Restaruant recommendation 7 th Arrondissement

One thing I do is a search nearby my hotel on G maps for restaurants. I look at the reviews there and also search on the web by restaurant name and check out the restaurant web site if they have one plus Trip Advisor, Yelp and any other trusted review venues. This give me a more comprehensive feel for a place than one or two people saying "try here". My tastes may be very different than theirs. Or I wing it!

Not so much restaurant recommendations, but man, the breadth and variety of chocolatiers in the 7th was a whole morning of fun wandering around for my wife and I. And a number of them were closed for the day because we didn't check ahead. I might recommend a more general book on Paris that served us well: http://chocolateandzucchini.com/edibleadventures/ and even more generally, Clothilde's site:
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/cat_restaurants.php She has a very different take on food from Rick, so it's a nice add-on, especially if the food is important to you (An aside, I feel that the food is not that important to Rick unless it amuses him somewhat, like the stinkiest cheese available or a fish on a stick... for me, the food is an event, like a museum in and of itself, both the traditional and the modern). Also, not technically in the 7th, but Poilâne has an outlet a couple blocks over in the 6th (the bakery itself is in the 7th)... how to describe a croissant from Poilâne... I think my wife put it best when she said that a Poilâne croissant is to the average Paris croissant as the average Paris croissant is to the average mass produced croissant in the US. Has to be gotten fresh. They are shipped to New York and Tokyo, and probably more broadly now, but to have one at the shop, the day it was baked... yeah. can still taste it 4 years later.

I really love both Café Constant and Les Cocottes. Excellent food. Neither takes a reservation, but if you get there right at 7pm when they open you will get a seat right away. NPR did a story about the chef who owns these a number of years ago http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114250336 The Paris by Mouth website is also a good source of restaurants and foodie places.

Cathy, here's a link to a list of restaurants published by Travel & Leisure. http://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-guide/7th-arrondissement/restaurants Here's another. http://girlsguidetoparis.com/insider/top.php?list=restaurants&arrondissement=7. Just Google "7th arrondissement restaurants and cafes" and you'll see what I see.

Let me start by saying, Paris is my favorite city. On my last trip my goal was to be a local. Rue Cler is not a "local" hang out. But at L'Eclair, I felt true Paris. Price was good for dinner. The food was amazing. Sitting outside in the winter they has blankets. It was warm and cozy and filled with smoke even on the patio. It was one of my best moments. Sitting with people speaking French, smoking cigarettes and eating. http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g187147-d3872862-r161024420-L_Eclair-Paris_Ile_de_France.html

I second Laura's choices, Cafe Constant being my fave. My go to people watching cafe is La Terasse, right by the Ecole Militaire metro. I have had many a drink and small meals there.