Restaurants question

You will always find someplace to eat. If you want a good place to eat, it is wise to make a reservation at least a day ahead -- even nice little neighborhood places book up. We have two restaurants we always visit when in Paris. I booked one two months out and it was great. A friend wanted to eat there and could not get a reservation for the entire month of October. When we were in Paris recently a restaurant we always eat at with 3 or 4 days ahead reservation was booked up for all of May and we couldn't eat there.

If you want good food -- those places book up. But there is always some place to walk into.

You can also stumble upon the best places just by wandering a bit off the beaten path. After leaving the Louvre in 2018, I was walking around and decided to go down and cute little side street. After pulling up Yelp, I found a cute little Creperie that I went to and really enjoyed.

Get away from the touristy areas and you'll likely find better and less expensive places to dine. Rick likely has good recommendations, but it's also good to look at what others say on Yelp, Google, and TripAdvisor. They can also tell you if reservations are required.

Thanks for the responses. I’ll skim the Steve’s book and see if there are any places we want to book ahead of time, but tbh I’ve already spent so much time researching this trip and booking various things that I’m just ready to play this by ear. We don’t want to be eating at McDonalds but we don’t need to be eating at Michelin star places every day either; good neighborhood cafes are fine for us - and I believe Rick says the brasseries and cafes are open early, when we want to be eating, vs. the restaurants that are open later, and it seems it’s less important to prebook the cafes.

The French treat McDonalds as an American themed restaurant, so it isn't cheap.

If you eat at places you find in a guidebook you will need to book, because every other Anglophone tourist will be trying to eat in the same restaurant, Try one of the other 9,500 restaurants in Paris and surprise yourself.

We just wandered in off the street everytime we ate in Paris. We had zero hassles getting a table.
As long as you avoid any recommended restaurants/brasseries you shouldn't have any issues getting a table.

Thanks yes we’re happy seeing what we happen upon, or seeing what the hotel recommends. Plus I noticed it can be difficult to figure out if places in the guidebooks have outdoor seating which we will be trying to limit ourselves to, it just takes too much work, we’ll let ourselves wander and see what we find!

Where are you staying? Might help us zero in on places easily accessed from lodging.

At the Dauphine St. Germaine.I know there are tons I’d restaurants and cafes around there, and I’m sure the hotel can give us recommendations. I was thinking for instance if we are spending the day in the Louvre area, we might want to go somewhere in that area, or near the Eiffel Tower or Montmartre when we are in that area, etc.

https://gustoitalia-paris.fr/en is fab! Near the Tower, and they will even make off-menu requests. Love this place! Another good place is Cafe Roussillon on the corner of Rue Cler and Rue de Grenelle. Have some of the best boeuf bourguignon. We also enjoyed the St. Regis on Isle St. Louis.

Thanks I’ll check them out!

Your hotel cannot only recommend good nearby restaurants, they'll pick up the phone and make the reservation for you. And if they are the ones calling you are almost guaranteed to get in. That's what we did at least twice and it worked out just fine

Thanks, Phred! I’m sure that’s the case.