15 Best restaurants in Saint-Germain-des-Prés

15 Best restaurants in Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés – Photo by the author

After spending the day discovering the secrets of Paris, Saint-Germain-Des-Prés is a must-see district for its wide range of restaurants. Whether you are a food lover or simply curious to visit Paris through its culinary offer, you will enjoy this list of the 15 Best restaurants in Saint-Germain-Des-Prés as the start of your hedonistic tour of Paris.

1. Café de Flore

Café de Flore – Photo by the author

Founded in 1880’s, the Café de Flore is essential in Saint-Germain-Des-Prés as it embodies, with Deux Magots, the heart of the district and its history. Symbol of what is a literary café, the Café de Flore is well known beyond French borders as artists from around the world gathered through time on its bench seats and made their arts reached an unprecedented audience.

Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Françoise Sagan were among customers. Nowadays the Café de Flore remains a mythical place as it’s featured in numerous movies and attracts a lots of tourists. The menu is simple and adequate to the place where you come to have a glimpse at the History of Paris.

172 boulevard Saint-Germain 75006 Paris

2. Deux Magots

Deux Magots – Photo by the author

Founded few years before the Café de Flore, Deux Magots is another parisian institution and entirely part of the identity of Saint-Germain-Des-Prés. Besides a large menu and wide range of drinks, its best asset is indisputably its view on the Abbaye of Saint-Germain-Des-Prés.

Home of numerous artists in the past such as Apollinaire, Louis Aragon, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, Deux Magots is a special café in Paris as it witnessed the birth and awakening of so many contemporary arts. A worthy stop if you walk in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

6 place Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 75006 Paris

3. Brasserie LIPP

Brasserie LIPP – Photo by the author

Founded before the Café de Flore and Deux Magots, Brasserie LIPP has nothing to envy to its neighbours. Serving more traditional French dishes, Brasserie LIPP is the perfect place for food lovers who want to have a taste of French cuisine.

The plus: in tribute to the founders’ roots, you can taste several types of delightful Alsacian choucroutes. With mirrors all around the walls of the restaurant reflecting lights and movements from customers and the crew at your service, you immerse yourself in a lively atmosphere suitable for a joyful diner and another glass of champagne after dessert.

151 boulevard Saint-Germain, 75006 Paris

4. Le Bonaparte – 42 rue Bonaparte 75006 Paris

Le Bonaparte – Photo by the author

With an excellent view on the Abbaye of Saint-Germain-Des-Prés, Le Bonaparte is a great place to enjoy a delicious meal in a modern restaurant. Renovated two years ago, wood is everywhere, including the structure of the lift, which gives a muted feel to the place. Thanks to the interior design, a stop in Le Bonaparte is smooth and welcoming.

Aside a qualitative and generous cuisine, Le Bonaparte put up nice pieces of art among maps of Paris, portraits of Napoléon and his wife Marie Louise. A great restaurant with its own character and a convenient advantage: a more peaceful terrasse than those of the Café de Flore and Deux Magots thanks to fewer people walking around.

42 rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris

5. Le Relais de l’Entrecôte – 20 rue Saint-Benoît 75006 Paris

Le Relais de l’Entrecôte – Photo by the author

At Le Relais de l’Entrecôte, only one question is interesting: how do you want you rib steak ? Rare, medium or well done are among the few words you will need to express in this temple of traditional rib steak.

Served with a walnut salad and fries, you won’t leave a single drop of the secret recipe sauce in your plate. Also, the menu offers an extensive list of desserts which shouldn’t leave you indifferent, especially if you are hearty eater. If you want to unveil its secret, Le Relais is opened every day.

20 rue Saint-Benoît, 75006 Paris

6. Au Coup de Torchon

Au Coup de Torchon – Photo by the author

A savoury and typical French restaurant, Au Coup de Torchon brings you a very high quality gastronomy in your plate for an affordable price. Wide range of wine, season’s vegetables and quality products are at the center of this warm bistrot. Named in honour of French actor Philippe Noiret, Au Coup de Torchon is own by his daughter, Frédérique. She has created a pleasant place where every food lover is welcomed, including vegetarians.

6 rue des Ciseaux, 75006 Paris

7. Sushi Tsukizi

Sushi Tsukizi – Photo by the author

The smallest restaurant in our list is the one that takes you the farther away. Indeed, after wondering in Saint-Germain-Des-Prés, you don’t expect to be transported to the other side of the world and yet Sushi Tsukizi takes you straight to Japan.

In this restaurant you are welcomed by true Japanese chefs, which is such an unusual thing for a Japanese restaurant in Paris that it’s important to underlining it. You eat at the bar, elbow to elbow with the person sitting next to you and watch chefs preparing your sushis in a traditional way.

Taste is unmatched in Paris if you want a sushi. A remarkable address to be missed under no circumstances. Make sure to book a place in advance as it has few seats but a big popularity.

