Non formal restaurants

virtually nowhere requires formal attire

Buy a copy of Rick Steves' France guidebook, and you will get not only the names of the restaurants but also maps of thir location, price estimates, and descriptions of how formal or informal they are. After you pick a few, come back to the Forum to see if others have experience dining there.

Thanks, going to order the book now

We used these food blogs to find places in paris all kinds of restaurants with good descriptions of price and atmosphere along with markets.
https://www.davidlebovitz.com/paris.
parisbymouth.com.

Wow, formal wear in a restaurant. For a restaurant, formal wear is "credit card with high limit". Possibly a 3 star restaurant on Friday night would be pretty high dress. Otherwise, during tourist season, the problem is people with too few clothes to cover their persons.

Some Michelin star quality restaurants require suitable dress ie.. men in jackets and women in dressy clothes, and they indicate that when you make a reservation. Any nice restaurants is an environment where people ought to dress for the occasion. Not necessarily formally if by that you mean suit and tie, but at least 'business casual' rather than dirty jeans, trainers and t-shirts. But there is no dress code most places.

My wife an I just returned from our 2nd trip to Paris. Please do not plan your days on where you are having dinner. We spent a lot of time walking around several areas of the city. And we usually found a restaurant when we were hungry. .Sometimes the food was great and sometimes just so so. But just the experience of the outdoor Cafe made the food secondary to the dining experience. You will see.

You will not need a suit or tie except if you are going to Michelin restaurants.
Or if you go to the 16th or 17th arrondissements, where things are dressier and more businessmen eat there.

I, par contre, like to plan out some dinners so that I get to go to certain restaurants. Just avoid the "we speak English" restaurants----especially near Notre Dame----and use www.lafourchette.com to make reservations if you like.

Or "The Fork" app on iPhones - same Fourchette - in English

Some places we liked in the Marais are: 1) Poulette, 3 Rue Etienne Marcel ( beautiful tiles,good steak and fries and reasonable set price 3 course lunch); 2) Miznon, 22 Rue des Ecouffes (informal, wonderful Israeli restaurant); 3) Les Philosophes, 28 Rue Vielle du Temple (traditional cafe with great service and fine food). We are very informal and found most restaurants did not seem to mind our jeans and athletic shoes.

I only go to non formal places. To date, the one I've returned to several times is the Breizh café in the Marais. You can search it on google maps and see directions, hours photos.

We travel with only casual attire and go many places to dine. Never feel uncomfortably casual. A sweater, blouse, or button-down shirt with jeans is fine.

One place we really love where you need a reservation is Les Papilles, and it is worth planning for. Some info here from my recent Trip Report. I always email him for a res a few weeks in advance.

We also like Le Cave Gourmande in Montmartre, although we did not get there this trip. Great Beef Borgognone!

So many others I cannot list them all. Where are you staying? Maybe I can recommend some in a neighborhood convenient for you.

We like to wander in non-touristy restaurant areas, picking a restaurant only after looking at 3-4 maybe more.

In 1987, my wife and I decided to really do a good restaurant. Having only Guide Michelin, we chose a 5-fork (high on comfort and style) restaurant at Plaza d'Athene. We sat in the courtyard. We did dress as well as we could and we looked pretty good. The food was very nice, the wine sublime, the dinner unforgettable. Even now, 30 years later, I still remember sitting in that courtyard with the red shades on the windows - a memorable dinner. We spent a lot - probably 250 in 1987, maybe $350 today. But a memory that has stayed with me.

Another memory from that trip is Le Piet au Cochon in Les Halles at 3 AM eating at the same table as the guys from the Russian Navy.