7 Best Restaurants in The Latin Quarter, Paris

Michelin-starred chef William Ledeuil flexes his genius for France-meets-Asia flavors at this chic address—his third—a few blocks from Île St-Louis and Notre-Dame. Ledeuil is known and loved for his fearless pairings of bold and subtle flavors, like veal tartare pasta with crunchy peanuts and pungent bonito flakes or Thai beef soup with luscious Iberian ham, mushrooms, and sweet pear. Desserts are equally expressive and not to be missed. The affordable lunch prix-fixe menus are a fabulous deal.

This legendary Michelin-starred restaurant and its setting overlooking the Seine remains magnifique; if you don't want to break the bank on dinner, treat yourself to the somewhat cheaper four-course lunch menu. This entitles you to succulent slices of one of the restaurant's numbered ducks (the great duck slaughter began in 1919 and is now well past the millionth mallard, as your certificate will attest). Don't be too daunted by the vast wine list—with the aid of the sommelier you can splurge a little and perhaps taste a rare vintage Burgundy from the extraordinary cellars, which survived World War II.

This charming Quartier Latin bistro with woodwork and murals dating from 1925 is always packed and boisterous. A glance at the affordable menu makes it easy to understand why: dishes such as chestnut soup with spice bread, sea bass marinated in lime and coconut, and apple and quince tatin (upside-down tart) with gingerbread ice cream put a fresh twist on French classics. Service is reliably courteous. If you don't finish your bottle of wine, you can take it with you to savor the last drops.

Part wineshop and épicerie, part restaurant, Les Papilles has a winning formula—pick any bottle off the well-stocked shelf, and pay €7 corkage to sip it with your meal. You can also savor one of several superb wines by the glass at your table while enjoying the excellent set menu of dishes made with top-notch, seasonal ingredients. Your meal might begin with a luscious velouté, a velvety soup served from a large tureen, and proceed with a hearty-yet-tender meat dish alongside perfectly cooked vegetables, followed by a cheese course and dessert—well worth spending a little extra time for lunch or dinner.

This foodie sanctuary is where dishes like miso-lacquered foie gras or sake-glazed suckling pig—perfectly crisp on the outside and melting inside—pair traditional Japanese and French ingredients to wondrous effect. The 10-course set dinner menu (with an option to add a pairing of five glasses of wine or sake), while not cheap, offers a choice of fish or meat and finishes with some stunning confections. Shoes stay on in the tranquil half-timber dining room (where an eight-course lunch, Friday and Saturday only, still seems a relative bargain), but the vaulted room downstairs is totally traditional—and one of the loveliest in Paris.

Regulars grumble about the uneven cooking at Le Balzar, but they continue to come back because they can't resist the waiters' wry humor and the dining room's amazing people-watching possibilities. The restaurant attracts politicians, writers, tourists, and local eccentrics—and remains one of the city's classic brasseries: the perfect stop before or after a film in a local art-house cinema. Don't expect miracles from the kitchen, but stick to evergreens like snails in garlic butter, onion soup, traditional choucroute with sautéed potatoes, and baba au rhum for dessert.

This contemporary bistro offers inspired, creative cooking with a sense of fun. Chef-owner William Ledeuil, a tireless experimenter, buys heirloom vegetables directly from farmers and tracks down herbs and spices in Asian supermarkets to create a deliberately deconstructed menu featuring raw fish, soups, pastas, and fresh vegetables. You can choose a five-course or a seven-course menu for dinner (€105 or €125 respectively); the two-course lunch menu (43€) is a great value. If on offer (the menu changes constantly and inventively), consider the chicken with dates, sesame, and yuzu, or the scallops in a citrus, turmeric, and bergamot sauce.