Restaurants for winter

Christian Etchebest opened Le Troquet, a popular basque bistro on the left bank, several years ago, now followed by its ‘canteen’. The addition is certainly more modest than the original, but also friendlier, a bit of an oasis of bonhomie in the aloof neighbourhood of Pernety. You can’t reserve, so make sure to come early especially if you’re a group, and be aware that there’s no set menu either. Instead, you choose your dishes from a big blackboard; it's regularly brought up to date, even if Etchebest’s cuisine never forgets where it comes from, maintaining its love for the cuisine of the southwest, though touched by the expertise of L’Hôtel Martinez in Cannes and the Crillon in Paris.A bit of a ‘nose to tail’ exercise, the Cantine du Troquet lets no part of the pig go to waste. Shoulder, ear, chest, fillet cut into slivers with Espelette pepper, the famous black pudding, terrine, slices, gratin or however else they can dream up: you’re in good hands here when it comes to pork,and the meats often come with house fries with sea salt and herbs. For the rest, the chef also turns out masterful fish dishes (hake, turbot, Pollack and more, with a delicious ratatouille), and the desserts are the classics of French cuisine, with evocative names like ‘baba au rhum’, ‘feuille à feuille’ or ‘Paris-Brest’. The dishes never go above €20, and the wine list is full of discoveries. Plenty of good reasons to find yourself deep in the 14th arrondissement. This restaurant serves one of Time Ou

Alsatian restaurant Chez Jenny, done out all in marquetry, statues and frescoes of provincial scenes, is a legendary brasserie that’s something of a local monument in Parisian gastronomy.As well as the famous choucroute (sauerkraut) and the traditional oyster bar, the menu features perfectly-executed Alsatian specialities such as flammekueche, a salad with saveloy sausages, caramelised pork shank, strudel and kouglof. There are also more traditonal French brasserie elements to the menu (onion soup, Scottish salmon, beef entrecote, duck confit, crêpes, profiteroles), but you don’t come here for that. Sitting down to eat at Chez Jenny should be like taking the train from Gare de L’Est to the Alsatian foothills and enjoying cabbage, sausages, sometimes fish.Just be aware that outside of the well-chosen set menus (which don’t include any of the local specialities), the bill can mount up alarmingly – for example, allow between €20 and €30 for the sauerkraut. A real regret is that there aren't any speciality Alsatian beers on the menu – you’ll have to content yourself with a Kronenbourg. This restaurant serves one of Time Out's 50 best dishes in Paris. Click here to see the full list.

The instinct to feed at L'Assiette is an abundant and delectable one. So start small, with an oxtail terrine, tender and strongly-flavoured, or an outstanding tartare of firm blue prawns, mixed with olives and a few pine nuts, which goes perfectly with a glass of Petit Cablis. Then on to more serious things. For smaller appetites, perfectly cooked roasted maigre ('croaker', a sea bass-like white fish) with a saffron risotto, balanced and full of flavour, would be the perfect choice. Greedier types, head straight for the must-have dish at L’Assiette: the unmissable house cassoulet from chef David Rathgeber. Rathgeber, a former member of Alain Ducasse’s team and member, since 2010, of l’Académie Universelle du Cassoulet (yes, really), has created a mixture of duck confit, slices of pork, garlic sausage, lamb neck, thick sausage and Mogettes de Vendée white beans. This reinvention of a classic dish is a runaway success, and should satisfy any appetite.There are set menus at €23 (starter, main and dessert), opening up this top quality cooking to slenderer wallets. If you’re not on a budget, add in a supplementary dessert – the chef’s excellent floating island, or a melting chocolate fondant. This restaurant serves one of Time Out's 50 best dishes in Paris. Click here to see the full list.

The prospect of a chef’s umpteenth restaurant opening can make one feel weary – even coming from a great chef like Yannick Alléno, with three Michelin stars for his work at Le Meurice, here claiming to cook food from the ‘local’ Parisian terroir. But in this case, such weariness would be unjustified.Instead, in this modern bistro designed by Jean-Michel Wilmotte, you’ll find one of the best ideas in Paris’s recent restaurant history. Simply, it offers historic Parisian recipes, cooked using products from small regional producers – sweet peppers with vinaigrette, Crécy vegetable soup, croque-monsieur, eggs with tripe, gratinée des Halles, whiting from Bercy. It’s a simple idea, but one requiring an enormous labour of sourcing and selection, even rehabilitation of near-forgotten culinary heritage. So the menu, written on immense boards set on the walls, reads like a list of ingredients from one of Jacques Dutronc’s fantasy kitchen gardens: Argenteuil asaparagus, Milly-la-Forêt peppermint, Montreuil peaches, Arpajon green beans.All this find its way into solidly-built dishes, where the rough and ready of the suburbs rubs up against the chic of the beaux quartiers; where Gilles Veront brawn meets a Gatinais carrot fondant with saffron. And don’t miss the crowning glory – not exactly Parisian, but wildly successful – a cone of shoestring chips, crispy and soft and devilishly good (€4).A tip: if you go alone or as a couple, reserve one of the 14 seats at the bar. The views out of t

