good places to eat in Paris and Rome?

€7.50 per person is not a reasonable budget in either Paris or Rome for "good places".

It would be a good idea to become familiar with thinking in local money, the Euro. $20 gets about €15. That's only €7.50 each. Many places will charge €3 just for a small Coke in a glass.

You may be able to get away with a crepe or take-away sandwich in Paris, perhaps Panini in Rome. Even an inexpensive pizza will run €8 or €10 per pizza - generally people order individual pizzas which are uncut and fill a plate. That's before you buy drinks.

€37 for dinner for 2 (€18.50pp) including wine will be difficult at "good places". What do you mean, when you say, "good places"?

At that price point you can probably get away with Hippopotamus and Flunch, or McD's and Quick. You would overspend at lunch and have change at dinner.

Having just return from 30 days in Europe with a few days in Rome with an even weaker dollar, your numbers are low if looking at most sit down restaurants. At 20 for lunch it has be a little cheese and bread from a grocery store. When you asked earlier about $1000 budget for six days, I assume it was for one. If it is for two, then you are very low.

@ Japmoongoddess,

I agree w/Frank.

Everyone has their own expetations tastes and such and is exteremely relative. Also what you may consider good food is crap to others especially the french. As to your budget, you could get buy but you probably wont be eating good food unless you prepare it yourself.

If youre going to play tourist and that what i did, i was too busy to eat at my normal times and i would eat when it was convenient. So that threw off my stomach schedule.

what i noticed about my eating habbits and spending when i was over there was that my lunches were about 10-12 United STates Dollars (USD) and that was bare bones. Maybe a bagette sandwich and a drink. I love the fresh squeezed Orange Juice (OJ) you can get over there so i was splurging on it when possible and the cost of the OJ jacked the lunch price up too. My dinners, if i had one, wasnt that much more since i dont eat alot at dinnertime anymore.

if you check out menus and prices on your travels around town you should be able to find some inexpensive places. Worst case, you head on over to one of the fast food restaurants but i avoid them at all cost since i love to try places and foods i cant find in my neck of the woods.

happy trails.

For 2 people, restaurant meals at $20 for lunch and under $50 for dinner? Not possible for proper food, and certainly quite impossible if you want wine with your dinner. If you buy really cheap take-out food for lunch and eat on a bench somewhere, you might make it for $20 for the two of you. Dinner would mean really searching around, looking at the menus posted on the restaurant doors, and probably opting for pasta or some roast chicken, no starter, no dessert, no wine, no soft drink. You need to budget much more for food.

Just to add to this, you have a very, very busy itinerary planned, according to your other post and you simply won't have the time to search for restaurants for your stated budget.

In another respond to her question about her schedule, I half jokingly suggestion that her planned schedule didn't allow for lunch and to skip it. But for us, skipping lunch when we travel is pretty routine. We have a substantial breakfast at the hotel. Will have picked up an apple or banana or two the previous day that we will snack on late morning. By mid-afternoon or so will grab a little gelato or maybe a pastry somewhere. Then a nice, leisurely dinner around 8 pm when the restaurants open. For some reason missing lunch doesn't bother us. Maybe because of all of the other activity going on.

Thanks so much for the comments and suggestions everyone!! =) I was researching for weeks about budget restaurants and cheap eats and I came up with those prices because it seemed doable? I guess when I say good places to eat i just mean good food. It doesn't have to be fancy restaurants or Michelin star ones..such as this famous falafel place in the Marais? It came up many times during my search for cheap good eats and it costs less then 10 euros. So I was wondering if there are more places like that? Also, it seemed like pre-fixes are a better deal than a la carte and either has an app+entree or entree+dessert or all 3 and includes a glass of wine (I heard wine is very cheap compared to NY) What would be a more realistic budget for lunch and dinner? Please help! =) Thanks again so much everyone and Im so glad I found this website last night!

I can eat on that budget and do. I also liked Franks answer because sometimes we do similar.. breakfast then some snacks during day .. not a sit down lunch.

I NEVER buy a soda at a cafe .. thats budget suicide. If ( and only if ) you order food you may ask for tap water , it is perfectly good and tasty. I will buy a soda from a corner grocer while out and about wandering.. costs one euro ,, not 3-5 like at cafes.

If you cheap out for some meals( crepes, take away etc.. ) you can then up your dinner budget a bit. The house wine is usually quite drinkable. .. we find beer expensive.
I can get a huge meal sized salad for a meal( salad compossee ,,a salad with a bunch of cold veggies on it, sometimes hard boiled eggs etc ) can run about 8-10 euros..

