17 Best Restaurants in The Marais, Paris

This charming courtyard café-tearoom grew out of an adorable pastry shop (next door) specializing in the French sablé, those classic melt-in-your-mouth butter cookies, with an assortment of ethereal cream fillings. Marble-topped tables, velvet chairs, and other vintage-like touches make this one of the neighborhood's most charming spots for lunch, brunch, or dessert. The excellent food, homemade drinks, and stellar pastries are all icing on this scrumptious cake.

Eating a crêpe in Paris might seem clichéd, until you venture into this modern offshoot of a Breton crêperie. The plain, pale-wood decor is refreshing, but what really makes the difference are the ingredients—farmers' eggs, unpasteurized Gruyère, shiitake mushrooms, Valrhona chocolate, homemade caramel, and extraordinary butter from a Breton dairy farmer. You'll find all the classics among the galettes, but it's worth choosing something more adventurous like the cancalaise (traditionally smoked herring, potato, crème fraîche, and herring roe). You might also slurp a few Cancale oysters—a rarity in Paris—or try one of the 20 artisanal ciders on offer.

This was Paris's first coffee bar, founded by former Guatemalan ambassador to France turned coffee ambassador, Gloria Montenegro. With three spacious rooms, all coffee preparations under the sun, and a daily special brew chosen from among dozens of varieties of meticulously sourced beans from plantations around the globe, this is a Paris institution.

A dazzling array of gourmet pastries here includes all the classics in imaginative and delicious flavor combinations. There are also impossibly moist individual cakes, Paris's best baba au rhum, sublime cookies, and the specialty guimauve, a flavored, melt-in-your-mouth marshmallow. Be sure to sample the gorgeous Rosy Rosa dome cake with almond, rose-infused almond milk, and creamy dark chocolate all on a black sesame biscuit topped with rose petals. Next door, savory gourmet breads, quiches, sandwiches, and other takeout foods make this the perfect refueling stop after a visit to the Centre Pompidou. There's also outdoor seating in warm weather.

Smoked chocolate . . . orange-carrot-ginger . . . coffee--black cardamom . . . these are just a few of the intriguing ice cream and gelato flavors featured at Paris's Instagram-famous glacier. Expect only the best seasonal ingredients plus cream and sugar in the ice creams and loads of fresh fruit in the nondairy sorbets. You can taste as many flavors as you like to help you decide, and servings, by the boule, are generous. There are lots of frozen cakes and pastries, too.

This handsome, contemporary Marais bistro and wine bar is the perfect place to enjoy traditional fare and excellent Burgundies served by the glass and bottle. Unusual for Paris, food is served nonstop from noon to 11 pm, and you can drop by just for a glass of wine in the afternoon. Always on the menu are Burgundian classics such as jambon persillé (ham in parsley aspic jelly), escargots, and boeuf bourguignon (beef stewed in red wine). More up-to-date picks include a cèpe-mushroom velouté with poached oysters, although fancier dishes are generally less successful.

This cozy bar is always packed, and tables often spill out onto the sidewalk. Come for a hearty meal, a cup of coffee, or a glass of wine.

It’s worth a visit to this popular café just to see the listed historic ceilings and delightfully old-fashioned interiors. The sweets may not reach the ambition of some of the designer pâtisseries in the neighborhood, but it’s as picturesque spot as can be for a coffee and a classic tarte tatin, eclair, raspberry tart, or a savory croque monsieur for lunch in the salon de thé or on the sidewalk terrace in warm weather.

To be enveloped in the aroma of freshly baked babka is almost as swoon-worthy as biting into a tender brioche babka filled with creamy pistachio-orange flower, chocolate-hazelnut, or buttery poppy seed at this unpretentious bakery a stone’s throw from the Place des Vosges. The pistachio-rose rugelach and the nougat-orange babka rolls are to die for, as are the deli sandwiches and savory breads.

It may not have the healthiest food in the Marais, and the coffee may not be third wave, but that doesn't keep chic locals from packing into it on a sunny (or even not-so-sunny) day. The people-watching from this choice spot—at the intersection of the à la mode shopping street Rue Charlot and the bustling Rue de Bretagne—is top-notch, and the café's 1950s film noir charm is irresistible.

A true neighborhood haunt, this bustling little bistro near the Musée Picasso offers a convivial slice of Parisian life at a good value. Traditional French bistro fare is adapted to a modern audience. The best choices are the old tried-and-trues: hand-cut tartare de boeuf; rare entrecôte served with a side of golden-crisp frites and homemade béarnaise; and the classic Parmentier, with pheasant instead of the usual ground beef.

You may be tempted to call it a sandwich stand, but for Parisians it's more of a pilgrimage point at the beloved Marché des Enfants-Rouges. Alain's inspired creations burst with organic vegetables (raw or roasted), artisanal cheeses, locally cured ham, roast chicken, or pastrami, among other gourmet fillings, lodged between slices of bread, a buckwheat galette, or a socca (a Provençale flatbread made with chickpea flour). Each day brings fresh surprises on the blackboard menu, all to be enjoyed at the market's outdoor seating or at a nearby park.

For one of the cheapest, tastiest meals in Paris, look no further than the fantastic falafel stands on the pedestrian Rue de Rosiers, where L'As (the Ace) is widely considered the best of the bunch, with lunchtime lines that extend down the street. A falafel sandwich costs €7 to go or €9 in the dining room, and it's heaping with grilled eggplant, cabbage, hummus, tahini, and hot sauce. The shawarma (grilled, skewered meat) sandwich, made with chicken or lamb, is also one of the finest in town. Although takeout is popular, it can be fun (and not as messy) to eat off a plastic plate in one of the two frenzied dining rooms. Fresh lemonade is the falafel's best match.

This calm café-brasserie on busy Rue de Rivoli is a local favorite with an extensive wine list. Though the food is nothing to write home about, its authentic brasserie atmosphere and inexpensive wines by the glass from every region of France make it a great place for a quick pick-me-up or an apéro on the go. It's open late, too.

All of Paris seems to collide at this lively corner café in the heart of the Marais, where you'll find pretty much whatever is your pleasure any time of the day or night. Slide into a red banquette, or take a seat on the wide wraparound terrace to watch the world go by while indulging in generous servings of all the French classics, a glass of wine, or coffee and dessert.

Pastry chef Myriam Sabeta’s carved out a whole new niche in French sweets with her creations influenced by her childhood in Aleppo, Syria. Her signature “nids” are based on kadaïf, the buttery angel hair pastries of the Levant, which Sabet fills with cream and dried or candied fruit in original flavors such as Damascus rose, chocolate-sumac, or lemon-cardamom. Her ambrosial baklavas may be layered with Piedmont hazelnuts and lemon or Iranian pistachio and orange blossom.

You’ll find all of this brilliant young pastry chef’s latest and classic creations at this handsome pâtisserie and café, but good luck choosing between the tasty options. Known for his ambitious and subtle flavor pairings and over-the-top decadence, you'll be wowed by pastries like the Entremets Isatis, a pecan biscuit with pecan praline, creamy vanilla-bean ganache, and vanilla caramel; his exquisite lemon merengue tart topped with a tangy dollop of lemon crème; or the signature Mille Feuilles Madagascar.