Frommer's Best Dining Bets in Paris

Le Grand Véfour (17 rue de Beaujolais, 1er; tel. 01-42-96-56-27). Seductively and appropriately time worn, this is where Napoleon sat at table wooing Joséphine. Its Louis XVI-Directoire interior is a protected historic monument. This haute cuisine dining room has been the haunt of celebrities since 1760. Its cuisine, mercifully, is even better than ever because it insists on hiring only the world's leading chefs. This monument to the past still tantalizes 21st-century palates.

Aux Lyonnais (32 rue St-Marc, 2e; tel. 01-42-96-65-04). Paris's bistro of bistros has been taken over by Alain Ducasse, the six-star Michelin chef and self-proclaimed "greatest in the world." In spite of that takeover, Aux Lyonnais remains the quintessential Parisian dining choice for Lyonnais specialties. And as any city dweller of Lyon will tell you, his or her city is the gastronomic capital of France. The market-fresh produce is as new as the 1890s bistro is old, with its backdrop of potted palms, etched glass, and globe lamps in the best of the Belle Epoque style.

Au Pied de Cochon (6 rue Coquillière, 1er; tel. 01-40-13-77-00). For years it's been a Paris tradition to stop off at this joint in Les Halles for the famous onion soup at three o'clock in the morning after a night of revelry. The true Parisian also orders the restaurant's namesake -- grilled pig's feet with béarnaise sauce. You can also do as your grandpa did and wash down a dozen different varieties of oysters at the time-mellowed bar -- along with champagne, but of course.

Taillevent (15 rue Lammennais, 8e; tel. 01-44-95-15-01). Forget about sending the kids to college, and have what may be one of the most memorable meals of your life at what is consistently hailed as Paris's temple of haute cuisine. Named after a 14th-century chef to the king and the author of the first French cookbook, this restaurant comes as close to perfection as perhaps any in the world. In all of our years of dining here, we've never found the chef experiencing a bad hair day. This is a true temple of grand cuisine with one of the world's top ten wine lists. Although we've enjoyed much of the innovative cuisine of Alain Solivères, we are also grateful that he's kept that airy, sausage-shaped lobster soufflé on the menu.

La Tour d'Argent (15-17 quai de la Tournelle, 5e; tel. 01-43-54-23-31). If there were a better view from a table at this swanky restaurant -- a national legend -- God would have to invent one. It's that special. From your table at night, you can see the floodlit flying buttresses of Notre-Dame at night and barges silently cruising the Seine. The Tour d'Argent legend lives on, even though it no longer serves the best cuisine in Paris (the competition today is too great for that honor). Skirt-chasing Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, escaped dear old mum (Queen Victoria) by fleeing to Paris. In 1890 he started the tradition of ordering pressed duck flambé, and the tradition continues today.

Closerie des Lilas (171 bd. Du Montparnasse, 6e; tel. 01-40-51-34-50). Paris is not just about haute cuisine, as served in some of the restaurants above. It is also about nostalgia. If things literary interest you, follow in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway to Montparnasse and the famous "Pleasure Garden of the Lilacs" (its name in English). At a table where Gertrude Stein might have sat, even Picasso or Lenin, enjoy the world's best champagne julep while looking at the menu and soaking up the evocative atmosphere. The food's not bad either, but essentially it's a place to add to your memory bank.

Cremerie-Restaurant Polidor (41 rue Monsieur-le-Prince, 6e; tel. 01-43-26-95-34). A longtime favorite of students, artists, and the literari such as James Joyce and Jack Kerouac, this bistro in St-Germain-des-Prés has been around since 1845. We've been such regulars that our favorite waitress used to store our linen napkins in a wooden drawer for use on another night. One habitué we met here claimed he'd been dining at Polidor two or three nights a week for half a century. The pumpkin soup, the boeuf bourguignon, the blanquette de veau -- yes, the same recipes that delighted Hemingway are still served here.

L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon (5-7 rue de Montalembert, 7e; tel. 01-42-22-56-56). What a discovery. When Joël Robuchon retired in the mid-1990s, he was hailed as the greatest chef in France, which might as well mean the world. Bored with retirement, he made a more modest comeback with this 7th Arrondissement delight. His innovative dishes are far less elaborate than they were in days of yore, but he still makes the best mashed potatoes the world has ever known, along with other market-fresh concoctions that will win your heart. We're talking the likes of such dishes as caramelized quail glazed with a shallot-perfumed sauce.

