Le Pantruche

3 rue Victor Massé,75009 Paris

There is a cliche of French restaurant ambiance that Le Pantruche just completely, and effortlessly sidesteps. This place is painfully romantic, with low intimate tables and even lower lighting, but it feels real. Not a costume they’ve dressed on the decor for tourists. It’s a local hang, and it feels emblematic of a city with history, heritage, and the coolness of a pencil thin mustache floating over a half-smoked cigarette.

The cooking is precise without being prissy. Bistro fare that remembers why it was beloved in the first place. A perfect egg cocotte that dances elegantly, veal sweetbreads that dare you not to lick your plate, a soufflé so light it could qualify as a religious experience. There’s no gimmickry here, no reinvention for the sake of relevance, just French cooking done with the kind of sincerity that makes you forgive the rest of the world for trying too hard.