I've read that in France it's considered bad form to order just an entree for dinner (not to split -- one per person) and not order a plat.
Or, would ordering an entree and a dessert be acceptable?
The rationale I'm reading is that if you're taking up a table when there is only one seating, that ordering just an entree is less revenue for the restaurant.
Firstly, the secession of courses in France is entrée, plat, dessert. I am not totally clear on how entrée becomes the main course or plat principal, but for the purposes of clarity, let’s use the French terminology.
Further, let’s clarify the difference between a café and a traditional restaurant. Cafés are generally less formal, are open most of the day, generally offer a relatively wide range of choices, and turn tables throughout their opening period. Restaurants are usually open for lunch from noon to around 14h00, and open for dinner around 19h30. Brasseries, such as la Coupole or le Grand Colbert operate similar to cafés in that they have extended hours. Chain or corporate restaurants such as Hippopotamus operate similarly to cafés.
At cafés, brasseries, or corporate chain restaurants, you may generally order whatever you like. Traditional restaurants often have a chef who makes his living serving patrons who may stay the entire evening at a table. It is expected, in this case, that a patron orders a meal which generates sufficient revenue to allow the chef to remain in business. At a minimum, you are expected to order an entrée/plat or a plat/dessert. However, the number of courses you order could greatly exceed just two. Most patrons order a bottle/carafe of wine as well. This arrangement allows a successful chef to make a living serving diners who come for his talent, creativity, and overall execution. These diners are not rushed, they will typically spend the evening, and owner and staff survive.
If you reserve at a restaurant, only order meatloaf, and ask to split it, you are taking money out of the chef´s pocket. Go to a café for that and everyone will be happier.
In Paris last month, we typically ate most of our evening meals in a cafe, mainly because you can go early (say 6 pm or so) and easily get a table.
Some "restaurants" with lunch hours offer a lunch or abbreviated menu with a small number of entrees and plats and desserts. We found that eating at restaurants for lunch often worked well for us as we tend to eat our largest meal of the day at lunch, another reason we typically opted for a cafe in the evening with more open hours and no "pressure" to order multiple courses - one of us might get a salad, the others might get an entree and plat. No worries...
The only "rule" we ever encountered at a cafe in the evening was that to sit indoors (vs outside) you had to order food; people only interested in drinks were directed to sit outside, and anyway many of them chose to sit out there since that is where they can smoke, too. We preferred seating indoors to get away from the smoke...
The ratio of cafes to restaurants for us was at least 2 to 1, or maybe 3 to 1.
Just think of the first course, the entrée, as the entrance to the meal. Then comes the plat principal.
I have the opposite problem when in the US, so I say first course, second course in English.
As the word Entree does not have the same meaning in France as in the USA, we do not know if you are talking about the first course or the main course.
But consider that you are lucky to only come in 2023. 100 years ago, the "entrée" (which is nowadays the first course) was the 2nd or 3rd course after the apéritif, the soup and the hors-d'œuvre.
Then came the main dishes (plural because there were several, fish and meat).