La Petite Chaise (36 rue de Grenelle, 7e; tel. 01-42-22-13-35). Even on the most rushed of visits to Paris, we always drop in here for one of the best fixed-price menus among the more affordable restaurants of Paris. "The Little Chair" (its English name) first opened as an inn in 1680, when it was used for both food and for its bedrooms upstairs, where discretion for afternoon dalliances was virtually assured. The time-honored cuisine is as French as Charles de Gaulle -- and that is as it should be.

Best Chef: Proud owner of six Michelin stars, Alain Ducasse, at the Restaurant Plaza Athénée, 25 av Montaigne, 8e (tel. 01-53-67-66-65), has taken Paris by storm, dividing his time between his restaurant here and the one in Monte Carlo. He combines produce from every French region in a cuisine that's contemporary but not quite new, embracing the Mediterranean without abandoning France.

Best Modern French Cuisine: A temple of gastronomy is found at Carré des Feuillants, 14 rue de Castiglione, 1e (tel. 01-42-86-82-82), near place Vendôme and the Tuileries. Alain Dutournier is one of the leading chefs of France, and he restored this 17th-century convent, turning it into a citadel of refined cuisine and mouthwatering specialties.

Best Provençal Cuisine: With two of Michelin's coveted stars, Les Elysées du Vernet, 25 rue Vernet, 8e (tel. 01-44-31-98-98), hosts tout Paris (all of Paris) and the media. Montpellier-born chef Alain Solivérès has emerged as one of the greatest in Paris, challenging some big-name chefs. His Provençal cookery is the freshest and among the best in the whole country.

Best Old-Fashioned Bistro: Established in 1931 and bouncing back from a period of decline, Allard, 41 rue St-André-des-Arts, 6e (tel. 01-43-26-48-23), is better than ever, from its zinc bar to its repertoire of French classics -- escargots, frogs' legs, foie gras, boeuf à la mode (marinated beef), and cassoulet. This is a good bet for real Left Bank bistro ambience.

Best Provincial Restaurant: The cuisine of the Auvergne in central France is showcased at Bath's, 9 rue de la Trémoille, 8e (tel. 01-40-70-01-09). In a cozy, elegant setting, you can dine on the best dishes of this province, including ravioli stuffed with Cantal cheese and filet of beef with lentils.

Best for Stargazing: No, it's not Taillevent or even Alain Ducasse. On the see-and-be-seen circuit, the star is still the Buddha Bar, 8 rue Boissy d'Anglas, 8e (tel. 01-53-05-90-00). The crowd doesn't come for the cuisine, though its fusion of French and Pacific Rim is exceedingly well executed. If you don't want to eat, stop by the hip, lacquered bar across from the dining room.

Best Brasserie: Head for the Left Bank and the Brasserie Balzar, 49 rue des Ecoles, 5e (tel. 01-43-54-13-67), which opened in 1898. If you dine on the familiar French food here, you'll be following in the footsteps of Sartre and Camus and others. You can even have a complete dinner in the middle of the afternoon.

Best Seafood: The fattest lobsters and prawns in the Rungis market emerge on platters at Goumard, 9 rue Duphot, 1e (tel. 01-42-60-36-07), so chic that even the toilets are historic monuments. Nothing interferes with the taste of the sea: You'd have to fly to the Riviera to find a better bouillabaisse.

Best Kosher Food: If corned beef, pastrami, herring, and dill pickles thrill you, head to rue des Rosiers in the 4th Arrondissement (Métro: St-Paul). John Russel wrote that rue des Rosiers is the "last sanctuary of certain ways of life; what you see there in miniature is Warsaw before the ghetto was razed." North African overtones reflect the long-ago arrival of Jews from Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria. The best time to go is Sunday morning: You can wander the streets eating as you go -- apple strudel; Jewish rye bread; pickled lemons; smoked salmon; and merguez, a spicy smoked sausage from Algeria.

Best Vegetarian Cuisine: One of the best-known veggie restaurants in the Marais is Le Marais, 54 rue Ste-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, 4e (tel. 01-48-87-48-71). Choose from the array of soups and salads, or have a mushroom tart or a galette (a flat pastry) of wheat with raw vegetables. In this rustic 17th-century setting, you can expect flavorful, wholesome, and generous meals.

Best Wine Cellar: At the elegant Lasserre, 17 av Franklin D. Roosevelt, 8e (tel. 01-43-59-53-43), you'll find not only wonderful food, but also one of the great wine cellars of France, with some 160,000 bottles.