2 bis rue des Ciseaux, 75006 Paris

8. Marsan

Marsan – Photo by the author

One star in the Michelin Guide, Marsan is an expensive stop in your wondering in Saint-Germain-Des-Prés but if you can afford it, it’s an unmissable stop. Hélène Darroze, one of the few woman to have a star in the Michelin Guide takes you to an exquisite trip in her region and her amazingly subtle cuisine.

In an elegant and simple setting, she takes your senses for a seldom adventure and makes you discover the richness behind every product she proposes at her table. It’s a chance of a lifetime for your tastes buds to be overwhelmed so don’t miss it.

4 rue d’Assas, 75006 Paris

9. Chez Hanafousa

Chez Hanafousa – Photo by the author

Located in a quiet street, Chez Hanafousa prepares teppanyaki dishes, which litteraly means ‘grilled on an iron plate’. Duck, chicken, Wagyu beef, gambas, scallops, anything can be cooked in this place. At the heart of the restaurant, this authentic Japanese type of cooking gives a special atmosphere to the place as chefs cook in front of you what you ordered.

This proximity enables you to witness the dexterity of your hosts up close and be amazed by the show and by the taste. As Sushi Tzukizi, your meal will be prepared by real Japanese chefs, another rarity in Paris.

4 passage de la Petite Boucherie, 75006 Paris

10. Taokan – 8 rue Sabot 75006 Paris

Taokan – Photo by the author

Dim sum lovers have their place in Saint-Germain-Des-Prés: Taokan. This Chinese restaurant is the best place in Saint-Germain-Des-Prés to enjoy these cantonese specialities. With a simple interior design, Taokan takes your palate in a journey to experience a part of chinese culture. Alongside dim sum, you can taste a wide selection of spicy beef, grilled squid, breast of duck with hoisin sauce and many other delightful dishes.

8 rue Sabot, 75006 Paris

11. La Palette

Pedro J Pacheco, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In the famous district of Saint-Germain des Prés, a stone’s throw from the Seine and the Beaux-Arts, near a number of galleries, La Palette is an institution whose success cannot be ignored. It has a spacious terrace where you may daydream in the morning when the world is agitated and clients begin to arrive. It is located at the intersection of the Rue de Seine and the Rue Jacques-Callot.

Inside there are two rooms, the largest of which like the front is inscribed to the Historical Monuments, welcoming a diverse public who come as much for the authenticity of the spaces, and the French decoration, as for a quality card. Here, you can mix bistro classics like smoked salmon rillette, beef tartare, croque monsieur and madame, or all the delicacies to the egg as promised by the card.

43 Rue de Seine, 75006 Paris, France

12. Le Bonaparte

Sharon Mollerus, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Le Bonaparte Café is a well-known café in Saint-Germain-des-Près. It faces out onto a wide plaza and provides a fantastic view of the Saint Germain des Près Church. Le Bonaparte is next to Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore, and even when those two are crowded, you can almost always find a table on the terrace there. The awnings are red, white, and blue, the colors of the French flag. The Bonaparte offers unconventional menu options as well, it’s neither a restaurant nor a brasserie, It provides a “cuisine de bar” that prioritizes the product.

42 Rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris, France

13. Le Comptoir du Relais

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

This Germanopratine restaurant, built-in 2004 by Yves Camdeborde, is deeply possessed by the bistro spirit that the entire globe enjoys when in Paris. Especially in its very gourmet cuisine, which is produced from delicious ingredients sourced by the chef himself, and its 100% natural wine range.

You may enjoy a meal (offered from noon to 11 pm, which is unusual) that embraces local and market cuisine and absolutely respects quality produce at the modest restaurant with tightly packed tables or on the heated terrace looking over the Carrefour de l’Odéon.

9 Carr de l’Odéon, 75006 Paris, France

14. Fish La Boissonnerie

Photo by Chan Walrus from Pexels

Drew Harre and Juan Sanchez’s renowned restaurant and wine bar is a sort of Anglo hideaway, ideal for a short glass, a single supper at the bar, or when you’re just weary of speaking French. The wine list at Fish la Boissonnerie is made up of small wineries, many of which are organic and bio-dynamic, with reasonable rates and a variety of options by the glass. They’re open every day of the week. In comparison with Semilla, the more culinary choice across the street, Fish is the dependable bistro and a genuine Saint-Germain tradition.

69 Rue de Seine, 75006 Paris, France

15. L’Avant Comptoir

Photo by Naim Benjelloun from Pexels

The superlatives to characterize Yves Camdeborde’s bold, standing-room-only French pintxo bar L’Avant Comptoir have all been exhausted since it opened its doors in 2009. Step behind the painted-on pig and rub shoulders with locals, chefs, winemakers, and other food-industry folks standing (no chairs) around the zinc bar.

