Avoiding Tourist Traps: Good Places to Eat Near the Eiffel Tower and Picasso Museum in Paris

by Gary Leff

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Paris is a fantastic city to experience food. But it’s also a city with a lot of truly mediocre (or worse) food, catering to tourists in large volumes. Those places are often near where tourists congregate – the top spots to visit. You have a large number of people, the rents are high, restaurants cater to both volume and lowest common denominator tastes.

So if you want to eat well, and conveniently, near tourist spots it takes a little bit of work. Since I found a couple on this trip, I thought it was worth passing them along.

Here are some of the best places to eat near Eiffel Tower and Picasso Museum! The Just-Reopened Picasso Museum (Musée Picasso)

Around the corner from the Picasso museum is Breizh Cafe, a great place for crepes.

We had a short wait to be seated, maybe 10 minutes, and were standing beside the open kitchen as crepes were coming out.

We shared a savory crepe and a sweet one, and enjoyed them both immensely.

The Eiffel Tower

Truly, this is probably the toughest place in Paris to find good food nearby.

The suggestion, a pretty good and reasonably priced, restaurant is Le Cocottes, one of a handful of restaurants owned by the same folks nearby.

There was no wait for a couple of seats at the counter when we arrived at lunch time.

The food was classic French and delicious.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  1. […] But touristy places have their place! They’re popular for a reason, and if you haven’t seen them before you should probably visit them yourself to build cultural context. You should go to the Eiffel Tower. Maybe you don’t need to waste a meal eating there, though Le Cocottes is walkable (though not a super quick walk) and quite good. […]

Comments

  1. Thanks for the dining tips. It is so true about trying to find a decent restaurant near the Eiffel Tower. We never have that problem in other areas of Paris.

  4. In addition to Les Cocottes, I’ll add Café Constant, Au Bon Accueil, and one of my favorites in the 7th, Le Florimond, where you should definitely order the stuffed cabbage.

  5. Second Styggiti, Cafe Constant is incredible (and reasonably priced) and while not right next to Eiffel is a short walk (~10 mins)

  6. I really liked Le Scheffer which is a short walk from Trocadero. Very neighborhood feel with locals eating there.

  7. Before visiting Paris a few months ago I had a friend, who is a former Parisian, give me a list of restaurants to visit. These were both on the list. We did not visit either of these, but did go to Cafe Constant (same owners as Les Cocottes). It was WONDERFUL! They also have a higher end restaurant nearby, Le Violon d’Ingres, which we will try next time in Paris.

  9. What a great idea for a post! It is truly so difficult to find quality places near the sights with the highest tourist traffic. I had dinner at the restaurant on the Eiffel Tower which was spectacular but that was more of a one time event, so it is great to have some quality options nearby as the Eiffel Tower is a must see every time that you are in Paris!

  10. I am going to Paris next month and i found your post about restaurants.. thx, because that is what i was looking for..

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