Jonathan C.
Yelp
This was our favorite meal in Paris, which came highly recommended by the guy we rented our Paris apartment from.
It's three courses for something like 34 euro, which by Paris standards, is a deal. When you take into account the quality of the food at L'Epi Dupin, it's a steal.
I'm a hapless American whose French is non-existent. That said, I do my best to avoid restaurants in Paris where the chalkboards are written in anything resembling English. Perhaps that's some sort of personal, knee-jerk authenticity problem that I should consult a therapist for, but that's just the universe of inane pretension I operate in. At the very least, I did find that this non-english menu method helped me avoid the overwhelming amount of overpriced tourist traps in Paris.
While the menu is presented in an illegible French scrawl, the restaurant predominantly caters to non-local, non-French speakers. So despite the neighborhood vibe and the nicely designed, intimate interior, the clientele consisted of foodie-oriented foreigners. A friendly older couple sat next to us and told us that they have a house in the southwest French countryside and that they have been going back to L'Epi Dupin since its opening every time they are within a 100 km radius. Hardcore.
The servers might as well be linguists--we heard one waiter speak French, Italian, English and Japanese in the course of our meal. The chef himself also makes a point of popping out from the kitchen to mingle with the diners.
We went there for dinner on a weeknight and managed (luckily) to get in without a reservation, but reservations are definitely recommended, if not required on even busier nights.
I had the squid for an entrée (highly recommended), the leg of duck for my plate and some chocolate thing for dessert--the wine and Ricard were taking their toll by the time the chocolate rolled out. The duck leg was probably one of the tastiest things I've ever shoved into my face. I know, it's incredibly hard to get bad duck in Paris, and it's not exactly the most adventurous thing on the menu, but this duck made all other duck seem like 2-D cardboard representations of the real thing.
The savory leg came doused in a brown, roux-like sauce and covered with mushrooms (I forget the kind of mushrooms, they were small and thin, possibly enoki?). The skin of the duck leg was crisp, and the meat shredded off the bone with even the suggestion of a touch of a fork. This meal is last-meal-on-death-row status.
My girlfriend was not as excited about her main plate. She got the veal confit, which came in the form of a quarter inch thick circle, resembling a stack of salami in shape, with crispy cereal like morsels resting on top of it. Tasty for sure, but just a little too strange for comfort. She was jealous about my duck situation across the table.
Anyway, if you're in Paris for a few days and want some great dining that's friendly, unpretentious, adventurous and delicious, go here.