"Verdict: A well-done neighborhood bistro that’s warm, reasonably priced, and consistently good. Old-world Paris charm is alive and well at this quintessential neighborhood bistro in the 11th arrondissement, an area known more for its genre-bending dining and coffee shops than its classics. At lunch and dinner, you’ll be waited on by one of several career servers and, most likely, the owner, who’s just as happy to welcome and chat up diners armed with guidebooks as he is with his longtime regulars. This isn’t the place to be a strict vegetarian, though—the menu is an ode to hearty fish and meat courses of bygone bistro dining. Think lots of butter and cream that you’ll taste in their plump scallops baked in their shell in buckwheat butter, rabbit à la moutarde, braised free-range pork belly with stewed red cabbage, or mallard served rare during hunting season. Keep the gingham napkin on your lap for the baba au rhum, Astier’s star dessert." - lindsey tramuta