a favorite museum café? in Paris

The best museum cafe I have been to is in the Musee Jacquemart Andre. You're outside in a covered courtyard, not right on the street, and the food is wonderful. Enjoy!

We also loved the Jacquemart Andre tea room--lovely atmosphere. Not a museum cafe, but LaDuree near the Madeleine Church is very elegant and offers the fabulous macarons.

I have heard that the restaurant in the (relatively) new Quai Branley Museum is outstanding but I haven't tried it yet.

The upstairs cafe at le Musee d'Orsay is indeed quite elegant, and the menu looks fancy and good, but we've never tried it. The downstairs "quick stop" cafe is remarkably inexpensive!

At the Louvre, the restaurant serves surprisingly good food, but the one time we ordered wine, it was execrable.

My favorite is actually Cafe Diane, in the Tuilleries. Lovely setting with a perfect view of the Louvre, excellent people watching, outside seating with those heating bars that keep you toasty when needed, and a perfect cup of cafe creme.

My wife and I had a nice dinner on the top floor of the Pompidou Museum. We timed the meal for sunset and the view was fantastic. The restaurant is a little on the upper end as far as cost goes but the food was vey good and the sunset perfect. The top of the Pompidou is higher in elevation than most of the buildings around it so the view is nice any time of the day.
We also loved the restaurants in the d'Orsay and in the Lourve

Regina - I had lunch at the cafe at the Quai Branley Museum last spring and it was great. I sat outside on the terrace and had a nice salad and coffee (they also had sandwiches and desserts). You have a super view of the Eiffel Tower and it was one of those "life is good" moments. You can also sit inside the cafe or try the fancier restaurant.

regina,

The Café at the Rodin Museum is in a beautiful setting in the gardens, however I found that at least some of the food was pre-packaged and somewhat mediocre in quality.

If your friend wants more of a "formal" dining experience, I'd agree that the restaurant upstairs at the Musee d'Orsay is a good choice.

There are several Cafés in the Louvre offering a variety of food, and I was quite pleased with the quality of the food in some of them, even though it's served in a "cafeteria" setting.

Bon Appetit!

thanks everyone..there's a good expo coming up at the Jaquemart-André museum so maybe i'll give their café a taste test

regina, the Jaquemart-André has one of the best museum gift shops in Paris, too.