Tiny Table Tours’ Guide to Paris
I spent the first week of 2025 in Paris, and already people are flooding my text and email inboxes with requests for my recommendations, so I’m sharing my very favorite things here.
Rather than trying to give a huge overview of the city, I’m simply going to share the places that I will absolutely return to on my next visit to Paris.
These are the places that were 10 out of 10, home runs, knocked the ball out of the park, incredible. Some are super famous, others are not. This is the list that I’ll share with friends and family when they ask me for recommendations. (No really, I’ve added this as a page on my website so that I can share it on demand.
Before the meals, though, two non-restaurant recommendations:
Saltete is a website that basically allows you access to the starred and saved places on the Google Maps of people who know a destination best. On this trip I used Lindsey Tramuta’s Paris Guide(more on Lindsey below).
Whenever we weren’t sure where to grab a cup of coffee or have lunch nearby, we’d open Saltete and tap “See places near me.” It would pull up a list of Lindsey’s recommendations, sorted by distance, with her private notes about them. It saved us from wandering around near the Musee D’Orsay trying to figure out where to eat lunch, and from many bad cups of coffee.
Saltete has guides to Disney World, Rome, Paris, Lisbon, and more, all written by local experts who know way more about a place than you could ever learn. Each guide costs around $20 and is shareable with one other person. The money goes to the person who created the guide, supporting their work. My friend Regan Stephens and her husband created Saltete, and I think it’s incredible.
A private tour with Lindsey Tramuta
I knew I wanted to do a super special tour in Paris, and the one I landed on was with the journalist Lindsey Tramuta. Lindsey went to college in Philly and has lived in Paris for 18 years. She’s written two books about the city and has been published in the New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, etc, etc. She’s incredibly knowledgeable and offers Paris tours for private groups only. We spent a lovely three hours wandering around and chatting about Paris with her. The tour was $400 for two people, which I thought was very fair for her time, expertise and a bunch of food and drinks. Anyone who likes what we’re doing at Tiny Table Tours will love a tour with Lindsey.
And now, the restaurants.
Bistro Des Tournelles (reservation needed)
This was, hands down, my favorite meal of the trip. This is a small bistro where the staff is nice and the French food is classic and absolutely delicious. We had an artichoke salad with wine poached pears, oeufs mayonnaise with black truffle, roasted chicken in jus, steak au poivre with frites, and an ice cream-filled profiterole doused in hot chocolate sauce. This is the kind of restaurant that you go to Paris for. Earlier in the evening, I think it would be good for kids, and a group of 4 or 6 would be comfortable as well, but for a later dinner, it felt very romantic. I’d happily eat at the bar alone, as well, as several people were doing when we were eating.
L’Assiette (reservation needed)
Because this trip was for January, I had a whole list of wintery foods I wanted to eat, including cassoulet. When I saw this restaurant called out for their cassoulet on the New York Times list of essential Paris dishes (gift link!) I made a reservation immediately. Cassoulet is a stew, hefty with tender, creamy white beans and chunks of duck confit, pork belly and lamb’s neck. It is typical of the Languedoc region of France, and is served in burbling ceramic pots that waft invitingly through L’Assiette’s dining room. My party of two shared a single crock, but we were delighted by the table of five Frenchmen next to us who each ordered (and finished) their own serving. I can’t imagine ever returning to Paris without making a reservation at L’Assiette.
Au Passage (reservations needed)
A lot of places (restaurants included) in Paris feel dominated by tourists, so it was notable to me that the team at Au Passage didn’t speak much English, and that there was no English menu. Instead, we used a bit of Google Translate to order from the small menu. We had an incredible roast chicken, wonderful mushrooms, grilled octopus, cauliflower in a parmesan sauce, and some lovely glasses of wine. This spot is busy, bustling and tucked away on a side street. This is a neo-bistro where the food is absolutely delicious, not just interesting.
Le Mary Celeste (bar seats were available on a weekday for lunch, otherwise make a reservation)
Le Mary Celeste is technically a wine bar, but we had a lovely lunch here after a morning spent shopping and museum hopping in the Marais. We had a vegetable soup, which I know sounds boring, but was a revelation due to excellent seasoning and the availability of very high quality produce in Paris. We had oysters, that soup, grilled broccoli, and an aguachile. After a couple of days, the butter and cream of French food was starting to weigh us down, and the food at Le Mary Celeste had acid and crunch and salt (and the menu was heavy on vegetables.) I’d go for lunch or for dinner ahead of a night out, since they have a great wine and cocktail program.
L'Avant Comptoir du Marché (walk-in)
L'Avant Comptoir du Marché is a category of restaurants that doesn’t exist in the US - from what I could tell, it’s a place that Parisians go after work to have 1 to 3 glasses of wine, a few snacks, and hang out with their friends. In other words, a dream. It’s attached to a market and has a sort of industrial feel, and the menu is written on the walls and on plaques hanging from the ceiling. There’s no wine list, you’ll just have to muster your courage and ask the bartender what he’s pouring (I did this, and he was very nice.) My favorite bite here was the croquettes, and I liked hanging out for a bit and doing some people watching. It would be good as a quick lunch or dinner, or as a place to go around 5pm when you’re trying to tide yourself over to make it to French dinner time. I’d also recommend it if your flight from the US lands mid-day and you need a meal at a weird afternoon time.
Du Pain et Des Idées (walk-in/no seats)
I visited this bakery with my mom in 2019, and when I told her I was returning to Paris, she immediately asked if I planned to return for their pastries - that’s how big an impression this spot makes. I did, of course, return. Du Pain et Des Idees has some of the best pastries in the city, so you can’t really make a bad choice, but I’ve thought about their plain butter croissant every day since I ate it. It was richly buttery, crisp but denser than the croissants I’ve eaten in the United States. It was probably the best croissant I’ve ever eaten - next time I go to Paris, I’d like to stay within a 5-minute walk of this bakery so I can make sure to eat a croissant every morning.
Abri Soba (walk-in only, sometimes a line forms but it moves quickly)
Soba is difficult to find in the United States, especially in Philadelphia, so when I realized our hotel was only a few blocks away from this spot, I made a beeline. Soba, which are toothsome and slippery Japanese buckwheat noodles, are the main draw here since they’re made by hand - a notoriously difficult and laborious process. But the menu has lots of other options, including tempura, grilled eggplant, raw fish dishes, and other izakaya-style dishes. It’s small plates, so good for sharing, and we got a handful of small things and then each had a bowl of noodles, which were some of the best I’ve had outside Japan.