Les Mauvais Garçons, Paris

We found this place after a prolonged hunt for a restaurant in the area between our apartment (beside the Pompidou Centre) and Le Marais. Brasseries aplenty, but we wanted a restaurant dinner - 1st night in the city, and all that. Lots of Thai, Vietnamese & Japanese places, but we wanted French - is that so hard?

It was empty when we came along around 7.30 - 8, so that was a bit of a concern, but it looked good and so did the menu. As it turned out, the place was full within half an hour - we were just “early”.

A wonderful dinner. Good service. Friendly atmosphere. Lovely food and wine. We ran up a bill of €105 for 2, but that includes starters, main courses, wine at €22 the bottle (Coteaux du Lyonnais, so unusual for us foreigners) and cheese as well as desserts & coffee. We didn’t spare ourselves.

My starter was a poached egg dish (oeufs en meurette) with foie gras. Madame had the goat’s cheese salad. Then it was black pudding with mashed potato and apple, and D went solo with the frogs’ legs.

Highly recommended. It specialises in Lyonnais cuisine.

Favorite Dish: My boudin noir.

Charming, comfortable, homey- all that and in the Marais on Rue des Mauvais Garçons (translated as Bad Boys Street).

Favorite Dish: Very good and simple bistro food, good wine selection and a great place to have dinner on a rainy night- very cozy and romantic.