After many requests for where to eat in the fashionable South Pigalle district. Here is a list that I put together for friends visiting my former Parisian neighbourhood:
– Morning –
Arnaud Delmontel
Best bakery with breakfast French staples in the area
39 rue des Martyrs, 75009
– Tea –
Sébastien Gaudard
Best patisserie shop in the area. Young French chef creating perfect traditional pastries like Paris-Brest or St Honoré.
Nice packaging as well.
Pâtisserie des Martyrs, 22 Rue des Martyrs, 75009 Paris
Rose Bakery
Good spot to get an afternoon tea.
46 rue des Martyrs, 75009
– Drinks –
La Cave des Abbesses
Very nice little cave / bistrot in Montmartre where you can combine your wine with charcuterie planche.
43 Rue des Abbesses, 75018 Paris, France
–
An anomaly amongst the soulless bars on Rue des Abbesses! Which begins in the wine merchant’s shop (whose long hallway is lined with seductive bottles) and ends in a hidden wine bar. A cheeky boss and yellowing walls: if the setting hasn’t changed in a half-century, the delightful menu has certainly evolved over the years. Much like the thirty or so wines that alternate between clever organic bottles (a white VDP from Allobrogie, a pet’nat Saumur blanc, Bulles de Roche de Germain et Chevré) and full-bodied natural wines (Hautes-Côtes-de-Beaune Naudin-Ferrand, a red VDP from the Hérault by Catherine Bernard), sold at very lively prices: from €3.20 to €6.50 a glass, and starting at €17 a bottle. Perfect for an apéritif along with a few shared plates: grilled zucchini, Corsican coppa, ham from Auvergne, pata negra chorizo noir or artisanal goat cheeses, from €6.50 to €14. Carte €20-25. // T.B – Le Fooding
Glass
Good night stop for late drinks and hot dogs in the middle of the old Pigalle red light district.
7 rue Frochot, 75009
– Dinner –
Hotel Amour
Chilled out French brasserie style, very simple traditional menu. Hip but nice crowd for dinner, ask for a sport in the patio for al fresco dining.
8 Rue Navarin, 75009 Paris, France
L’Office
Good modern bistrot.
3, rue Richer Paris (75009)
–
Charles Compagnon, always on the go, gave his Office a makeover, the first part of his triptych (along with Richer and 52 Faubourg): modern furniture (Ercol chairs) and light fixtures (Modular and Areti), and a young chef, Kosta Milosevic (Colliot, Passard) in the kitchen. The menu is clearly less out of control than before, as you’ll notice at lunch: a gentle cream of cauliflower, sorrel and a bay leaf mousse (well paired with a Cairanne blanc from Cartoux at €6 a glass), roasted Barbarie duck, nicely garnished with buckwheat, peas and button mushrooms, boosted by a touch of acidic red onions (with a splendid 2012 Alsace rouge from Deiss at €6.50 a glass), and a deconstructed but very harmonious lemon tart (a square of caramelized flaky pastry, warm meringue, rich cream). Not to mention the house standards: the beautiful bread from Le Grenier à Pain, the five or six white and red wines available by the glass, the hundreds of wines organized by price, the extraordinary artisanal Belgian La Marise beer (€5.50), the coffee from Burundi (that we love to hate), and the prices that are kept on a tight leash… Formulas €22 (lunch) and €28 (dinner), menus €27 and €32 (lunch), €34 and €39 (dinner). // G.D – Le Fooding
Richer
2, rue Richer Paris (75009)
Really good simple modern French cuisine café-restaurant in front of the office. No reservation.
–
Practically facing his Office, Charles Compagnon has built a café-restaurant-bar and that’s been dusted off right down to the bones — white stones, bricks and an oval mirror reflecting the crowd of people with superior interpersonal skills, camped out on the modern leather and wood furniture. Roaring every day that God makes the rooster sing and the owl hoot, juggling the little café crème in the morning (Café Coutume in a Marzocco, SVP) and the best of the eaux-de-vie after midnight (Williams pear Shähleumühle at €14), his two-room bar is overrun at lunch, at dinner, and without reservations. “Française” but colorful, the cuisine opportunely fuses alter-latitudes with the present: cocaine-like reinvention of the time-honored herrings with oiled potatoes recipe as mackerel with elderberry, oily potatoes and pea espuma; roasted veal rump and celery purée between leeks and purslane, punctuated with black sesame tuiles and cassis berries; sablé tart with raspberries, violet sorbet and meringues as twirling batons, more dapper than delicious. Ecumenical vines: mineral Anjou blanc Effusion from Patrick Baudoin (€36 the bottle) or a Côte-Roannaise vieilles vignes Domaine Sérol (€6 a glass). Carte €33-47. No reservations. // – Le Fooding
Braisenville
Small plates yet tasty
36, rue Condorcet, 75009
–
Below Pigallian nights, at the heart of a smooth concrete and brick parallelepiped, lit up with red neon and ‘70s light bulbs, beats a kitchen-dugout where Josper de Romuald Sanfouche’s oven, filled with glowing embers, licks the carnivorous luxuries he fills it with. At the tables, the raciones file out and get foraged: mi-cuit foie gras, crunchy snap peas punctuated with grapes; the signature emulsion of fingerling potatoes, walnuts, shimeji and watercress; Scottish black Angus steak (1 kg) and a plate of seasonal vegetables… The fired-up lunch is a really good deal for the neighborhood: tonic tuna ceviche with very crunchy green beans in tiger’s milk; infernal black Angus bavette steak, artichokes and smoked mashed potatoes; Sardinian pecorino or revisited brownies. Rely on the Fié Gris from Touraine, blanc de Preys (€4.50 a glass) or reason with Raisins Gaulouis, Beaujolais from Lapierre (€28 the bottle). Raciones €6-17, formula €17-21 (lunch). // M.J-D. – Le Fooding
– Dance –
Rouge
77 Rue Jean-Baptiste Pigalle
Paris travel guide: a day in South Pigalle - by The Guardian
New Paris hip neighbourhoods - by Editions Leconte
Stefan’s tips beyond the 9th:
Our favourite restaurant
http://www.le-galopin.com/#acceuil
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g187147-d719125-Reviews-Le_Galopin-Paris_Ile_de_France.html
They also have a very nice wine bar next door where you can have drink before dinner
https://www.facebook.com/lacaveamichel
