Le Bouillon Chartier

Le Bouillon Chartier is about as Parisian and, therefore, as touristy as it gets. The waiter might shout in your face, you might order the best or the worst steak you have ever eaten and you might have to queue outside for twenty minutes (no reservations here) – so don’t say I didn’t warn you. But the interior is sublime; a former railway station, coats are kept on old luggage racks above your head and the prices are kept low so as to stay true to the restaurant’s soup kitchen roots. Orders are scribbled on tablecloths and the presentation of food leaves much to the imagination but if you look up to the ceiling and squint your eyes you sort of feel like you’re living in the Belle Epoque. The menu is traditional, try the escargots (garlicky snails), confit de canard (duck leg), pavé de rumpsteak (steak) cooked saignant (rare) then chase it down with some very cheap, very good wine and hopefully you’ll be drunk enough to forget the whole ordeal.

Photo: Maria Edwardsdottir, Facebook