Perraudin — Restaurant in Paris

An inviting French Bistro with a warm, rustic, burgundy red and brown interior. We're in the 5th arrondissement, the intellectual district as they call it. The establishment has a French belle époque feel to it, with a small bar and the radio in the background playing old belle époque classics and new ones.

I was greeted and seated by a warm and smiling young lady, Gladys, who was immensely helpful and patient, both to me and people around.

I always judge a bistrot by their Steak frites, especially the flank steak, or bavette as they call it. It came with caramelized onions on top. I had it medium rare. It was cooked to perfection: the first bite, with the caramelized onions...amazing 😍🤩. Perfectly caramelized onions, not too sweet or acidic, with a hint of Italian parsley. The dressing on the salad is amazing, with tiny onions. Mayo on the side of course, and Dijon mustard.

For dessert, I had the rice pudding 🤤: caramel sauce and caramelized hazelnuts....mama mia! To my surprise, it wasn't heavy at all.

Overall, a good experience for a meal on my first evening back in Paris.

Seemed thoughtful and let a young family sit right at closing time.

2nd time: Shout out Jérémie!

I had the Perraudin combination: starter and main

Starter: vegan ravioli. Creamy but light (I found out the cream is garlic based and the filling Comté cheese 🧀; it's a dish from Grenoble). Tiny. Light olive oil 🫒 and slightly, very slightly garlicky.

Main: kidneys in mustard sauce 🫙, with steamed potatoes. This grandma's cooking right thurrr for offal lovers: this place was voted one of the best traditional spots in Paris, why order the regular dishes 🙄 when you can try something different...The mustard sauce was creamy and not too strong, strong enough for those afraid of offal taste. It had tiny little chopped onions in it that, likely because of the heat, were crunchy/Al dente 😋. I would describe the dish as having layered textures: sauce, onions,...

We should have come here last year, and now wish we had. This is a really nice, cosy Restaurant. The staff are really friendly and helpful & have a good sense of humour. Most of them, spoke English, some never, however it's our fault for not having enough conversational French. The food is all freshly made. We went for the MENU LE PERRAUDIN €26 for 2 courses and €32 for 3 courses. We both started with the duck liver terrine, which came with a nice big slice of terrine, with 2 slices of toast and fruit chutney. This was a divine starter. I don't usually like chutney, but this was beautiful and worked really well with the wonderful terrine. The terrine carried a €5 supplement, which was worth it. I went for the Grilled ribsteak (300gr), homemade fries. This was a really tasty piece of steak and the fries were nice also. Also carried a €5 supplement, again well worth it. My partner had the Salmon in a cream sauce. She said it was really nice and she enjoyed it. We decided to have a desert. Both went for the desert special of Ile Flottante (€6). A semi set meringue on a bed of light custard. I really enjoyed it being my first one. My partner had had several before and said it was as good as the best she had tried. With a litre of Leffe lager and a Coke zero it came to €100.50. We thought it was good value. We enjoyed it that much, we're going back again on Saturday. This time we are going to try the cote de boeuf a 1kg rib steak on the bone for 2 to share €58 with Potato Gratin. I Can't wait. Update We went back on the Saturday and had the cote de beuf, it was the best I have ever had, the vegetables cooked under the meat were gorgeous, the beef melted in the mouth. My partner had never had it before, but is now a convert. This is now our favourite Paris Restraunt, we are hoping to go back on our last...

This is a great option for tourists visiting Paris. If you are concerned about ending up at one of the tourist trap restaurants that abound in the city and would rather eat where the locals do, look no further.

I visited with my friend for lunch on a Saturday. The decor is quite rustic and the restaurant is not very big. It has a pleasant atmosphere and gets a little loud when full, but that is not a bad thing.

The staff seem to all speak good English and they are very helpful. My friend and I could not agree set menu combinations so we both ordered a la carte. However, the waitress pointed out that if we were to swap our mains the combinations would each qualify under one of the set menus. This saved us a fair bit of money and was a very kind thing to mention.

I had a glass of Cote du Rhone rose which was available as a special. It paired perfectly with the meal on a hot, sunny day.

I had the snails to start, followed by the flank steak. The snails were delicious, although hard to eat (even with the apparatus provided for doing so), and the steak came with shallots on top, which were very tasty. The fries and salad with the steak were both well seasoned.

My friend had a herring and potato salad followed by beef bourgouignon. I believe the latter is a specialty here - it had a very rich flavour and the meat was very tender.

In short, all of the food was good and the table bread that came with it paired nicely. The meal was reasonably priced given the location.

The highlight must be the staff, though. Their kind and helpful manner was a great surprise, particularly given the reputation Paris has for impatient and impolite restaurant staff. I will be sure to return here if I am in the vicinity of the Latin Quarter of...