Paris + Food = The Best Vacation Ever! If done right. And this list of Top 10 Paris Foods will help you make that happen!

Not only will you have the best foods in Paris, France, to eat, but also some of the best places to eat them, including some excellent hidden gems of Paris you won’t find on any other list.

And, Yes, I’m even sharing my Number 1 Secret Paris Café with you too, so don’t skip Paris Food #2!

Paris Food Scene

France undoubtedly has some of the best food in the world. In fact, in 2010, UNESCO declared French cuisine a “world intangible heritage.” I think Paris has the best of the best of France!

Unfortunately, when visiting, there is never enough time to try all of the Parisian foods available. The Paris restaurant count exceeds 44,000! Who knows how many Paris menu items that makes?

So, without help, it can be a little overwhelming to decide which foods in Paris to eat on vacation, and where to eat them. But do not despair.

I know how to eat Paris! And below is your list of the most famous food of Paris!

I love French cooking and the City of Lights, and I have visited many times. I even lived there for 3 months, and just recently stayed again in an apartment for a month.

Without a doubt, I’ve eaten a lot of food in Paris. One can even say that I’ve done my research on the best Paris food and restaurants one meal at a time—and absolutely loved the assignment.

Delicious Parisian food displayed at Buvette in the 9th Arrondissement.

Top 10 Paris Foods

1. Croque Monsieur or Croque Madame

This famous French food was born in a not so famous cafe in Paris in the early 1900’s. “Croque” in French means “to crunch,” and the term applies perfectly to these beloved sandwiches.

Both are classic French ham and cheese handhelds that are toasted in order to melt and brown the cheese, as well as make a crispy, crunchy crust.

However, this Parisian snack is no ordinary ham and cheese. Think gooey Béchamel and Gruyere on the inside with even more cheese goodness on the outside! This divine cheeseification is why this duo is among the most popular French foods!

What’s the difference between Croque Monsieur and Croque Madame? Quite simply: an egg. The Croque Madame adds a fried egg on top.

Nowadays you’ll find many different presentations of croques besides the traditional sandwich. These include open-faced tartines, stacked sideways editions, and versions sporting mushrooms or tomatoes. You’ll even find them as street food in Paris.

I have not found a bad croque in Paris, but here are some of my favorites: Buvette Paris, 28 Rue Henry Monnier, 75009; Angelina Paris, 226 Rue de Rivoli, 75001; Le Nemrod, 51 Rue du Cherche-Midi, 75006.

When you return home, make our delicious Croque Monsieur Light!

The quintessential Paris foods: Croque Monsieur and Croque Madame at Le Nemrod.

2. Duck Confit and/or Duck Magret

One of the most traditional French foods, Duck Confit (Confit de Canard) is melt in your mouth, slow-cooked duck leg and thigh with crispy skin.

Often you’ll find it served with pommes de terre à la sarladaise (sliced potatoes cooked in duck fat) and a small bed of greens. Add a glass of red wine—even better!

And you can enjoy this Paris famous food at my Number 1 secret restaurant! To my surprise, my absolute favorite spot for Duck Confit is also one of the least expensive!

The bill comes to less than 10 euros (about 12 U.S. dollars), if you could believe it. Where? Bo Man Café, at 33 Rue Notre Dame de Lorette, 75009.

This French specialty would easily be a $35 meal in the States! Bo Man Café is truly one of the best places to eat in Paris for authentic food, reasonably priced!

A more fancy dish in Paris cuisine, Duck Magret is a plump, succulent breast that specifically comes from a duck raised to produce foie gras. It can be prepared many different ways by chefs across the city, and is always a treat.

You will find Duck Magret on many Paris restaurant menus, but if you want someplace special, try Canard & Champagne, located in Passage des Panoramas, the first covered passageway in Paris (57 Passage des Panoramas, 75002).

Duck Confit at my #1 Paris hidden gem, Bo Man Café

3. Moules Frites

The name of this famous Paris food, Moules Frites (Mussels and French Fries) sounds a little misleading to some. Why would the French put fries in a dish with mussels? They don’t! When your Moules Frites arrive, rest assured that the fries will be on the side.

Steamed with garlic, shallots, white wine, and, of course, butter, the mussels smell divine. Unlike what we get in the States, the portion size is large enough for a meal, and with fries, this becomes a genuinely hearty one.

You’ll receive a huge pot large enough for 2 people to share at Le Royal (8 Rue La Fayette, 75009) near Galleries Lafayette. Or try the seafood restaurant Juste at 48 Rue Laffitte, 75009.

The famous Paris food, Moules Frites or Mussels and French Fries — The famous Parisian food, Moules Frites or Mussels and French Fries

4. Crepe and/or Galette

You can’t discuss famous foods in Paris without talking about crepes! The first time I travelled to Paris I ate my weight in Nutella and banana crepes!

Small crepe stands dot every arrondissement and they make a yummy budget-friendly snack. But what is a galette?

Basically, galettes are the savory cousins of crepes. Galettes are every bit as much a traditional French food as crepes; they’re just not as internationally known.