There are restaurants where you go to be enthralled, to try cooking that is inventive, precise or simply bonkers, and there are others where you go just because you know you’ll feel comfortable. Réveil du 10e is one of the latter – a few metres from the frenzy of the Grands Boulevards, it's on a little square under a tree, squeezed between a barracks, an old port and a school; a neighbourhood bistro serving local cooking washed down with excellent wines.There’s a bit of Auvergne and the South-west to the menu, with things like duck necks with foie gras, truffles, aligot mashed potatoes with garlic and cheese, fried cauliflower and tripe often served next to classic Parisian dishes (snails, entrecôte, duck confit, tartare etc.). The ingredients are always top quality, everything is home made and the prices are reasonable (between €10 and €15 at midday, in the evening around €20 for à la carte, with cheese or charcuterie boards between €5 and €9).So it’s a pleasure to linger here. Good wine and friendly service are here expressions of a thoroughgoing quality; this place is a part of Paris, an impeccable address for gourmets and foodies who prefer to avoid the overly refined. You’ll definitely want to stay for a final coffee and digestif. If you pass by on the off-chance and can’t get a table, consider the café opposite, La Pendule Occitane. The two bistros have a good relationship, and the menu, the prices and the suppliers are almost the same. This restaurant serves one of Tim

If dining in the same room as a theatre director, a former politician, a Goncourt prizewinning writer and a recipient of the Légion d’Honneur doesn’t put you off, you’ll fit right in at La Gauloise. This time-honoured restaurant is chic, calm and welcoming, long regulated by the etiquette of the Parisian bourgeoisie (Mitterand was a longstanding customer). It’s done out in immaculate taste (long dark wood bar, plaster mouldings, red velvet banquettes), with an eye to discretion (well-spaced tables throughout multiple rooms), impeccable savoir-faire (the chef straight out of the glittering stable of Alain Ducasse) and great training (service is perfect and courteous in the face of every challenge).The cooking has kept up with the times, but never goes too far, focusing on seasonal dishes from a traditional repertoire: soft-boiled eggs, a legendary pot-au-feu, Aubrac beef, sole meunière, corn-fed poultry with ceps, soufflés and profiteroles. Everything here is done with style. Special jury mention goes to the very well-priced desserts, in particular the imposing Paris-Brest (one serves two) that’s somehow incredibly light.It’s worth noting that the owner grew up among cattle farmers in the Aveyron, and that the beef often comes from the family farm. Also, thanks to set menus at under €30, the clientele isn't just dignitaries, but a sprinkling of youth as well. This restaurant serves one of Time Out's 50 best dishes in Paris. Click here to see the full list.

As any seasoned Normandy sailor will tell you, with galettes there are three crucial rules. First, salted butter – shame on anyone who tries to cook one with anything else. Second, cook it on the right side, leaving the open top – it’s amazing how many people get this wrong. Third, it’s a galette, not a ‘savoury crêpe’. You have been warned.All of which is to say that at West Country Girl, our hands are tied – the first two rules are respected to the letter, so we’re forced to forgive the blatant disregard of the third. The place is welcoming, with friendly service, and the – whisper it – savoury crêpes are delicious, just crisp enough. When we visited, we had an excellent version with andouillette, and one with apple boudin. The special of the day was a slight let down (parmesan, egg and spinach, with the latter drowning everything rather), but was quickly forgotten with a glass of good cider and a sweet crêpe (a real one) with butter and sugar, melting in the middle and toasted at the edges.The menu covers the classic combinations as well as a dozen or so more inventive options (like brie, bacon and walnuts or goat’s cheese, spinach and raisins). Set lunch menus are just €10.50 or €12.80 (two galettes or salads of the day, or a buckwheat crêpe and a glass of cider) and the venue is easy-going and accommodating to children, with an €8 kids menu. Come on a Thursday, to try a version with oysters.

For top quality meat with fantastic French sauces, reserve a table at Le Repare du Cartouche. The restaurant is made up of two rooms, one giving onto the Boulevard Filles du Calvaire and the other onto the Rue Amelot, which is filled with wood carvers' studios – Cartouche’s careful, traditional cooking fits right in, as do their walls hung with rifles and paintings of the famous French brigand Cartouche, who was supposed to have taken refuge in the building after deserting the army in 1713.Chef Rodolphe Paquin cooks the  best products available in the pure French tradition, with the patience of a lacemaker. The house speciality is meat and game, stars of the menu during hunting season; it’s always reserving an early table, as supplies can run low as the evening wears on. To start with, the coddled egg with black trumpet mushrooms is perfect, much like the chef’s famous pâté en croute, whose ingredients vary with the seasons. Few restaurants in Paris offer hare à la royale stuffed with foie gras, a slow-cooked wild boar stew with red wine or a venison entrecote with grapes, figs and chestnuts. For dessert, if you can fit it in, allow yourself to be tempted by the nougatine crunch with clementines.The huge wine list is designed to match the cooking – distinguished and very dear. The cheapest bottles are €25, no cheap plonk but vintages chosen according to the expert palate of the patron. Everything is right about this restaurant – the flavours, the original, high quality dishes