Selecting just one restaurant in Paris for that special night out for our Date Night series is a daunting task. So I’m not going to do it. Instead, I’m going to suggest that you choose a genre of French restaurant for a romantic meal in Paris – the Parisian brasserie. Take your loved one out for a meal at an atmospheric old brasserie in Paris and it could just become one of the most memorable meals of your lives.
When we asked our new Parisian artist friend Marie Theres Berger – with whom we did an art-focused walking tour of Montmartre, our home away from home in Paris for two weeks during our yearlong global grand tour – where she would recommend a couple dine for a date night in Paris, she immediately suggested the French brasserie.
“Because you know what you’re going to get – the service and food are consistent – and the surroundings are just so beautiful,” Marie Theres said.
We completely agreed. We’ve long been fans of the brasserie, since our first trip to France, and we became even more smitten with Parisian brasseries when we spent time in the French capital writing and photographing a new Paris guidebook for Lonely Planet some years ago.
Even the French foodies and Parisian chefs we spoke to on this trip said that a leisurely meal at an elegant, old-fashioned brasserie is a must-do in Paris for the same reasons. So what’s so special about the brasserie experience?
Date Night Paris – A Love Letter to the French Brasserie
Firstly, what really makes the French brasserie so distinctive from other restaurants is its décor. Most brasseries date from – or recreate – the Belle Époque era from the late 19th century to the First World War.
The rooms are almost always sumptuous, with lots of golden light illuminating the elegant space from ornate chandeliers, red velvet drapes frame enormous picture windows, leather booths, and big mirrors, all of which belie their beginning as breweries.
‘Brasserie’ is the French word for brewery. Yet you’ll rarely find a microbrewery on the premises of a brasserie these days, so order a bottle of Champagne or at least a couple of glasses of bubbly and sit back and take in the ornate Art Nouveau or Art Deco décor.
Secondly, while the service is almost always professional, the brasserie has a more relaxed atmosphere than a traditional fine dining restaurant in Paris, which can be a stultifying experience unless you’re familiar with French cooking terms and don’t feel burdened by a wine list running to a hundred pages and often hundreds of Euros a bottle.
In French brasseries you won’t find waiters rolling their eyes when you don’t order that bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. In fact, you’ll see plenty of diners happily sipping the house wines, ordered by caraffes, unless it’s a special occasion.
Thirdly, it’s the food. A brasserie is all about traditional French dishes and if you love food you need to try the old-school French classics in Paris where they were made famous – some dishes many decades or even centuries ago.
For starters, in the colder months you must order some plump oysters that don’t need any fanfare – just set them free and slurp them down with the seawater. Don’t like oysters? We’ll forgive you. You can order homemade terrine, onion soup ‘au gratin’, or for the more adventurous, frog’s legs or escargots. Or a salad if you must – but salad isn’t very ‘date night’!
If you’re enjoying the fruits of the sea, go for a seafood platter for two as a main or the classic sole meunière, that is, fillets of sole dredged in flour and cooked in butter with a dash of lemon. If you’re going for meat you can try the Alsace speciality choucroute garnie or sauerkraut with various meats.
More romantic is a dish for two that’s intended to be shared, such as a Châteaubriand (the best of beef tenderloin of which there is only enough for two!) or a Côte de bœuf. Don’t order your meat any more cooked than saignant, which, although it translates to ‘rare’ in French, is actually medium-rare for the rest of us.
It is date night, after all, which means that you’re going to have to order dessert, probably involving chocolate! Moelleux au Chocolat or molten chocolate cake is an obvious choice.
Although there is nothing more traditional than profiteroles, the ball shaped sweet pastries stuffed with a cream filling with a hot chocolate sauce. Tarte Tatin, an upside down apple pie, is also a firm brasserie favourite.
You might not have eaten at the latest most talked-about restaurant that everyone’s blogging about, but we can guarantee you that you’ll probably enjoy a night out at a brasserie a whole lot more, and you’ll certainly have enjoyed a quintessentially Parisian dining experience.
Our Favourite Paris Brasseries
Le Grand Colbert (pictured) 2 Rue Vivienne 75002 (Tel: 42 86 87 88)
Brasserie Flo 7 cour des Petites-Ecuries, 75010 (Tel: 47 70 13 59)
Bofinger 5-7 rue de la Bastille, 75004 (Tel: 42 72 87 82)
Brasserie Lipp
151 boulevard St-Germain, 75006 (Tel: 45 48 53 91)
Au Pied de Cochon 6 rue Coquilliere, 75001 (Tel: 40 13 77 00)
Le Balzar 49 rue des Ecoles, 75005 (Tel: 43 54 13 67)
Terminus Nord 23 rue de Dunkerque, 75010 Paris (Tel: 42 85 05 15)
Heading to Morocco? See our Date Night Marrakech.
I do enjoy haute cuisine in Paris, and have done so on a few occasions but my preference is for brasseries and bistros serving traditional cuisine and seasonal food. It may not be quietly romantic with the buzz of the crowd, but it certainly has an ambience that makes you want to return for more. Just like a date night :)
Totally agree. Unless you’re really experienced and comfortable with the whole fine dining protocol, it’s far more relaxing to go to a brasserie. The buzz of the brasserie is preferable to the reverential silence of the top-end gastronomic restaurants. We personally know two chefs who gave up their restaurants and their stars because they were bored with the stuffiness.
It is changing though and although there are some Michelin-mentioned places that are quite casual in Paris, none of them are remotely romantic.
Cheers!
T