French cuisine in Paris can be really good, but you need to know a few tips : - price doesn’t mean quality or taste or fresh. More often than not, location is

French cuisine in Paris can be really good, but you need to know a few tips : - price doesn’t mean quality or taste or fresh. More often than not, location is almost the only thing that drives price. But even that could be random (some hipster places of the north of paris are both dirty, expensive, in a crap neighborhood, and not that good at all). - you need to find the right balance between hipster and tourist trap. If you’re in a very touristic area, favor extremely small restaurants ( 10 tables), where you feel that the owner is still passionate about his food, and can still get fresh ingredients. - if there are « plat du jour », pick in that list. Best is if there are only plat du jour and nothing else. - some touristic area are great for food, others are an absolute expensive crap, and they can be 200 meters away. Le marais is great, some streets of the 10th are great, but bastille is awfull. It can be pretty hard to guess from the outside. - finally, look at the menu. It’s really the best way to tell, but it requires experience. Too many meals is a bad sign, style (hand made, or nice font, or simply good looking and stylish) is also a good sign. Indication of things beeing hand made are also a good sign. All in all i’d say it’s pretty similar to french language : there are more exceptions than rules. Go look for something with an authentic feel ( as in you can feel the effort that was put in designing the place, and the owner’s personality), but try various things to build your intuition. Needless to say, quality of restaurants can change a lot with time. The good thing about all this, is that « knowing good places to eat » has real value in Paris, and after you found your first gem you’ll understand why parisians talk about restaurants with such passion when they meet.