From midday to midnight, the place is filled with people eating Yves’ amazing finger foods from the drop-down ceiling menu and chalkboard daily specials—ham croquettes, duck confit sausage hot dogs, fried Parmesan cheese puffs.

Don’t miss the hand-churned Bordier butter, laid on the bar for everyone to share; and a wine recommendation from friendly bartender Eric, who curates the all-natural wine list and understands just what you need to drink.

14 Rue Lobineau, 75006 Paris, France

5 Best hotels in Saint Germain des pres

1. Hotel d’Aubusson

Celette, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

This magnificent 17th-century townhouse now a sleek, 49-room hotel is set off a beautiful side street in Paris’s St. Germain des Prés neighborhood and conceals a dramatic, high-ceilinged Grand Salon, capped with a fantastic chandelier, and adorned with gilded mirrors.

The rooms are extraordinarily large and much more modern, the exquisite décor is saved for the communal areas but are lavishly outfitted with velvet throws and matching jewel-colored drapes, as well as Aubusson tapestries. But enough about the beds—since the eighteenth century, its Café Laurent has been a meeting spot for literary luminaries such as Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Camus.

It’s a nice location to hang out and listen to amazing jazz from Thursday to Saturday evenings. Breakfast is served to visitors every morning. Enjoy an aperitif on the ivy-covered patio, and if you’re feeling like a flâneur, head to the nearby Latin Quarter for some Francophile shopping.

33 Rue Dauphine, 75006 Paris, France

2. Hôtel Lutetia

Celette, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Lutetia is a historic landmark hotel in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, and the city’s only luxury Palace hotel on the Left Bank. Since 1910, and as a forerunner of the transition from Art Nouveau to Art Deco, the Lutetia Paris has welcomed guests from near and far, presenting all with a true Parisian experience.

For more than a century, the Lutetia has been a culinary destination in Saint-Germain for both Parisians and international visitors. With a variety of acclaimed venues to choose from, attendees can expect a one-of-a-kind experience.

45 Bd Raspail, 75006 Paris, France

3. Hôtel de Buci

Celette, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Hôtel de Buci, located in the heart of Paris, is the ideal place to stay if you want to stay in a more intimate setting while yet being close to one of the most lively streets in Saint Germain-des-Prés.

At this boutique hotel, the travelers embark on a journey through Paris and its history, from the Lumières and Philosophes era, which inspired the hotel’s XVIIIth-century décor, to modern-day Paris.

Whether you’re staying for a night or several days, you’ll find an authentic slice of happiness in the elegant decor of our rooms and suites, which harken back to Marie-Antoinette’s expensive boudoir.

22 Rue de Buci, 75006 Paris, France

4. Hôtel Bel-Ami

Photo by Iván Rivero from Pexels

The Hotel Ami has been welcoming visitors since 1925, when it opened here in the calm and pleasant setting of the 15th arrondissement, in a district that has the typical soft air of a village, but a village that is conveniently located in the center of Paris.

This beautiful 3-star boutique hotel with 41 rooms, redesigned by architect Gesa Hansen in a Nordic and minimalist style, offers warm and cozy areas to enjoy at any time of day. Its unique ambiance is aimed to fulfill your expectations and offer a sense of well-being, from the comfy rooms to the attentive service and cozy lounge.

7 Rue Saint-Benoît, 75006 Paris, France

5. Hôtel Montalembert

Photo by Francesco Ungaro from Pexels

The Hotel Montalembert, built in 1926, is the first 5-star boutique hotel on the Left Bank and stands out for its literary dimension as well as its stylish and private ambiance.

The Hotel Montalembert combines subtle luxury and contemporary design in the center of Saint-Germain-des-Prés on the Left Bank, a stone’s throw from the Louvre Museum and the Orsay Museum. Come here and you will be presented a one-of-a-kind taste experience based on a variety of products to satisfy your appetite.

3 Rue de Montalembert, 75007 Paris, France

More tips

Finally here are few addresses of tasteful adventures worth mentioning in Sain-Germain-Des-Prés in order to conclude your gastronomic experience in Paris :

Compagnie française des poivres & des épices – Photo by the author

To bring back home subtle and tasteful spices and peppers, make sure to visit Compagnie française des poivres et des épices – 7 rue de Furstemberg, 75006 Paris

Oeuf à la coque – Wikicommons

Discover how you can cook eggs in a million ways at Eggs&Co. – 11 rue Bernard Palissy, 75006 Paris

La Tarte Tropézienne – Wikicommons (By Fortetclair)

Enjoy the warmth of the south of France with a tart from Saint-Tropez, simply irresistible – La Tarte Tropézienne – 3 rue Montfaucon, 75006 Paris

Macarons de Ladurée – Wikicommons (By Leo Gonzales)

An absolute must-visit whilst in Paris, Macaroons at Ladurée – 21 rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris

Guenmai – Photo by the author

For macrobiotic and vegetarian foodies, have a look at Guenmai – 6 rue Cardinale, 75006 Paris