Eating on the Cheap in Paris

One of the biggest daily expenses while in Paris will be meals. In current currency exchange rates, you can easily spend between $50- $95 dollars per person per day if you were to eat three meals in cafes or restaurants. Here are few tips to trim the cost of meals:

Breakfast - Average current cost for an ‘American breakfast in Paris’ i.e
coffee )with milk, croissant or toasted baguette, two fried eggs, ham (sometimes) and
orange juice: 10-15 Euros.

Continental Breakfast: Coffee with milk, and croissant or toasted baguette: 5 to 8 Euros.

Lunch – Average Cost for a main dish 10-15 Euros
For a ‘menu’ i.e. a two or three-course lunch 15-18 Euros.
Total Average Bill for Two People with drinks: 40 Euros.

Dinner – Average Cost for a main dish 18-28 Euros
For a ‘menu’ i.e. two or three-course dinner 18-35 Euros.
Total Average Bill for Two People with drinks: 50 to 90 Euros.

Trim your breakfast budget by standing rather than sitting. Most hotels charge extra for breakfast. Make sure that the hotel breakfast is within the normal price range. Otherwise, there are bakeries on practically every street corner in France (do not buy a croissant and take it into a café!) Nowadays some of the grocery stores like ‘Attac’, Monoprix and some croissanteries have coffee bars. Train stations like Gare St. Lazare have sandwich stands offering a ‘Pause special’ croissant, coffee and orange juice for as little as 5 to 6 Euros.

If you take your café and croissant standing at the bar rather than sitting at a table, your bill will be lower.

Lunch – Most restaurants are required by law to have at least one ‘fixed price’ menu. (Restaurants that have the sign in their windows ‘Cheque Repas’ accept subsidized vouchers from workers for some businesses in France). Often, the day’s menu will be written on a chalkboard. No substitutions! Also, keep alert for the word ‘supplement’.

Also keep alert for the word ‘ou’ which means ‘or’ in menu descriptions. For example, lunch menus can offer you the option of having an ‘entrée and a plat’ OR a ‘plat and a dessert’. Starter and main dish or main dish and dessert. The least expensive menus are normally found at the back of the ‘carte’. Or look around for the chalkboard daily specials.

You can drink the water in Paris. Order a ‘carafe d’eau’ instead of bottled water.
Skip the aperitifs and order a ‘pichet’ of house wine with your meal. If you only plan on drinking one glass of wine per person, order ‘un quart’ which will give you a little over one glass per person (for two people).

If you like Asian or Middle Eastern food, these are usually inexpensive options for lunch and dinner. Asian restaurants tend to open earlier for dinner hours. You can order as many or as few plates as you choose.

RE: The Asian fast food ‘delis’. Food is sold by the kilogram and can be eaten on location or taken out. Although this isn’t one of my favorite additions to Paris (there are plenty of good and inexpensive Asian restaurants where you can sit down and enjoy a relaxing and satisfying meal, yet I know if you’re simply fueling up for a trek through the Louvre, the fast Asian deli can be a quick fueling station. (As long as you PROMISE to treat yourself to a REAL meal when your touring has finished for the day.

Snacks: Crepe stands, sandwich stands and roasted chestnuts stands can be found at major Metro stops (Montparnasse). Fresh fruit is sold inside major Metro exchanges such as St. Lazare.

Dinner. Dinner is for people who have an expense account. Parisians tend to go home for dinner. But if you do want to go out for a candlelit meal to finish off your whirlwind tour of Paris, don’t break the bank by going to the well-known places (I just finished reading the horror story of an American told she would have to wait three hours to have a table at a famous chef’s ‘no-reservation’ resto.

Don’t wreck your stay in Paris by going to intimidating – too chic to be true - hyped restaurants. Parislogue has mentioned a few neighborhood haunts (around Rue de la Gaite - currently, Backstage Café, 31 Rue de la Gaite (right across from Theatre de la Gaite) is our ‘coup de choeur’, Metro: Gaite.

You can have a perfectly fine meal here for 18 Euros (not including wine). The staff are friendly – and you won’t have to wait three hours for table. For other restaurant tips, check out www.restoaparis.com or www.wheretoeat.com (www.oubouffer.com).

Paris Pas Cher lists inexpensive restaurants by arrondissement. This is one of my ‘bibles’.