Five to sixteen minutes on foot from the Louvre, you can eat fresh pasta a few doors from the museum or handmade udon by the Palais Royal. Further on, near the Bourse, there’s a bistro that has barely changed since 1964.
The short list
9 places, in the order they appear below.
- 01LottaFresh pasta in a designed roomWalk from the Louvre: 5 min1st
- 02La Régalade Saint-HonoréTerrine, bistro classics, souffléWalk from the Louvre: 6 min1st
- 03Café VerletSingle-origin espressoWalk from the Louvre: 8 min1st
- 04KunitorayaHandmade udonWalk from the Louvre: 10 min1st
- 05Kiji - ParisMatcha on a tatami floorWalk from the Louvre: 15 min2nd
- 06Chez GeorgesSole, terrine, BurgundyWalk from the Louvre: 12 min2nd
- 07The Indian ArmsLate-afternoon food with a pintWalk from the Louvre: 15 min2nd
- 08Guiren - restaurant bistronomiqueSeasonal bistronomyWalk from the Louvre: 15 min2nd
- 09GrootTourtesWalk from the Louvre: 16 min2nd
Where can you eat well right next to the Louvre?
The two closest tables are Lotta and La Régalade Saint-Honoré. Lotta builds a short menu around fresh pasta, spread over three levels. La Régalade, towards the Palais Royal, writes classic bistro dishes on a blackboard and starts every meal by setting an earthenware terrine on the table. Both are close enough to reach between galleries.
Lotta is Charlotte Bereaud’s first restaurant. Architect Juliette Rubel modelled the interior on the lobbies of 1960s Milanese apartment blocks, and from the open kitchen come trofie with beef cheek, escabeche mussels and a reworked pissaladière. For the architecture, come at lunch, when the room is quiet and mostly local. Late in the evening a DJ takes over the mirrored mezzanine bar.
Lotta
Hours: Mon–Sun 12:00–14:30, 19:00–22:30
Address: 8 Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 75001 Paris, France
Bruno Doucet runs La Régalade Saint-Honoré on the Régalade format: terrine first, blackboard after, at prices that feel reasonable for this part of the 1st. We eat the terrine with plenty of bread before anything else arrives. Order the soufflé of the day with everything else at the start: it can’t be added later.
La Régalade Saint-Honoré
Hours: Mon closed · Tue–Thu 12:15–14:30, 19:15–22:15 · Fri–Sat 12:15–14:30, 19:15–23:00 · Sun closed
Address: 106 Rue Saint-Honoré, 75001 Paris, Francia
Where to get coffee or lunch near the Palais Royal?
For coffee, go to Café Verlet, which has been roasting since 1880; for lunch, Kunitoraya makes its udon by hand. Both are by the Palais Royal. Kiji, a little further towards the Opéra, serves matcha and homemade pastries in an upstairs tatami room.
Café Verlet has dozens of single origins on sale at any time, and the counter will brew any of them. The rarest is the robusta peaberry, when they have it.
Café Verlet
Hours: Mon–Sat 10:00–19:00 · Sun closed
Address: 256 Rue Saint-Honoré, 75001 Paris, Francia
Kunitoraya’s room is narrow and takes no reservations, so arrive before lunch service starts. We begin with kake udon: noodles in plain dashi with a slice of fish cake. It tells you what you need to know about the broth and the dough before you order the more elaborate bowls.
Kunitoraya
Hours: Mon–Fri 12:00–14:30, 19:00–22:00 · Sat 12:00–16:00, 19:00–22:00 · Sun 12:00–16:00
Address: 1 Rue Villédo, 75001 Paris, Francia
At Kiji you leave your shoes at the door upstairs. The tatami mats were made in Kyoto, and the pace up there is noticeably slower. Our order is the hojicha latte with a pistachio cookie.
Kiji - Paris
Hours: Mon–Sat 08:30–19:00 · Sun 09:00–19:00
Address: 5 Rue Gaillon, 75002 Paris, Francia
Where do locals eat around the Bourse?
Around the Bourse we go to Chez Georges, which has cooked bourgeois Parisian food since 1964, and The Indian Arms, a London-style pub with an Indian kitchen. Chez Georges is for a proper sit-down lunch. The Indian Arms still serves hot food in the late afternoon, when most kitchens nearby have stopped.
At Chez Georges the menu runs to sole in cream sauce and thick slices of house terrine, and the wine list rotates through good Burgundy producers. If ris de veau is on, we order it and forget whatever else we had planned.
Chez Georges
Hours: Mon–Fri 12:00–14:00, 19:00–22:30 · Sat–Sun closed
Address: 1 Rue du Mail, 75002 Paris, Francia
Manoj Sharma cooked in London for close to twelve years, and it shows on the menu. There’s a Scotch egg on red lentil dhal, fish and chips with a masala marinade, and vindaloo pork ribs, all served in a dark wood room. We like a seat at the bar in the late afternoon, with Kerala fried chicken and a pint.
The Indian Arms
Hours: Mon–Sat 12:00–14:30, 17:00–23:00 · Sun closed
Address: 9 Rue Paul Lelong, 75002 Paris, France
Where to eat towards Montorgueil and the Sentier?
Two chef-run places with a clear point of view sit about fifteen minutes’ walk from the Louvre, in Montorgueil and the Sentier. Guiren mixes French bistronomy with Ecuadorian and Japanese influences in a small dining room. Groot, opened by two cooks from the 2023 season of Top Chef, makes nothing but seasonal tourtes.
Roberto Valladares came from Ecuador by way of two demanding Paris kitchens. He builds the menu around small producers, sustainably caught fish and whatever the market allows, and often comes out to the tables himself. Dinner shows everything he can do. Lunch, Thursday to Saturday, is easier to book.
Guiren - restaurant bistronomique
Hours: Mon closed · Tue–Wed 19:00–22:30 · Thu–Fri 12:00–14:30, 19:00–22:30 · Sat 12:00–14:30, 19:00–23:00 · Sun closed
Address: 10 Rue Marie Stuart, 75002 Paris, France
At Groot, the fillings in the pithivier-style pastry rotate through the year: braised meat, root vegetables, mushrooms, wild herbs. When the last tourte sells, the kitchen closes, and on busy days that happens before service is over. There’s no booking and no phone. Save room for the sweet tourte at the end, which we count as part of the meal as much as the savoury one.
Groot
Hours: Mon–Sat 12:00–22:00 · Sun 11:00–16:00
Address: 34 Rue Saint-Sauveur, rdc sur rue, 34 Rue Saint-Sauveur, 75002 Paris, Francia
How far is each place from the Louvre?
Everything here is within sixteen minutes’ walk of the Musée du Louvre, in the 1st and 2nd arrondissements. Lotta and La Régalade Saint-Honoré are the closest, and Groot in the Sentier is the furthest. The table sorts them by walking time, so you can fit a stop around the rest of your day.
Distance and time of day decide most of it. The Bourse and Montorgueil addresses are worth the longer walk once you’ve finished with the museum. Several rooms are small and a few take no bookings, so plan your main meal around the ones that do. Opening days differ between addresses; check each card before you set out.