The French typically eat sweet crepes as dessert, and galettes as a meal. But you may be surprised that neither is part of a typical French breakfast.

The pancake part of a galette is made with buckwheat flour, so it appears more brown with a purple hue compared to sweet crepes.

These days I’m addicted to the Alaska Galette with smoked salmon and avocado at Le Creperie (12 Rue Soufflot, 75005). A stone’s throw from the Pantheon, it’s the perfect place to enjoy a crepe or galette in Paris with an awesome view!

If you look the other direction, you can see the top of the Eiffel Tower and the Senate at the Luxembourg Gardens. And if you’re a fan of Emily in Paris, her building and her go-to café are just a couple of blocks away.

Sure, walking over to take a look is a very touristy thing to do in Paris—but seeing these Emily landmarks is fun, free, and rarely includes crowds!

The Alaska Galette at Le Creperie by the Pantheon

5. Cheese, or as the French say, Fromage

Speaking of addictions, cheese is one of mine! And cheese is definitely a Top 10 Best Food in Paris!

Every region of France produces different types of cheeses, and Brie de Meaux is by far the most famous cheese in Île-de-France, the region where Paris is located.

However, as the capital of France, Paris carries French food products produced all over the country. This means you can get almost any French cheese your heart desires here.

Parisian restaurants will offer some sort of cheese option for dessert, and cafés can offer cheese boards. But I prefer going to a neighborhood cheesemonger and buying a few different types of what’s available for lunch or dinner.

I cannot tell you how many cheese and charcuterie boards I made in my last month in Paris—but I can tell you they were delicious!

In addition to Brie, some French cheeses I recommend are Morbier, Saint Agur (blue), Brillat Savarin, Camembert, and Mimolette. For more on French cheeses, click here.

Even the small grocery markets you’ll find throughout Paris sell a decent selection of cheese. But the cheesemongers at the cheese shops can help you choose something best suited to your tastes, and every neighborhood has a few of these shops.

As one of the best food streets in Paris, Rue des Martyrs has many to choose from, and all have terrific selections. I especially like Fromagerie Beillevaire at 48 Rue des Martyrs, 75009.

popular French cheeses in Paris — A dinner on our balcony during our last stay in Paris: simple but amazing!

6. Breads From Artisan Boulangeries

What pairs better with cheese than bread? Very little. Maybe that’s why the most popular food in Paris is the baguette!

Did you know that a traditional baguette is so important to the French that it comes with very strict requirements? It must weigh between 250 and 300 grams and contain only three ingredients: yeast, flour, and salt.

Every year, Paris has a contest for the best baguette in the city. Whichever bakery wins gets to provide the French president with baguettes every day for the next year. It’s a huge honor.

When you’re in Paris, it’s easy to look up who won recently. Consider buying some bread from the winner and judge their baguette for yourself!

If that’s not convenient, wherever you shop for bread in Paris, look for signs that say “Artisan Boulangerie” to ensure your baguette comes from the baker’s own oven and is not a mass-produced somewhere else.

Also try different types of baguettes with different seeds and flours. For the adventurist, Gontran Cherrier at 8 Rue Juliette Lamber, 75017, makes a baguette with squid ink!

Likewise, every Parisian boulangerie (bakery) bakes many varieties of breads in varying shapes and sizes in addition to baguettes.

One of the most renowned bakeries in Paris, Poilâne, is located on the street where I lived once upon a time. Every time I visit Paris, I stroll by to at least catch a glimpse of their marvelous sour dough loaves.

Poilâne began in 1932 and now has four locations: 8 Rue du Cherche-Midi, 75006; 49 Boulevard de Grenelle, 75015; 38 Rue Debelleyme, 75003; and 83 Rue de Crimée, 75019.

Baguettes and other breads displayed behind a bakery counter. — Unquestionably one of the 10 most popular foods in Paris, the baguette

7. Pastries

Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between breads and pastries, and you’ll see distinctions blurred in the boulangeries and pâtisseries (pastry shops) of Paris.

There are tricky items that look similar to breads, usually French breakfast pastries like brioche and croissants known as “les viennoiseries.” These can even function like a bread, and you’ll find them more often in boulangeries than in pâtisseries.

Whether you call it a bread or a pastry, a croissant and/or pain chocolate from any of our favorite bakeries above should be on your list of things to eat in Paris!

In Paris food culture, people eat dessert even at lunch! And with an abundance of pâtisseries, pastries are a very popular food in Paris.

Personally, I usually prefer savory to sweets and rarely eat dessert, but I wound up eating a year’s worth of dessert in a month in Paris. C’est la vie!

Paris Brest—praline cream sandwiched between a puff pastry shell—wins as the most famous dessert in Paris.

Some of the other popular pastries include St. Honoré, Baba au Rhum, Tarte aux Framboise, Tarte Citron, Tarte Tatin, Eclairs, and Vanille Flan. This last choice I actually had as my dinner during my most recent stay in Paris—twice.

The best Paris dessert, however, is the one that looks best to you! Personally, Macarons are not something I pine for, but if you do, this is the place to eat them!

