I really appreciated this thread when planning our recent trip to Paris so wanted to add my experience for others who might reference the thread. We spent a week in late April, which turned out to be a perfect time to visit. The weather was beautiful. Our dinners are briefly described below. Lunches tended to be casual and/or build-your-own-affairs from the market.
Daroco
Our hosts suggested this place for dinner the night we arrived. Italian. Really solid pizza and a nice upscale space.
Gare Au Gorille
A suggestion taken from this thread. Overall a solid but not memorable meal. Good charcuterie tray. Two of our dishes were significantly oversalted (this coming from a guy that really likes salt). Average service.
Restaurant Le Timbre
One of the highlights of the trip. We did the tasting menu. Modern French menu. Very small room served out of the smallest kitchen I’ve ever seen. Every dish was spot in and the service was excellent. Beautifully plated dishes as well.
Bistro Paul Bert
A low point of the trip. This place has been around a long time, has a lot of press and appears on a many lists of classic bistros. They seemed to have stopped trying and started coasting some years ago. Perhaps the number of lists also contribute to the tourist trap atmosphere. Huge portions of mediocre dishes. Menu features offal in all its forms – interesting and different but not particularly well done. Indifferent service. Definitely avoid.
Arnauld Nicolas
Very spacious dining room – unfortunately they keep the lights too bright. They feature terrines and charcuterie, which were good but not the best that we had on the trip. Pleasant service. Their welcome wine poured on our arrival was a real gem from the trip – 2016 Domaine Chiroulet Vin de Pays des Cotes de Gascogne Les Terres Blanches (available in the US for $13 a bottle – I ordered a case when we arrived home). Wine list is heavily tilted toward expensive bottles.
Ze Kitchen Galerie
Another highlight of the trip and the only starred restaurant we visited that week. Tasting menu only. Very comfortable dining room. Again I would describe it as modern French. Excellent combinations of subtle flavors. We were seated near the window into the kitchen and it was a really fun experience to watch the activity over the course of the evening. The one oddity here is that despite it being a tasting menu only place, they have a list of dishes on the menu – not so odd, right? The odd part is that they don’t serve the same dishes to each table (there are more dishes listed than courses served as a part of the menu). It meant that the table next to us had a slightly different dinner than we did. This really upset the guy at the table to the other side of us who felt that he had been shorted because he wasn’t served all of the dishes listed on the menu. Seemed strange and unnecessary to do it this way. In any case, we highly recommend this place. Very reasonably priced for the quality.
Le Verre Vole
Part wine shop/part restaurant. Tapas style. Food just ok. Tightly packed/very lively. Would not recommend overall.
Le Petit Marche
This place was a delight on our last evening. A casual neighborhood bistro. Open on Sunday. Relatively classic dishes really well prepared. Comfortable room and pleasant service.
Another nice find of the trip was the wine shop and Champagne Bar in the flagship Printemps department store. The champagne bar had a number of very nice and a few interesting bottles served by the glass. Our server was very friendly and very serious about proper wine service. I had ordered a glass of Deutz and after pouring my glass she dumped it and the remainder of the bottle because she thought that the bottle had been open slightly too long and she didn’t like the mousse as she was pouring. I can’t imagine that happening at very many wine bars back home (though it should).