Three off-the-beaten-Champs-Élysées dinners you must have on any occasion in the City of Lights.
My parents are going to Paris for two weeks, which means I spent several hours yesterday compiling a list of recommendations they will invariably ignore in favor of whatever charming boulangerie they first encounter in the throes of jet lag. I can’t be salty since that’s what Paris is about: stumbling upon an otherwise ordinary storefront that turns out to be psychically healing, as if created just for your specific craving. (Frankly, I think another thing Paris is about is the relief you feel upon arriving back in the U.S. that no one will give you a withering look at your very best “S'ìl vous plaît, où sont les toilettes,” but the city has other merits.) I won’t bore you with my full list; it probably overlaps with a longer, better one that your friend-who-also-travel-blogs put together on Google Maps. But I will share a few spots she might have overlooked!
Go for the steaming bowls of phô with delicate and layered broths, but do order a bo bun for the table to share. And maybe some extra chả giò (“nems” in French), aka blisteringly crisp fried rolls of pork and vermicelli and beyond for the table, so you don’t have to end a relationship over who gets to eat the sauce-soaked ones atop the bo bun.
Phở Tài, 13 Rue Philibert Lucot, 75013 Paris, France.
P.S. If the line is too crazy, Phở Bánh Cuốn 14—nearby at 129 Av. de Choisy—is also fabulous, and worth a stop in its own right.
Waly-Fay Senegalese Restaurant
I dare you to find a dinner spot with sexier lighting or cozier stews. The menu is long and you should play around; a few stand-outs include the citrusy yassa de poulet, the maffé kandja de bœuf, and the various n’dole.
Waly-Fay Senegalese Restaurant, 6 Rue Godefroy Cavaignac, 75011 Paris, France.
This one’s for special occasions, because it might break the bank. But if you’ve ever fallen asleep wishing you could cosplay as someone who was actually invited to an effortlessly tasteful Parisian dinner party, then you're in luck. Your host? The chef-owner couple behind Verjus, who throw a ticketed dinner in a beautifully decaying townhouse with billion-foot ceilings and views of the Palais Royal. There are just 22 seats available for €200 apiece, and nearly everything on the table comes from their farm outside of the city. Reservations required.
The Twenty Two Club, 22 Rue de Montpensier, 75001 Paris, France.