9th Arrondissement Restaurants

The tasting menu at Minore might baffle you at first glance. But by the time you finish your first course, you’ll wonder why you haven’t seen black mullet paired with strawberries before. Minore’s inventive menu is the work of chef Katsuaki Okiyama, whose previous restaurant, Abri, firmly kicked off a wave of Japanese-French dining in Paris. The cocktails here are just as surprising and wonderful as the food, thanks to Okiyama’s partner, bartender Hugo Cobe. Try the margarita, made with wasabi, passionfruit, and cherry vinegar.

It would be silly to go to Paris for a smashburger—so prioritize accordingly—but Dumbo does them really well. Expect the classic fixings: American cheese, extra-crispy French fries, and Heinz ketchup, for here or to go.

A sister to the absurdly popular Ober Mamma, Pink Mamma is a welcome Italian-centric addition to the very French dining scene in Pigalle. The four flights that take you up to the most Instagrammable dining room—it has a giant skylight for a roof!—are well worth the sore legs. There are plants everywhere, haphazardly placed furniture, mixed prints—in fact, the whole place might as well have been airlifted from Rome, right down to the menu. House-made pasta, grilled proteins, and really excellent pizza.

Focused exclusively on breakfast and lunch (brunch in particular, packs out the house), Rose Bakery is now two Paris locations strong (plus an outpost in London’s Dover Street Market and Tokyo’s Comme des Garçons). Rose Carrarin crafts fresh, locally sourced ingredients into vegetarian-friendly salads and simple sandwiches that are significantly lighter than traditional French bistro fare. And did we mention that it’s a bakery? The bread, puddings, and cakes shouldn’t be skipped—even though Rose Bakery has British roots, the confections here can compete with Paris’s best. There's another location in the 3rd.

The bric-à-brac décor here is pretty irresistible, and it’s also the perfect backdrop for one of our favorite, out-of-the-way date night spots in Paris. The homestyle French cooking is as exuberant as the surroundings—and it’s topped off with excellent dessert.

It takes nerve (and talent) for an American to take a French concept and re-create it for a famously hard-to-please Parisian audience. In chef Jody Williams's case, her French-inspired wine bar, Buvette, has been embraced with open arms. She tested the concept in New York first—there is a much-loved West Village outpost—and exported her gastrothèque to Paris, to rave reviews. In this romantic, perfectly Parisian little wine bar, you can expect a wonderful cocktail and wine list, and a petite menu of small versions of dishes like coq au vin, moules, and tartines. They also serve several local, seasonal salads—good ones are still hard to find in many traditional French restaurants.