Rankwinz

Top 5 budget restaurants and bistros in Paris

Paris is home to some of the world's finest – and priciest – restaurants. But a new breed of affordable places to eat means the budget traveller needn't feel hard done by. We pick 10 places where you can dine on excellent French cuisine for €20 a head

Eating on a budget in Paris often used to leave you feeling like the spectre at the feast, or rather sadly deprived of the city's gastronomic excellence. To be sure, there were always a few wallet-friendly French places where the food was better than average, plus some great ethnic options, but cheap eats rarely equated with seriously good food. Happily, a new generation of innovative restaurateurs are rebooting the French capital's offer for pennywise travellers, with food that's good enough even if you aren't counting your centimes. Oh, and in case you were wondering, Chartier, probably Paris's most famous budget restaurant, soldiers on as a place people go to get a meal for a tenner (euros, bien sur), just because you can.

Bistrot Victoires

Just a short walk from the Louvre, this cheerful bistro with a nostalgic decor worthy of a Parisian postcard (globe lights, frosted glass windows) is a local favourite for tasty Gallic grub such as steak frites (here served with a smouldering sprig of thyme), confit de canard (grilled preserved duck) or roast chicken. Skip a starter and share a dessert instead, maybe the tarte tatin or the profiteroles with lashings of hot chocolate sauce. 

• 6 rue La Vrillière, 1st arrondissement, +33 1 42 61 43 78. Open daily for lunch and dinner, average two-course meal €20. Métro: Palais-Royal-Musee-du-Louvre, Pyramides or Sentier

Boco

At this clever mini-chain of three restaurants in the heart of Paris, five three-star chefs – including Anne-Sophie Pic, Régis Marcon, and Emmanuel Renaut – were recruited to create recipes for a selection of eat-in or takeaway starters, mains and desserts using mostly organic produce. Most dishes come in recyclable glass jars (bocal, pronounced "boco," is French for jar), and they run from Pic's starter of coddled egg with lentils and red onions, to Renaut's polenta lasagne with mushrooms and spinach, and Marcon's braised beef parmentier (shepherd's pie). Don't miss star pastry chef Philippe Conticini's black sesame cream and pistachio crumble for dessert. And note these are also great places to pick up a picnic. 

• Boco Opéra, 3 rue Danielle Casanova, 1st arr, +33 1 42 61 17 67,boco.fr. Other branches at Bercy-Village and Saint-Lazare. Open Monday to Saturday for lunch and dinner, average three-course meal €20

Breizh Café

The Marais branch of an excellent crêperie from the seaside Breton town of Cancale, serves buckwheat galettes and crêpes made with top quality ingredients – organic wheat and buckwheat flour, farmhouse butter and Valrhona chocolate. The freshly shucked oysters here are a worthy splurge, or you can go right to one of their crispy-edged and neatly folded savoury galettes, maybe the Cancalaise, filled with smoked herring, crème fraîche and herring roe, or the complet, which comes with an egg, ham and cheese, and can be dressed up with extras like mushrooms or artichoke hearts. For dessert, follow the regulars with a salted caramel and vanilla ice-cream crêpe. Wash it all down with one of the 15 different artisanal ciders on offer. 
• 109 rue Vieille du Temple, 3rd arr, +33 1 42 72 13 77, breizhcafe.com. Open all day Wednesday to Sunday, closed for three weeks in August, average €15. Métro: St-Sébastien-Froissart

La Cantine de la Cigale

Right in the heart of honky-tonk Pigalle, talented bistro chef Christian Etchebest's recently-opened restaurant offers excellent eats from south-west France at surprisingly affordable prices. It is ideal for those feeling weary after a tour of the local shops selling life-size dolls and fur-lined hand-cuffs, or, more decorously, on their way back from visiting the Sacre Coeur. Portions at this friendly place serving non-stop from 8am-2am are generous, so share a slice of the excellent pâté, then go for the sausage with white beans or cod in sauce vierge, and finish up with some Ossau-Iraty cheese from the Pyrenees with black-cherry jam or maybe a slice of mirabelle tart with almond cream. 

• 124 boulevard Rochechouart, 18th arr, +33 1 55 79 10 10,cafelacigale.com. Open Monday to Saturday for breakfast, lunch and dinner, average two-course meal €20. Métro: Pigalle, Abbesses or Anver

L'Ilot

Though it's landlocked, Paris is one of the best cities in the world for seafood lovers, because it's well supplied from French ports on the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Usually, a good French marine feast is expensive, but at this easygoing little place in the Marais, you can share a starter – maybe some taramasalata or half a crab, and then tuck into a dozen oysters or a plate of smoked fish without a major wound to your wallet. 

• 4 rue de la Corderie, 3rd arr, +33 6 95 12 86 61, no website. Open Tuesday to Friday for lunch and dinner, Saturday dinner only, average two -course meal €20. Métro: Temple, République or Filles du Calvaire