Double indulge and pair your pastry with the best hot chocolate in the world at Angelina Paris, 226 Rue de Rivoli, 75001. Or, if you prefer tea, try Pâtisserie-Salon de Thé des Tuileries by Sebastien Gaudard at 1, Rue des Pyramides, 75001.

The windows of Sébastien Gaudard’s Pâtisserie des Martyrs (22 Rue des Martyrs, 75009) display stunning (and delicious) cakes and pastries. And just down the street at #18, you can purchase an incredible Vanilla Flan for 8 Euros at Le Pain Retrouvé.

8. Foie Gras

Just as decadent as any pastry, foie gras literally means “fatty liver,” and it’s a duck liver. Although it’s a delicacy of French cuisine, I really hate that I love foie gras so much.

Foie gras comes in many forms, so make sure you know what you are ordering. My favorite preparation sears the liver so that the outer layer crisps and the inside remains as smooth as butter.

Many Parisian cafés and bistros offer pâté de foie gras, made with pieces of liver, sometimes chunky and sometimes smooth. Sometimes the smooth is called mousse, but sometimes it is just called foie gras. These versions will be served cold, usually with toast.

A Paris favorite food, Pâté de foie gras and toast — A Paris favorite food, pâté de foie gras and toast

9. Escargots

If you’ve never tried Escargots—snails in English—please believe me, they are genuinely one of the foods to eat in Paris. First of all, while this traditional French dish will cost a pretty penny in the states, it’s actually a relatively inexpensive appetizer (entrée) in Paris cafés and bistros.

Second, if you swoon over butter like I do, you’ll love them! Drenched in garlic butter, that’s what these delicacies basically taste like—really! And French butter is the bomb!

If you consider Escargots a weird French food, maybe you’ll feel more comfortable ordering them at L’Escargot, a legendary spot that specializes in snails.

You’ll find L’Escargot on my second-favorite foodie street in Paris, Rue Montorgueil in the First Arrondissement (#38); just look for the big snail.

The delicious snails you’ll order will be more expensive at this historic eatery than at some other Paris restaurants, but hey, you’re on vacation!

L’Escargot Montorgueil restaurant where the Paris food to try is obviously Escargot — L’Escargot Montorgueil Restaurant, where the Paris food to try is obviously escargots

10. Soupe à L’Oignon

One of the quintessential famous foods in Paris, Soupe à L’Oignon, or French Onion Soup, was originally a French peasant food made from leftover ingredients. Now chefs prepare this staple French food all over the world.

Unfortunately, I think this famous food in Paris may have the greatest variance in price and quality. We paid between 3.50 and 8.50 Euros a bowl, and the most expensive version didn’t live up to its price tag.

The least expensive version was from Bouillon Pigalle. However, this Paris restaurant is way overrated. It’s one of the only places with a long line to get in, yet the Soupe à l’Oignon was really the only offering in the restaurant that I can recommend.

Find better versions at my Paris hidden gem, Bo Man Café, and Les Philosophes at 28 Rue Vieille-du-Temple, 75004.

French Onion Soup, one of the most famous Paris foods

Check Out the Best Paris Food Tours Here

*

Check Out the Best Paris Food Tours Here *

What’s Not on My List of Must-Eat Paris foods?

This Paris food guide is not an “only eat these Parisian foods” list; it’s a list to get you started so you don’t miss the must-eat foods in Paris!

I have seen a couple of Paris food lists that include some pretty lackluster foods like Steak Frites (Steak and Fries) and Jambon Buerre (ham with butter sandwich).

Both are popular in Paris, but there is nothing particularly special about them. However, if you dine at a Parisian restaurant and Steak Frites is their specialty, consider ordering it. It might be done exceptionally.

Likewise, if you’re hungry and pass a Jambon Buerre stand, feel free to enjoy a sandwich!

I also want to discuss two other popular Parisian foods that are more exciting than the two just mentioned, but that I did not include in my Top 10 list.

Chocolate

I’m sure some of you were hoping to see chocolate on this list. Since Belgium and Switzerland have a slight edge over France on chocolate, it was hard to make it a Top 10 Parisian food.

I felt that, if you’re a chocolate lover, you’re going to find some in Paris, and you don’t need any encouragement from me. But just in case it’s helpful to know, Jacques Genin and Patrick Roger are two of the biggest names in French chocolate today.

Steak Tartare

I like Steak Tartare (raw seasoned ground beef), but I don’t love it. And since I spent 14 years temping meat to adhere to health department regulations, it somewhat freaks me out to eat this popular French dish. But plenty of French people do.

From Paris restaurants to the cafés at the Cours Saleya Market in Nice, I don’t think we ate a single meal where someone wasn’t eating Steak Tartare close by. So, if it looks good to you, try it!

And that goes for any other delectable French dish! Deciding what to eat and drink in Paris is a personal choice and we all have different tastes. But definitely give this list a good try.

To explore other culinary delights in the French capital, read my Paris Foodie Things To Do.

Bon Appétit!