Discovering Paris’ Secret Restaurants

Every once and a while you have to break the routine. After all, the definition of insanity is repetition. If you've had your fill of the guidebook standards on where to eat in Paris, then it's time for a new perspective. Discover edible experiences like no other in our selection of hidden, unusual and offbeat places to eat in the city of love and light. Just remember to keep the secret.

Le Drapeau de la Fidelité

Le Drapeau de la Fidelité, a simple and characterful little place run by a former philosophy professor from Vietnam, is as small as it is inexpensive – but then this only adds to the experience. Prices here are unbelievably cheap, and have rarely changed in the restaurant’s 30 odd-year history, allowing you to indulge in a beer for €1.50, as well as an entrée of Vietnamese dishes for around €6.

Owner Quan lets his eccentric personality shine through in the décor, as French pop songs from the 80’s provide the perfect background noise as you dine. “I haven’t really changed much of the inside because of how well it still manages to bring in people. Especially tourists, they love this stuff!” Quan exudes.

Take note: the kitchen closes at 8:30pm, with the venue not that far behind with a 10pm closing.

Café du Cinéma Studio 28

The Abbesses neighbourhood in Montmartre, is one of the busiest areas of Paris, teeming with culture and just a splash of cinematic nostalgia. Wander up the quiet side street past the iconic Windmill de la Galette, and you arrive at one of the city’s most famous art house cinemas that also serves as an eatery: Café du Cinéma Studio 28.

Owners the Roulleau family, have run the Café since its inception in 1948, but when Alain Roulleau took over in 1996 he wanted to do something special, covering the drab courtyard with an Arabian Nights inspired look. Walls are scattered in romantic black and white photographs of Paris, moments in time safe within the vault of Studio 28. Part of the courtyard has been left open as a summer terrace, lined with tall bamboo, accompanied by a vast collage of movie stars that Roulleau feels have helped create the ever-elusive lull that is French cinema.

“Delon and Bardot, Signoret and Montand, Fernandel and Jean Gabin, Belmondo and Jean Marais, are all a significant impact in my life. All have given me the strength and tools to put Studio 28 as my lead in the resume that is my life,” Allain enthuses.

Food here is quite varied, including multiple different options of wine and champagne. Cuisinère Francine has worked here since the beginning, baking a daily selection of quiches and cakes, including a delicious Gâteau au Chocolat. The clientele changes according to the time of day, very popular with locals from the ‘quartier’ in the mornings, cinema-goers in the afternoon and becoming more lively at night with in-the-know Parisians arriving for aperitifs then floating around for late-night drinks till the early hours of the morning.

Ecole Ferrandi

Our final stop is a little different from the previous locations. Ecole Ferrandi is one of the most important cooking schools in France. A gigantic building on the Rive Gauche with over 1,300 students learning how to be bakers, barmen, waiters and chefs. Of course they have to practice their skills on the general public, so the Ecole has set up two restaurants that attract customers from across the globe, all of whom wait in mouth-watering anticipation.

Le Premier is a showcase for students learning a basic cooking apprenticeship, so the cuisine tends to concentrate on traditional French cuisine – serving classics like Dos de Saumon Duglère, Oeufs, Asperges et Croque Haddock, and Granite de Chartreuse. Waiting lists for both restaurants stretch anywhere up to around several weeks if not months, so it’s best to book in advance, or test your luck and hope there has been a cancelation upon your arrival.

Restaurant 28, is reserved for the upper echelons of high-level students on an intensive three-year course. The level of quality is quite simply as high as a Michelin-starred restaurant – from the welcome cocktail mix, to exquisite dishes like Velouté de Cèpes avec Copeaux de Châtaignes, roast duck carved by hand in Apicius sauce, a fabulous Bouillabaisse, and the always emphatic Profiteroles à la Vanille Bourbon.

Trainee chef Gaspard, explains there is a thin line between cooking and art at Ecole Ferrandi. “We eat every-day, and it’s a chore to many, with most not indulging in taste some days. Here they teach us to find truth through artifice in our cooking. What story does our dish tell? Is it even a tale worth telling?”