A French Dinner in the Marais

Shopping done, it's dinner time. Choosing a dinner spot is the hardest part, your guide admits. Since you're in France, she wanted to recommend French food for dinner, but classic French cooking doesn't quite suit her taste, and she couldn't recommend places just because they're famous. In keeping with this trip's theme, she wanted to choose only places she loves, so instead of classic French, here is a French restaurant she likes. She isn't a cooking expert, so she can't say for sure whether the food is traditional or modern French. But the dishes you think of when you hear "French," like escargots, boeuf bourguignon or ratatouille, aren't on the menu here. She'd love to find bourguignon and ratatouille herself, but they're hard to find in restaurants; they're mostly home cooking, so few places sell them.

The restaurant is Zaza, on the same street as the homeware shops mentioned earlier. She hasn't known it long, but the food was so good that it stands out among the French meals she's had, so she decided to share it. Most French restaurants she knows in Paris change their menus weekly, monthly or seasonally, probably to use the best ingredients of the moment. She had the chicken and the pork dishes on her visit and loved both. Photos are included, but the same dishes may not be available depending on when you go.

In French restaurants, duck is the most common meat, followed by chicken, pork, beef, lamb and fish as main ingredients. Among beef dishes, veal is more common. Your guide dislikes the distinctive smell of veal and lamb, so if you do too, you may want to avoid them, but many places make duck the star of the menu, so it's worth trying once. At smaller places, the mains may be just one meat and one fish dish. Some dishes are steaks, but more are braised or cooked in other ways. One thing she's noticed everywhere: French food is meant to be eaten with the eyes, too. The plating is consistently beautiful, and Zaza's is as good as its flavors. There doesn't seem to be an English menu, which suggests it's off the tourist radar. A staff member speaks good English, so that's fine if you do too; for those who don't, the main ingredients in French are listed in text.

If French food feels like too much, here's one more option: Blend, a handmade-burger spot she visits as often as Five Guys. It has several branches in Paris and is somewhat well known among travelers. The one she recommends is in the Odéon neighborhood. Since the evening's wine bar is near Odéon, if you're not yet hungry, you can eat at Blend there. The surrounding streets are worth a look, too. It's cheaper than Zaza, and light yet filling.