven. It would have made a full meal - in fact portions are all incredibly generous maybe making up for the fact that - surprisingly for the French - there are no prix fixe menus. The charcuterie is exemplary too, lean and full flavoured. The ultimate charcuterie platter.

Sadly I chose wrongly for my main course. Feeling like fish, being unable to resist artichokes and urged by our waiter who said it was the chef’s recommendation for the day I went for the roast dorade with artichoke risotto. It wasn’t that it was bad, just not as good as everything else. The fish was slightly overcooked and the risotto slightly too wet and soft.I envied my husband his pot au feu which he pronounced the best he’d ever eaten. And our neighbour’s lapin a la bire and cod en cocotte with tomatoes. My advice is definitely to stick to the bistro classics.

Except when it comes to dessert when you’re presented with a three star quality menu. (Is this the only restaurant of this size and price level in Paris to have its own pastry chef?) My passionfruit souffl with pineapple and fresh coconut was just a dream. The most delicious dessert I’ve had all year by a long chalk.The other original aspect to this place, and this may put you off if you’re a wine lover is that it has a very humble winelist, again chalked up on the board like the food.

With a couple of exceptions - an Aloxe Corton and bottles of Dom Perignon (at 160€) the wines are modest in ambition (affordable Loire, Burgundy and Bordeaux) and modestly priced. We had a Henri Bourgeois Sancerre (6€), a Brocard Aligot (4€), a minor Graves Chateau Vignolles-Peyroulet (4€) and an extraordinarily good Vin de Pays des Cotes de Var (Les Aurliens from Domaine de Triennes - also 4€). There’s no arguing here that the food is the star but it’s suprising they don’t take the opportunity to sell more expensive wine.

What it means however is that this restaurant is affordable - just over 100€ for the two of us - and sustains a local clientele which makes for a very congenial atmosphere. (On a Friday night two tables had small children with them). It’s one of Paris’s great bargains but I wonder if it’ll remain so. With that talent they’re bound to move to greater things.Cost of our meal for 2 - 103€

Les Papilles
30 rue Gay-Lussac, 5e (Metro Odeon)
Tel: 01 23 45 20 79

To say that Papilles is focussed on wine is an understatement. You sit virtually on top of it with bottles from floor to ceiling.

Basically it’s a wine shop that moonlights as a restaurant. You can drink any wine in the shop for 7€ corkage which makes for some great drinking. The ideal scenario would be to go with friends so you can try a few bottles. There were only the two of us and it was the end of a hard three days eating and drinking so we contented ourselves with just one - a faded but still charming 1995 Volnay Clos de la Rougette which went swimmingly well with our menu but I guess that most wines do. The food is obviously designed to be as wine-friendly as possible.

There isn’t a choice, by the way, on Saturdays at least, although I suspect they could rustle up something else if you really had a problem. We were more than happy with the dishes that arrived. A fabulously fresh pea soup which arrived in its own tureen enough for 4 generous helpings. At the bottom of each bowl were some fresh peas, lardons, croutons and a dollop of whipped cream which made the finished soup look really dressy.

Next was a copper pan full of classic boeuf bourguignon with its own vegetables - onions, carrots, mushrooms and potatoes. Again you serve yourself and again there’s more than enough. The heartiest appetites are catered for here.It was interesting how well such an old burgundy went with these dishes - a delicate counterfoil to the freshness of the peas, robust enough to go with the beef (though the sauce had been skilfully crafted not to be overbearing) and even to stand up to the cheese - a bleu des Causses which was served with a drizzle of sweet syrup (possibly plum) and a poached prune.

The final course was also ingeniously devised to go with almost any sweet wine you might want to drink. Pannacotta on top of a caramelised tatin-type apple base, topped with a layer of whipped up caramel froth (foam-loathers should not be put off - there was real substance to it.)

Service was charming and efficient. The atmosphere, highly convivial. Our fellow diners, clearly wine-lovers too, were leaning over us to peer at what was on offer on the shelves. The only downside is that it’s not the easiest place to get to - there’s no Metro immediately nearby but there is the enchanting Jardin de Luxembourg to walk off the after-effects of all that indulgence. On a perfect April day it was looking quite lovely.Cost of our meal for 2 - 120€

If you found this post helpful and would like to support the website which is free to use it would be great if you'd make a donation towards its running costs or sign up to my regular Substack newsletter Eat This, Drink That for extra benefits.

CONTRIBUTE HERE