There are "menus" set meals with no substitutions offered at many places.. look at the black boards ,, they can be as cheap as 12-15 euros for two courses, won't be haute cusine but you will live.

Cheap out and "splurge " on one or two nicer meals.. for us thats still going to be under 30 euros a head.

WALK AWAY from tourist sites for better prices.. if your table has a view you will be paying for it with 10 euro beers and 5 euro sodas.. .

OK, so has the budget now changed from dollars to euros? I mean it was originally $20 lunch and $50 dinner. Now we seem to be hearing about €20 lunch and €50 dinner. This makes a difference.

@frank-good idea to bring snacks so i dont miss out on site seeing time! =) thank u!

@pat- yes i think i will go with your way! maybe a crepe, bowl salad, falafel, baguette, galette, or whatever on the go or snacks for lunch..my hotel actually includes free breakfast in my package but i dont know how good is that..for sat morning i might try it and if i like it i'll stick with it for breakfast sunday (saves me time and money too), if not i will go out to a cafe or grab on the go for sunday breakfast. For dinner...if i saved on lunch, i can splurge a little. I was actually thinking of bringing my credit card IN CASE i decide to lavish a dinner impulsively being hypnotized by the ambience. yay or nay?? =T haha i want to keep to my budget but i don't want to be miserable doing it. thanks for explaining and relating to me!! =)

@norma- i'm actually really bad at currency conversions and equivalents..I think $20 lunch and $50 dinner is like a bit under 30 euro and 60 euro? sounds doable?

thank u everyone for keeping track with my posts for diff topics and helping me out so much! i greatly appreciate it very much. =)

You are going the wrong way. A $20 lunch is 15E. The easiest method to make the currency conversion mentally is add a third to the Euro. If it is 6E then it is $8. The actually conversion as of last hour ($1.34) would have been $8.04. So a third is close enough. Your 30E lunch is actually $40.20 and 60E dinner is $80.40.

omg frank, i didn't realize it. that seems over the original budget. see how bad i am with this..thanks for correcting me!

Stella,

For finding "good places" to eat, the first place I usually look is the Guidebook. However, I also find that I get excellent recommendations from the desk staff at the hotel. They've never given me bad advice (so far).

Most restaurants have the Menus posted outside, either printed or on a blackboard. You'll be able to get some idea of the prices before you sit down. Especially in Italy, if you sit down on the patio, the prices will be higher than if sitting inside.

One other point to mention is that meals in Italy are structured in "courses", with Antipasti, Primi, Secondi, Insalate, Contorni and Dolce (and of course Bevande). If you order the "full meal deal", it will be considerably more expensive that US$50 for two people. I normally get by with Primi and a salad (and of course Vino). If you want water with your meal, you'll have a choice of Naturale or Frizzante (carbonated) and you'll be paying for that. In my experience, it's uncommon to be served tap water at restaurants. You'll also be paying a Coperto (cover charge) every time you sit down, which covers the table service and comes with a basket of bread. Whether you eat the bread or not, the Coperto still applies.

To provide a specific example, I had an excellent meal at La Gardela in Ravenna one night, consisting of Primi, Contorni, Wine and Water (I could provide a more "visual" example of the meal if you want). I checked my expenses list and the bill was about €30 (I did leave a gratuity), which is about US$40 but keep in mind that's for ONE person. That's somewhat typical of what I pay for dinners, usually at least €25 but I have paid €60-70 on occasion (if you saw me, you'd know that I enjoy a fine hot meal).

Cheers!

EDIT - I just checked and the meal described above also included a small dessert, similar to Fruit Cocktail, and of course my usual after dinner Coffee.

@ken- do hotels generally recommend touristy or non-touristy places? wow, the full deal has that many courses? i think app+entree+dessert or app+entree is good, but i want to try gelatos at other famous spots, do they open late? also, are the menus in Italian or English? Do they mainly accept cash or cc? coperto applies to all restaurants or only it it says outside? hm, mayb i should ask before going inside. during my research for Rome eats, it seems theyre mostly pizzas of different types, are they not famous for their pastas?? =T I'm thinking about pizza for lunch and pasta for dinner..but i heard pizza are usually served at dinner and those are better then the lunch pizzas? wow and its interesting that tap water is common in Paris but not in Rome! sorry for so many questions..thank you for the rundown of Rome!

wow, you must be a foodie! =) yes, in NYC sometimes i splurge as well and i've had $150pp dinners here on extremely rare special occasions but this trip to Europe I just can't afford to not have a budget =( btw, which neighborhoods in Rome have the most good places to eat? It seems Trastevere and Testaccio from my research but my hotel is near Termini station which is wayy far..

also, how much gratuity is the general norm? included or no? over here is usually double the tax..

