4 Places to Eat in Paris That Food Influencers Keep Coming Back To
Two bakeries. Two bistros. Four spots that explain why Paris has the reputation it does — and why food influencers keep coming back for more.
Paris has approximately ten thousand places where you can eat well. That's not a statistic — it's a feeling you get after walking three blocks in any direction and passing a dozen restaurants, bistros, and bakeries that all look like they belong in a film. The city is almost unfairly good at feeding people.
But here's the thing: having too many options is its own kind of problem. You've got a limited number of meals in Paris, and you don't want to waste a single one on something forgettable. So we did the work for you. We looked at what food influencers are actually eating when they visit Paris — not the tourist traps, not the overpriced hotel restaurants — and narrowed it down to four spots that consistently make people lose their composure on camera.
Two are bakeries. Two are bistros. All four are the kind of places that make you understand why Paris has the reputation it does.
La Maison d'Isabelle
47ter Bd Saint-Germain, 75005 Paris
Let's start with the croissant, because if you're in Paris and not eating a great croissant, what are you even doing?
La Maison d'Isabelle won the award for best croissant in Paris in 2018, and it hasn't stopped trading on that reputation since — mostly because the croissant is still exceptional. Reviewer Harrison Webb went in with high expectations and came out calling it "the best." That's it. No caveats, no qualifiers. Just: the best.
What makes it special is hard to articulate without holding one. It doesn't look perfect, and that's the point. It's rustic, a little dense, unpolished in a way that signals confidence rather than carelessness. This is a croissant that doesn't need to impress you with its appearance because it knows what's going to happen when you bite into it.
Harrison gave it a 3.8 out of — well, we're not entirely sure what the scale is — but also said that if the video were about overrated spots, this one would make the cut. Which sounds contradictory until you realize what he means: the hype is so enormous that even a genuinely excellent croissant has trouble measuring up to it. That's the kind of problem La Maison d'Isabelle has. Not a bad one to have.
Go early. Bring no expectations except hunger. Let the croissant do its thing.
Read the full influencer review →
La Parisienne
52 Bd Saint-Germain, 75005 Paris
Funny enough, the other bakery on this list is just steps away on the same boulevard. La Parisienne Saint Germain sits right in the thick of things, and it functions as the kind of place you stumble into mid-sightseeing and suddenly realize you've been missing.
Mark Wiens — who has eaten his way through roughly half the planet — stopped here during a day of walking Paris and came away genuinely impressed. The croissant was buttery, puffy, with layers you can feel as you pull it apart, and a crispiness that delivers exactly what you want from a Parisian pastry. But the real sleeper hit is the ham and cheese baguette. The bread has that unmistakable crustiness — bubbles on the inside, crunch on the outside — and when you bite down, it pushes back at you. That's the only way to describe it.
La Parisienne isn't trying to be the fanciest bakery in Paris. It's trying to be the one you remember three weeks later when you're back home and craving something you can't get. And at that, it succeeds completely.
Come to think of it, there's something beautiful about a bakery that just does the basics extraordinarily well. No gimmicks. No reinvention. Just bread, butter, and the quiet understanding that this is what Paris does better than anywhere else on earth.
Read the full influencer review →
L'Aller Retour Marais
5 Rue Charles-François Dupuis, 75003 Paris
Now, let's eat a proper meal.
L'Aller Retour is a steakhouse in the Marais — which, for the uninitiated, is one of the most walkable, charming neighborhoods in Paris and therefore one of the most dangerous for your wallet. The restaurant has built a fierce local following around one dish: steak frites. Not steak frites with seventeen sides and a foam and a microgreen garnish. Just steak frites. Cooked properly. Served generously. The end.
The Les Frenchies reviewers had been wanting to try this place for a while, and when they finally got there, the reaction was immediate and unambiguous. The steak frites delivered exactly what it promised, and the bone marrow — enormous, rich, eaten with little pinches of salt — stole the show. One reviewer refused to share, which tells you everything you need to know about the portion and the quality.
Put bluntly, L'Aller Retour is a reminder that French food doesn't always need to be complicated to be extraordinary. Sometimes it just needs excellent ingredients, a straightforward preparation, and a kitchen that respects both enough to not get in the way. The bone marrow alone is worth rearranging your evening plans for. The steak frites is worth rearranging your trip for.
This is the Marais at its most satisfying — a lively room, a generous plate, and the unmistakable feeling that you're eating exactly where you're supposed to be.
Read the full influencer review →
La Boîte aux Lettres
108 Rue Lepic, 75018 Paris
And then there's Montmartre, which is a different Paris entirely. Steeper streets. Quieter corners. The kind of neighborhood where you wander uphill without a plan and somehow end up at the best meal of your trip.
La Boîte aux Lettres is that meal.
Tucked into Rue Lepic — one of those winding Montmartre streets that makes you feel like you've left the 21st century — this cozy bistro is the Parisian dining experience people imagine when they close their eyes and picture France. Warm lighting. Intimate tables. A menu rooted in classic French cooking with just enough creativity to keep things interesting.
The Les Frenchies reviewers called it "the kind of place you dream about when you think of Parisian bistros," and having looked at the menu, we're not going to argue. The duck confit arrived perfectly crispy on the outside, meltingly tender inside — which, if you've had bad duck confit, you know is harder to pull off than it sounds. The foie gras terrine was rich and silky, paired with toasted bread in a way that felt both indulgent and effortless. And the chocolate fondant to close was gooey, decadent, and exactly right.
What elevates La Boîte aux Lettres beyond just good food is the atmosphere. The staff is attentive without being intrusive. The room feels like it's been welcoming people for decades, even if you've never been before. It's the kind of restaurant that makes you want to linger over your wine and plan absolutely nothing for the rest of the evening.
If you only have one sit-down dinner in Paris — and honestly, you should have more than one, but if you're pressed — this is the one.
Read the full influencer review →
How to Eat Your Way Through These Four
Here's the beautiful thing: you can hit all four of these in a single day if you plan it right.
Start your morning on Boulevard Saint-Germain with a croissant from La Maison d'Isabelle and a ham and cheese baguette from La Parisienne — they're practically neighbors. Spend the afternoon wandering the Marais and sit down for steak frites and bone marrow at L'Aller Retour. Then make your way up to Montmartre for a long, leisurely dinner at La Boîte aux Lettres, finishing with that chocolate fondant while the city lights up below.
That's a croissant, a baguette, a bone marrow, a duck confit, and a chocolate fondant in a single day. Which is to say: that's Paris doing exactly what Paris does best.
Explore more Paris restaurant reviews and influencer recommendations on Nomtok.