Where to eat on a Monday

best bars in Paris" width="" height="" border="" />This is one of Time Out's 100 best bars in Paris. Click here to see the full list. This wine bar, near to the former Samaritaine department store building, will please even the most demanding epicureans. No Saint-Emilion or Château Latour here. Instead, with advice of the friendly owner, a self-taught wine buff (and depending on your budget) you’ll encounter unusual natural, organic or ‘biodynamic’ bottles from local growers. Biodynamic vineyards favour natural methods, managing the exchanges between the soil and the vine to better express their specific terroir, or spirit of the earth,in the grape. Does it really change anything? The purity, the complexity of the aromas, the minerals? You’ll have to taste them yourself to judge. To go with the booze, choose between superior boards of cheeses and Parma ham, or oysters if you’re drinking white. With its brick walls and its ancient floorboards, Le Garde Robe is a warm and intimate address, if a little pricey (and there’s an obligatory corkage fee of €6 a bottle if you want to BYO) – but the bottles are worth their weight in gold.

A restaurant called Pirouette suggests both deft maneuvering and a dash of panache. Set in a secluded little courtyard behind the concrete mess of Les Halles in the 1st arrondissement, the stage set for the meal is immediately promising, so shiny new behind its huge plate glass window that the first thing you notice as you walk in is the fresh smell of the wood pannelling. So, with a swift arabesque, to the menu, which includes a formule  for a mere €36. We started with a perfect coddled egg on a bed of greens, over which a subtle mushroom and chestnut was poured at the table, and the ‘alouette sans tête’ (headless lark), a fanciful name for a ‘paupiette’ (stuffed piece of meat) of pigeon and foie gras enriched with lardo di Colonnata.Then a cabriole leap into the mains ­– a lovely piece of mullet with salsify and meat gravy, and beautifully tender and pink pigeon royale with a delicate foie gras sauce. Down into the final plié and dessert, with a delicate mango tart and a salty Ossau Iraty sheep’s cheese presented as a cheesecake and topped with a black cherry compôte. All in all, a round of applause for the chef (Tommy Gousset, trained in some of the city’s best kitchens), the excellent wine list, and the company overall for an elegant, affordable whole (the lunchtime menu is even better at €15).

American team Braden Perkins and Laura Adrian started out in Paris running a well-regarded supper club, ‘Hidden Kitchen’, so it's little surprise that Verjus – opened in 2012 after rave reviews paved the way for a full-blown restaurant – hasn’t quite lost its word-of-mouth feel. You reach the small, stylish dining room through an unmarked iron gate on the Rue de Richelieu, up some well-worn steps and through a plain grey-painted door. The adorable, pocket-sized wine bar on the floor below is accessed via a different street altogether – Rue Montpensier, which runs parallel to the Jardin du Palais Royal. A discreet corner, then, in an achingly sophisticated neighbourhood – where Verjus is both charmingly at ease and elegantly distinctive. Though much patronised by Brits and Americans, the light, inventive, precise cooking deserves recognition across Paris. There’s one eight-course tasting menu, updated monthly (plus an optional cheese board, and optional matched wines). At €60 a head without the extras, save it for a special occasion ­– but it will be special. On our visit, a Scandinavian-inspired plate of trout and potatoes brought a vivid citrus-cured curl of fish with slices of smoked potatoes and a salty scoop of bright orange roe – the best of the seaside in a couple of memorable mouthfuls. Creamy cherrystone clam soup had a piquant dash of harissa and a lingering, many-layered infusion of thyme and garlic, while thick slices of tender pink duck breast with their rich fat

Grégory Marchand’s restaurant Frenchie has become legendary not just for the quality of its food, but for the almost superhuman effort required to secure a table in the tiny dining room. Luckily there is Frenchie Bar à Vins across the street, where you can sample his Anglo-influenced take on bistro cooking without a reservation.Showing up just after 7pm, we were able to take our pick of the high tables, some of which already had a few occupants. This is the sort of place where neighbours quickly become friends, and before long we were exchanging cards and even bites of food with the Japanese-French group on our left and the journalist from New York on our right. Divided into categories such as meat, fish and antipasti, with two or three small plates on offer for each, the menu encourages nibbling and sharing. Burrata, a bit of a cliché on Paris bistro menus this year, came with slices of boudin noir (black pudding) and one of the chutneys for which Marchand has become famous, made here with apple. There wasn’t a lot of boudin in relation to the wobbly cloud of cheese, but the balance seemed right and the chutney added a welcome sweet-sour note. The adventurous-sounding tête de cochon (pig’s head) turned out to be mostly pork cheek, served with a dab of creamy parsnip purée, white coco beans and girolle mushrooms. Continuing with the piggy theme, we ordered the pulled pork sandwich, a classic from the American south. Served on a brioche bun, the shredded meat seasoned with vin

After a career as an architect, the round-spectacled owner of La Bourse ou la Vie has a new mission in life: to revive the dying art of the perfect steak-frites. The only decision you'll need to make is which cut of beef to order with your chips, unless you pick the cod. Choose between ultra-tender coeur de filet or a huge, surprisingly tender bavette. Rich, creamy pepper sauce is the speciality here, but the real surprise is the chips, which gain a distinctly animal flavour from the suet in which they are cooked.

Burgers, hot dogs and fish ’n’ chips have all had the gourmet treatment in Paris, and now it’s the turn of the humble kebab. Grillé has vowed to turn these greasy late-night embarrassments into something healthy and full of flavour. The décor matches the intent, with a studiedly simple blue and white ceramic look under plain neon lights. Opened on the corner of the Rue Sainte-Anne and the Rue Saint-Augustin and run by three well-known names (Marie Carcassonne, famous butcher Hugo Desnoyer and Frédéric Peneau of Chateaubriand), it draws the crowds – we had to wait 40 minutes, and there’s no guarantee of a table at the end, as there are just three available. Bit once you do have your kebab in hand, it is a cut above the average. Organic homemade wrap, salad, fresh mint and coriander, and meat selected by the honourable Mr Desnoyer ­– no greasy gyro this, but milk-fed lamb marinated in rosemary, soya and sake. Sauces are also homemade, and the overall feeling is almost like you could squeeze the kebab into diet plan, washed down with one of Grillé's blood orange or blackcurrant juices. The prices could be worse as well, given the competition for gourmet fast food, but €10 for a set menu seems reasonable. Whether the kebab houses of Paris will be put out of business remains to be seen, but this is, at least, good news for cardiologists.

A tiny canteen on the Rue Chabanais in the 1st – also known as the ‘quartier Japonais’ – Hokkaido is very basic , but always promisingly full of regulars. Generous, well-priced dishes are offered to take away or sur place – a bowl of ramen noodles for around €8, pork gyoza with white cabbage and ginger around €5 for six.

At the stroke of midnight, this place is packed, jovial and hungry. Savoury traditional dishes, washed down by litres of the house Brouilly, are the order of the day. Les Halles was the city's wholesale food market, and game, beef and offal still rule here. Diners devour towering rib steaks served with marrow and a heaped platter of chips, among the best in town. Brave souls can also try tripes au calvados, grilled andouillette, or perhaps go for a stewed venison, served with celery root and home-made jam.