There’s a hot new dining trend in Paris – and it isn’t a hip market or a far-flung global cuisine.
The restaurant Bouillon Chartier Montparnasse after a recent restoration on 6 February in Paris. Image by FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images
The latest craze is for bouillons: modern-day versions of traditional workers’ canteens, characterised by hearty comfort food made using quality ingredients, and offering astonishingly good value for money in a city that’s seen as expensive to dine in. With recent awards and restorations, these humble spots are earning headlines and drawing in travellers looking for an affordable meal in the French capital.
One such hotspot is the Bouillon Pigalle in the Pigalle neighbourhood of northern Paris. It’s not hard to see why the restaurant is so popular – 300 diners can be seated here amid a splendid Belle Epoque interior, enjoying nourishing mains like pork sausage with lentils or lamb stew with spring vegetables. The slightly more adventurous can also nosh on French classics like snails and parsley butter or boiled calf’s head. Prices are a steal with most mains between €9-11.
Competitor prepares egg mayonnaise during the traditional best egg mayonnaise contest in Paris. Image by GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP/Getty Images
The star item on the menu? Its classic egg mayonnaise, which this month was voted the best in the world by a panel of French gourmands – putting the place back in the spotlight. It beat Michelin-starred restaurants and the version served to Emmanuel Macron at the Palais de l’Élysée – pushing it back into the spotlight. The dish can be yours for a bargain €1.80.
Bouillon means ‘broth’ in French, and indeed bouillons were originally designed to serve soups and stews to working-class French people as a quick and cheap bite to eat in the 19th century. The recent resurgence sees French cuisine going back to its roots of hearty comfort food, a world away from delicate, upscale modern cuisine. It is from the restorative properties of the broths served by bouillons that the word ‘restaurant’ derives.
An interior view of the restaurant Bouillon Chartier Montparnasse. Image by FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images
The trend continues at Bouillon Julien, which recently refurbished its gorgeous 113-year-old interior and lowered its prices; and at Bouillon Chartier, the 1896-established grande dame of Paris’s bouillons that recently opened a second branch in the south of the city in a beautiful building dating from 1903.
A century ago, Paris had 250 bouillons, but that number was dramatically slashed before their recent return to popularity.
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