As has been suggested earlier you really need to start thinking in Euro. Your budget then become a range of 746 - 1118 Euro. That way you don't have to do any conversions. Unfortunately we find it easy to spend 75E/person a day but we are not running a tight budget either. We were just in Rome last month and were surprised at how more expensive it was compared to what we remembered four years ago. Any large city in Europe is expensive with Paris and Rome near the top of most lists. The suggestion to use New York is a good idea. We are in NY frequently and it is more expensive on average than Denver. Will be there is weekend. And then convert that $$ sign to Euro and you about have it. That $15 lunch in New York probably would be 15E in Rome.

If the gratuity is not included as a service charge (look at the bill carefully), then I will leave up to 10% or the loose change if paying in cash.

@frank- all this time I have not thought of thinking in Euros because I'm used to thinking in dollars..now I see it much more simpler to think in Euros and then convert it to how much I would need in dollars..im just wondering if there are many inexpensive, or at least reasonably priced, nice and cute trend spots and authentic hole-in-the-walls over in Europe like in NYC..or mostly cheap fast-food vs expensive fine dining? thanks alot for the advice and important info! =)

Stella,

I'm not sure if the hotels are recommending "touristy or non-touristy places", or just good local restaurants that they know about? I've found their recommendations to always be good, so based on experience so far I trust the information they provide.

The Menus are sometimes in Italian only but some restaurants provide an English-language version. I can manage in Italian, so usually just use the local Menus. All restaurants accept Euro cash, and some accept credit cards. Visa and MasterCard are most common, and only a few will accept American Express (in my experience).

Don't bother asking about the Coperto before going inside. It's charged by ALL restaurants (or at least all that I've patronized so far).

Pasta is absolutely a big part of the Menus, but Pizza is also offered. Keep in mind however that Pizza in Italy is different than the usual Pizza Hut and Dominos variety served here. I'm able to enjoy authentic Italian Pizza at the local Italian Deli any time of the year, so it's not something I usually order when on holidays. My usual fare often consists of Pasta alla Carbonara, Pasta alla Bolognese, Trofie al Pesto or Pesto Lasagna when in Liguria or Pasta alla Norma when in Sicily.

Cheers!

@ken-thank u for the informations =) yes i researched that their pizzas are very different and authentic so i can't wait to try..seems like the carbonara is a great hit in Rome too bc it comes up often, but i'm not too crazy about creamy sauces..how's the bucatini all'amatriciana, looks like some secret amazing dish that's only asked for and not on the menu??

I'm in the pile with everyone else who is telling you that your food budget is way too low. I found this little chart for 2013 that gives typical costs for a day in Paris with average and low prices: http://www.parisescapes.com/paris_budget_day.html. It includes other things besides food, but please note that the costs are per person. Be sure to scroll down to see the descriptions of what you are likely to get for those prices. We usually rent apartments or stay in places with a decent breakfast, so our individual daily food costs may not be quite as high as the average listed, but we do like to eat. Looking back on my trip accounting, our typical costs for food per person per day runs about $60-$70 (or in Euros these days, about 44,50-52,00). That's roughly double what you are budgeting.

On a different topic, we too stayed near Roma Termini and ate at this place: http://www.lagallinabianca-pizzeria.com/, La Gallina Bianca. We walked to it. Unfortunately, the web site doesn't include a menu with prices, but we sure enjoyed the food.

Finally, I also want to emphasize that you start thinking in Euros instead of dollars. Trying to constantly calculate what it's costing in dollars will drive you nuts. Come up with a realistic budget in Euros and work with that.

wonderful site you have provided me above, thank u! i think i have came up with a decent plan for how to come about this trip. after learning so much here and meeting wonderful people who are taking the time and patience to guide me the right way so i don't go unprepared. =) God bless all! be well

Stella,

When you get back, you might consider posting a note in the "Trip Reports" section. It would be interesting to know how your first trip to Italy went.

Cheers!

Don't forget to budget for pastries in Paris! The most important meal of the day there. Lol!

Cafe Med, on Ile St. Louis (little island east of Notre Dame), is good. In 2010 you could get a 3 course prix fixe dinner for $18. We ate there often during our month stay on the Ile.

My experience eating, both good and bad, in Italy is the price seems to be pretty much the same (I don't go to gourmet places) but the quality varies widely. Whenever we were starved and went to something we came across (in the tourist areas), the service and quality were pretty bad. When we asked a local, whether someone we met on the street or a desk clerk at our lodging, we found really good food and service - if a little off the beaten tourist path.

My best advice is just to ask. I always add, "nothing fancy," because they may think you want an upscale restaurant.